What’s your favorite handmade Halloween costume you’ve ever created?  From kids to adult costumes, funny to scary, we want to see your creativity!  Enter our Handmade Halloween Costume Contest for a chance to win one of these amazing prizes…

*1st Place: $150 CreateForLess Shopping Spree

*2nd Place: $100 CreateForLess Shopping Spree

*3rd Place: $50 CreateForLess Shopping Spree

Click to Enter!

Enjoy some of our favorite entries from last year’s Handmade Halloween Costume Contest.

By Sewing Contributor Jessica, from the blog “Life Sew Good”.  

I’m really looking forward to seeing the entries for the Handmade Halloween Costume Contest!  I know that creativity is in the air (as evidenced by the long cutting lines at the fabric store), but I also know there are some of you who are on a budget—both money and time are running low.  So I thought I would give you a simple NO SEW project.  I mean, you could sew some of it to make it even more durable, but this works in a pinch.

Whether you’re making for an adult or a child, a fairy, ballerina, or butterfly costume can all have a very similar look.  All you need is a tutu and wings, although a wand wouldn’t hurt.  First, the Dollar Tree has wings for –uh, well, a dollar.  You can handle that right?  That leaves the tutu.

Here’s what you need:

2 rolls (2 differing colors is nice) of 6” tulle

¾” Non-rolling Elastic (approx. waist measurement minus 2″)

Sticky Back Velcro

Scissors or rotary cutter

Yard stick or measuring tape

Ribbon (optional)

Stick-on gems (optional)

 1. Cut 1 yard strips of the tulle, folding each strip in half as you go, so that the strips look like they are 18″ long.  Use the whole roll. 

2. Now fold tulle strips in half length-wise.  Cut diagonally from the bottom of the folded side up about 4″.  When you unfold them, the ends will look like a point—much like sword.  Refer to the pictures below.

3. Cut your elastic according the waist measurement minus 2″.  Use a small piece of adhesive Velcro on each end of the elastic.  Wrap the elastic around your leg and close the Velcro.  It’s time to start knotting your tulle!

4. Slip a piece of tulle under the elastic, the folded end at the top.   Spread the folded end (top) between your thumb and fore finger, fold it over the top of the elastic.  Slip the loose tulle through the hole and pull it through, creating a knot.  I think the pictures will be easier to understand than the words!!

The other side of your knot will look like this:

5. You will want to keep all your “knots” on the same side.  Continue knotting, alternating your colors. 

6. Optional:  Add in ribbon, knotting it just as you know your tulle or you can tie bows.  I also added on stick-on gems, both on the tulle and over the end of the elastic over where it closes. 

Now you have a great tutu that anyone will be happy to wear!

Yesterday we sat down and looked over all the entries for this year’s Handmade Halloween Costume Contest by CreateForLess. We had so many creative entries that it was very difficult to choose the winners!

1st Place Winner of $150 CreateForLess gift card goes to:

Alexandria H. from Centerville, TN

I made this costume for my niece who loves to wear dresses. There are six parts to it. The chemise is made of cotton broadcloth with white lace around the neckline that had the scalloped edge dyed bright pink. The stays are made from a heavy cotton fabric with a dark burgundy jacobean print on it, trimmed with green ribbon and gold binding. The paniers are made from pink taffeta. The dress is made of ivory antique satin with an embroidered stomacher, and ruching edged with green ribbon. The stomacher is beaded with pearls and decorated with gold buckles through which ribbon was passed. The sleeves are trimmed with a wide lace which had the scalloped edge dyed pink. Hand made embroidered appliques are scattered along the ruching and the sleeves. The necklace is made from the matching embroidered satin and edged in green ribbon with a pink bow and buckle in the center. The mask was made to match the dress and was constructed of paper mache, covered in ivory satin, decorated with white and silver glitter, edged with handbraided silver trim and finished off with white feathers and an embroidered applique flower.

2nd Place Winner of $100 CreateForLess gift card goes to:

Anthony L. from Northglenn, CO

I created this custom from plastic and rivets. It is Ironman from the movie and comic series. I used a lot of hot glue, and LED lights.

3rd Place Winner of $50 CreateForLess gift card goes to:

Melinda D. from Coralville, IA

My 3 year old daughter decided that she wanted to be Hello Kitty for Halloween and I decided to go for “Mom of the Year”! I started by sculpting the head shape out of high density foam. I used an electric knife to cut the foam. Next I sewed a fuzzy white cover to fit. I used a small amount of doll/toy stuffing to fill in the ears and round out the cover to give it a very smooth face. I made a “breathing and vision” section out of sheer white fabric to show a finished look. I attached the eyes, nose and whiskers next. The final step was to sew and attach the green bow to match Hello Kitty’s dress. Her outfit is a white pair of tights, a white turtleneck, a simple green dress and a pair of white gloves. My daughter is so excited to go trick or treating and show it off at her preschool Halloween party!

