Fancy Dress for Halloween

We are approaching Halloween and although it’s a great time of year that can be filled with fun and tricks, it does fill you with fear about another event that you need to prepare for.  Most kids want to dress up in a fancy dress outfit and then they want to go trick or treating.  They might even have parties or events that they have been invited to that require fancy dress outfits.

Kids capes are one of the most easy fancy dress outfits you can make yourself and you can make so many characters out of them.  The most obvious are witches and wizards, with a few extra accessories these can be fairly easy to make, you will need a black or dark blue piece of fabric, which can be tied around the shoulders or attached to the shoulders of their clothing underneath.  Make sure if you are tying it around the neck that it will easily come undone so they don’t get it pulled round their neck.

If you want to want to spend a bit more time on it you can cut out stars either from paper or fabric and stick or sew them on the fabric.  You can then make a hat out of a cone of navy or black card and a wand from a rolled up piece of paper.

If your children want a kids cape that is a bit more unusual Halloween costume you could go for batman, Dracula or Darth Vader or any other character that they like that is associated with Halloween.  The principals of making the kids cape is exactly the same, you many just need to change the colour of the fabric and accessories.  For example batman you would need to make a mask and Dracula would need fangs, for Darth Vader you would need a lightsaber.  As another option you could dress them as a pumpkin and use orange fabric to make the cape.  They don’t have to be outfits that you normally associate with capes, they are just a great way to cover your child in a specific colour.  A really easy way to accessorise an outfit is to use face paints, as long as you have a good range of colours, you can create any kind of face you want to go with your outfit.

Kids capes can also use for other fancy dress occasions, you might find that may of the children’s parties they are invited to require them to dress up and this is a simple way you can create a costume. My children were also really into dressing up at home, especially when they had their friends round, they sometimes did shows to watch.

When your child has finished using the kids cape you can use it again for another outfit the following year, the great thing is that they won’t grow out of them quickly, they will just get a bit shorter.  If you don’t want to make another outfit you can use the fabric for something else.