Parenting
make a homemade halloween costume in 4 simple steps
Friend of Ricki Ruth Kaiser: Calling all Super Heroes, Royalty, Pirates, Vampires, Rock Stars and Hippy hold outs. Have We Got a Cape for You!
I write this as we approach one of my favorite holidays of the year, Halloween. But THE thing that has always made me love Halloween seems to be rapidly becoming a thing of the past. When I was growing up (the dark ages) we always made our Halloween costumes. Not just my family with the hippy dippy, artsy mom, but everybody. It was an era when gifts and decorations and costumes were all home made.
I’m not going to get on a soap box about how we should all return to the days when a costume brought a child pride because every pipe cleaner, flash of glitter and glue covered piece of foil was applied by their own hand. But if I did, it would be one really sparkly, decorated soap box.
So, if you have a cape wearing toddler in your house, here’s a way to quickly have capes a plenty.
1. Go to a thrift store and buy large adult shirts with button collars.
2. Grab your scissors and follow along.
The first cuts are on the front of the shirt from the center of the hem up to the armpit.
Flip the shirt over so you can work on the back. Continue the cuts you have made from armpits to where shoulder seams meets the collar
Flip the shirt over again so you can work on the front. Continue your cuts along the curve of the collar going from shoulder seams to the shirt’s buttons. Be sure to cut BELOW the first button so that the collar, with ONE button, remains attached.
Whoa! You now have one dynamite cape! And since shirts at the thrift shop run about 50 cents, go ahead and make them in a rainbow of colors for all your upcoming cape wearing occasions.
From preschool to high school, Ruth Kaiser is a lifelong educator/artist and owner of a chain of preschools through out the San Francisco area. The mother of three grown up kids, Ruth is also author of A Smiley Book of Colors [Random House] and founder of SpontaneousSmiley.com, an online art project where people worldwide share photos of smiley faces they find in everyday objects. Connect with Ruth on Facebook and Twitter.
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