Honorable Mentions:  

I’m Expecting Barbie, it was hard to find maternity Halloween costumes so I decided to make this one.
Supplies:
Cardboard Box, front panel & arm holes cut out
Hot Pink Wrapping Paper
Shrink Wrap (just up to neck)
Ink Jet Printed Logos & Text
Pink Dress
Blond Wig
Pink Accessories

Submitted by: Christina F. from Burnsville, MN

What costume could be “Sweeter” than everyone’s favorite childhood treat?? That would have to be a BIG HOMEMADE Chocolate CUPCAKE!! Our sweet daughter, Rachel, dreamed only of being a fluffy white Cupcake for Halloween this year. So we Frosted her with fluffy white fabric, covered her in sparkly RAINBOW SPRINKLES and topped it off with a HOT PINK CHERRY! The only thing missing from this picture is the delicious Cupcake body lotion she is wearing to even make her smell of the sweet goodness! With lots of creative thought and hard work we made her sweet dream, of being a Yummy Cupcake, come true!

Submitted by: Jennifer P. from Northville, MI

This is a Civil War era dress I created from two fashion times, one 1863 and the other, 1866. I drafted my own pattern in order to capture the exact look I was going for, and I used iridescent green taffeta, creamy striped organza, and matching satin taffeta for the pleated trim. I finished it off with hand-looped pearl beads centered in the gathers of the skirt, and pearl jewelry appropriate to the time.

Submitted by: Jacqueline H. from Centerville, TN

Click here to view more of our favorite entries on our Facebook Page!

By Kid’s Craft Contributor, Gillian from the blog “Dried Figs and Wooden Spools”.

Halloween is my thing. I can’t help it. My last name is Grimm. How could Halloween not be your holiday with a name like that? It’s the only time of year where my name sounds cool rather than a little dreary! So planning for Halloween has become a serious undertaking at our house over the past few years. The decorations, the food, the pumpkins, it all culminated at our annual pumpkin carving party. 

In the past I’ve gone the silly Halloween route. Goofy looking jack-o-lanterns, licorice spiders, foam pumpkin stickers. All very little kid friendly. And while my children aren’t quite old enough for me to really do up the scary look, this year I’ve opted for a slightly more elegant/spooky style. Think Miss Havisham, but without the moldy wedding cake. At the same time I didn’t want to spend a lot of money, and I wanted the projects to be pretty quick and painless, giving me more time to plot my party menu.

My first order of business was to halloweenify my candles. Although I’m not quite the candle nut I once was (that kid friendly thing again!) I still keep candles around the house all year long. And while I didn’t want to buy candles just for Halloween, I did want to weave them into the themed decor.

This was achieved cheaply and easily by applying vinyl stickers (found in the scrapbooking section) and strips of black ribbon to the pillar candles that already sit on the tables and ledges of my house. The beauty of these stickers is that they are easily removed so come November 1st, my house can go back to normal, at least until it’s time to break out the Christmas decorations.

Next I decided to add a little fun to the bookshelves in the living room. I hit the local thrift shop and grabbed a basket full of ugly little odds and ends from the dollar shelf. If you don’t want to go the Goodwill route, look around under your cupboards and at the backs of your shelves and see if you don’t have a few ugly duckling vases and statues that are never going to see the light of day again.  

Grab a can of black matte or satin spray paint and go to work. You’ll be surprised how elegant that weird little dog statue looks once it’s been coated in slick black paint. 

Finally, I decided to spook up our wine glasses. Puff paint onto plastic bags, page protectors or transparency plastic, they can be peeled off to make mini-window clings. (Which, of course, means that you can also make these in larger sizes for your windows.)  Once dried and peeled off, apply to the outside of wine or beverage glasses for an instant Halloween look that can be peeled off again once the party’s over and November has arrived. 

Add a few jars full of green apples and plastic spiders and some ghostly music, and the house hits just the spooky note I was looking for. Bring on the trick or treaters!

What’s your favorite handmade Halloween costume you’ve ever created?  From kids to adult costumes, funny to scary, we want to see your creativity!  Enter our Handmade Halloween Costume Contest for a chance to win one of these amazing prizes…

• 1st Place: $150 CreateForLess Shopping Spree      
• 2nd Place: $100 CreateForLess Shopping Spree        
• 3rd Place: $50 CreateForLess Shopping Spree

To enter to win, fill out the entry here, attach a photo of your costume and include a brief description of it in the Description box. Contest deadline is November 2nd, 2009.

To view some of our favorite entries from last year’s contest, click here!

Limited to three entries per person.  The winners will be contacted individually via email and posted on our web site.  After the drawing ends, some of our favorites submitted will be showcased on CreateForLess.com and our ThinkCrafts blog. Submission of an entry into this contest grants CreateForLess permission to use the submitted content for promotional purposes.