PVCC Puma Press: March 2006

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	Photo by Lisa Racz
	Tabitha Racz won her sixth grade Halloween Dance Costume Contest with this homemade geisha costume in Fall 2006. All materials were salvaged from Goodwill. The inner kimono wrap is made of used bed skirts.
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Halloween costumes don’t have to cost a lot of money to look great. Since most college students are glad to save money, here are some ideas about how to create a Halloween costume on a low budget.

Cutting costs can be simple. There’s no need to spend a lot of money to create a unique costume when there are many resale stores that have materials, such as old bed skirts or bedding, curtains, clothes, pillows for stuffing, shoes, dresses, used costumes (to take apart or alter) and more. And don’t forget that $3 wig and costume makeup.

The trick to making good Halloween costumes is this: Look beyond what the item is; instead, look at the design and color of the material and visualize what it has to offer for your costume.

Every year around the second week of September, Goodwill stores bring out their used costumes along with material that coincides with the Halloween theme. Plus, every Thursday is “dollar day” at Goodwill. This is when certain tag color items are only a dollar; then, after 5 p.m. everything is 50 percent off. According to Bob Hardin, the customer service manager for the Goodwill store at Cactus and Cave Creek Road, even the dollar items are half off.

Other resale stores, such as St. Vincent De Paul and Savers, also have plenty of Halloween costume idea items and material.

I have made many costumes from old bed skirts by tearing off the skirt part and using pieces of old material I found at a resale store. With minimal sewing or none at all, I’ve made costumes that look better than the costumes found at stores and at a cost of about $15–$20 tops.

For instance, my daughter, Tabitha’s, Geisha costume was made with little sewing. Everything to make her costume was salvaged from Goodwill. The Japanese material used to make the body of the kimono was already sewn together. For the inner kimono wrap and waist wrap, I ripped up two separate, used bed skirts. The wig was just a plain long black wig in an unopened package. Then I found and bought a Japanese umbrella, wood shoes and metal fan earrings.

With little sewing involved in creating this costume, I was left with mostly fitting and wrapping the material around Tabitha with little effort. Yet, the look of this Halloween costume suggested that it was more expensive than the $20 I spent on the materials to make it.

If you’re not big on sewing, just take your costume theme idea with you to the store, find large material pieces and use the “cut and fold” method. Take a large piece of material, fold it in half and at the crease cut a hole for your head. Add fairy wings to the back, wrap a fake vine or belt around your waist, and you’re done! You can either be a Woodland Fairy or make this costume interchangeable and become a cave woman at another function.

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	Look beyond what the item is; instead, look at the design and color on the material and visualize what it has to offer for your costume
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You can even be elaborate and make a mask from inexpensive foam paper, cloth leaves and pipe wire—all from the 99 Cents Store for a total of $4. Just cut the foam material to shape, then glue on fake leaves, miniature ivy and feathers and you have Woodland Fairy face masks. Milk and egg cartons are also great to cut up and paint for mask making.

If you don’t want to be a Geisha or Woodland Fairy, it’s possible to create a put-together costume that goes along with a current movie theme or a movie star. The more creative you get, the better your costume will be.

In addition to haunting the thrift stores, don’t be afraid of checking out garage sales on Saturday mornings. There you can get “real deal” items that you bargain down to just 50 cents each, making the cost of your Halloween costume all the cheaper.

Furthermore, garage sales often have unusual trinkets to add to costumes, such as old earrings, belts, that stuffed animal you can take the stuffing out of, scarves, old seeing glasses, even old auto parts. The list goes on. Just be sure to wash all the treasures you buy. Then use those old earrings for a pirate costume or stuff that orange costume to look like a jack o’ lantern—whatever strikes your fancy.

Let’s not forget about your own closet. Ahhh, yes, the black hole. There is always something in your closet that you don’t really want any more. What I have found in closets at my house has included a white hat, a black turtleneck shirt, an old white shawl, black jeans and black platform shoes that I made into a ‘40s costume in a quick pinch, which cost a total of $0.

Bargain hunting is the key to saving money, so have fun treasure hunting and saving money on an original Halloween costume. Trick or Treat!