Costume on the Cheap

I hadn't put too much thought into Desmond's Halloween costume. I was not psyched about choosing one for him, fighting with him to get dressed into something he doesn't care to wear just to take photos and say "See? We dressed you up that year!" But if I didn't do that, people would talk, right? I'm not secure enough to not care what people think, I guess.

Shopping didn't help with the lack of enthusiasm. It was the weekend before Halloween so I knew pickins would be slim. I tried three different places. The first had 1 option for boys... a monkey. It was cute, but there were dozens of monkeys on the rack. Which means every other little boy with a last minute costume would be a monkey. That bothered me. Plus it was $25, which seemed high at the time. No thanks.

The next place only had costumes in a bag, which I think look cheap. If one year Des wants to be something out of a bag, I'd be all for it. But while I still have a say, I'll pass. Plus the only option for boys his age was some weird cartoon character that I didn't know.

The third place had a bunch of options. My favorite was a chicken. So cute! Plus, we call Des 'chicken' or 'chicken nugget' (nug for short) all the time. Perfect! I took it off the rack ready to buy, when I looked down at the tag. $40. I checked the tag of different size, as if it might change things. It didn't. No, no, no. NO WAY. Maybe I'm the cheapest person on the planet. But we're pinching every penny right now. $40 for something he's gonna hate me for putting him in? Out of the question. No matter how cute.

Finally I resigned to make his costume. I'm kinda artistic! A lil' bit crafty! I think. I poked around the internet trying to decide on a cute costume that would be easy to DIY, and settled on a pirate. A baby pirate! Come on, how cute is that.

I made a plan of action as to what we'd need to buy and what we already have. Took a quick trip to the craft store and put it together one night when he was sleeping. Here's what we got:



I didn't have to sew a thing. One of the reasons I chose a pirate is that the disheveled, frayed look actually works FOR you. I bought the iron-on patch, gold puffy paint, black t-shirt, and a bandana. Everything else we already had.

Total time: ~45 minutes, including trip to craft store

Total cost: less than $10





Having pictures like these forever... priceless.

Okay, okay. I'm glad I did the costume thing. ;-)