Easy No-Sew Ideas to Jazz Up Halloween Costumes

The stores are full of run-of-the-mill Halloween costumes, but there is nothing like a few homemade touches to make a store-bought costume extra special for your child! Here are some no-sew ideas that your kids will love!

1. Fancy PIrate Ruffle: Sure, pirate costumes are everywhere. But one homemade touch will make your little pirate stand out. Make a tiered ruffle to tie around your child's neck so that it looks like a fancy ruffled shirt under a store-bought pirate's vest. Here's how. You'll need sturdy white ribbon and four feet of an inexpensive white lace ruffle that you buy by the yard in the fabric store. Cut a length of ribbon (maybe two feet in length to be trimmed later). Find the center. Get your hot glue gun ready or purchase fabric glue. Cut the ruffle into 10-12 inch lengths depending on how wide you want the ruffle to be. Glue the first strip to the ribbon leaving equal amounts of ribbon on each side that you will later use to tie the ruffle around your child's neck. Then cascade down, gluing each subsequent strip under the previous one so they overlap and you have the effect of a ruffled shirt. That's it! Your child can wear a white turtleneck if it's cold with this ruffle tied around his neck. Then add a store-bought vest and eye patch. Tie a bandana around his head, push up some black sweatpants to the knee, and have him wear white knee socks with brown or black leather shoes! A fancy pirate is ready to trick or treat!

2. King or Queen's Scepter: A king or queen costume is easy to jazz up with a cool scepter. You need to buy a wooden dowel, some cheap plastic jewels pieces, some glue, and some spray adhesive at the craft store. At the dollar store, buy cheap gold styrofoam Christmas balls and a roll of gold wrapping paper. At home, spray the dowel with adhesive and start covering it with strips of the gold wrapping paper. You can also use something like modge-podge for this but it's a little messier. Let dry. Punch a hole at one end of a styrofoam ball ornament and put a big drop of hot glue or strong glue inside. Insert the dowel and let dry. Decorate the ball with the jewel pieces, gluing them around the ball like the royal rubies, emeralds, and sapphires in the royal treasure! You child will love carrying around this sparkling scepter. Add a cape made of purple velvet with a gold cord hot-glued around the top to tie around your royal one's shoulders.

3. Princess Hat: Every princess needs a shiny, cascading hat! This works with an old birthday party hat or a large cone hat you've made out of poster board. Staple two pieces of ribbon inside the cardboard cone to be able to tie it to your child's head!) You need, spray adhesive or rubber cement and a half a yard of two pastel colors of soft tulle. You also need a few sheets of pretty, sparkly craft paper from the craft store. If you have a little extra ribbon at home you can add that in as well. Cover the party hat with adhesive or rubber cement and glue the sparkly paper on. Trim when dry. Cut the tulle into long strips that will cascade out of the party hat. Add in strips of ribbon etc. When you are ready, cut off the tip off the hat just enough to be able to insert your tulle/ribbon strips through the top. Once you have it all through, tie all the strips together to make a knot that won't pull back out of the top of the hat! You can trim the bottom edge with shiny ribbon, cording, or jewel beads as well to add a shiny, finished look!

Most of us don't have time these days to sew a costume by hand each year, but by adding a few homemade touches, you can personalize your child's costume and make it extra special for your little one! There are only so many Halloweens that our kids will be able to enjoy so make each costume count!

Happy Halloween!