Easy DIY Costumes: Old Time Bank Robber & BOO-tiful Ghost

My kids took it easy on me this year and came up with some simple costume requests. And let me tell you, I am seriously grateful.  Costume hat orders for my shop have kept me super busy so there hasn't been a lot of time to design and create complicated costumes for my own kiddies.  My 7yr old's was the most elaborate one and still super easy to do: An Old Time Bank Robber.  

Even non-crafty types can pull this one together and it makes a nice change from all the usual licensed characters kids get obsessed with these days.  My little guy was inspired by some Lego City guys he had - he loved the old school bank robber with the striped shirt.  The actual clothes were easy. A pair of dark jeans we had + a grey & black striped shirt (found for $6 at Target). I made him a basic fleece beanie hat in black and folded up the hem.  It's also a cheap & easy ready made item to buy if you're short on sewing time.

The mask was made with a modified version of my downloadable Batman mask pattern.  I trimmed off the bat points on my pattern and used the same black cotton, interfacing & elastic and assembly steps as before (see that post for the full mask making how-to).  Now he looks properly stealthy:

For my little burglar's money bag I got a plain drawstring canvas bag and painted on a giant dollar made from a freezer paper dollar sign stencil I whipped up (thanks to my SCAL software and Cricut).  Then I stuffed it full of empty plastic bags to look like a full bag of loot, but super light weight:

Add in a Mag flashlight and he's ready to prowl...well until he gets caught anyway:

My 4 yr old had the simple request of being a ghost.  This was great since I already had a white fleece ghost cape I'd made for robber boy when he was that age.  But of course when she saw her brother's mask, she wanted one too, so I went all ghosty on it and made her this:

I made hers out of white felt and used glow in the dark thread to embroider it with BOO! Now she'll have something spooky to say even when she gets too shy to say trick or treat:

The cape was just a basic circular design with hood, but I'd lined it with some cute Halloween cotton so it would look sweet.  

It's ideal because it's big enough to wear a coat underneath, but not too constraining and paired with the mask much safer for unsteady little feet than a long sheet with eyeholes.  

Add in my oldest wearing the pirate costume I made 2 years ago (which in and of itself was a partial recycle of a previous Han Solo ensemble), my trick or treaters are good to go. And mommy gets to breathe a sigh of costume relief this year.  Ahhh.....

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