Handmade Halloween: Etsy Costume Roundup

I know it’s a little early for Halloween, but when talking costumes it never hurts to get ahead of the crowd. I absolutely love the look of handmade Halloween costumes over store-bought. But that doesn’t mean I have the time, or for that matter the talent, to actually make them. In the next few years I’m really going to try to work on my sewing skills (and on recognizing that it’s about the effort and not a perfect product). Hopefully I’ll be ready to whip something up by the time my kids are old enough to notice. In the meantime, I’m turning to my favorite purveyor of handmade goods – Etsy.

If ever there was a match made in heaven, it’s Etsy and Halloween. I love that the site has exponentially increased parent’s options for purchasing costumes. The only downside? To find the really good stuff you have to be prepared to muddle your way through a lot of stuff that’s not so great… Or do you?

You know what? You don’t. You know why? Because you have me! Last year I dutifully spent an entire Friday night sifting through a mind-numbing amount of knitted hats, owl outfits, and tutus (seriously, does EVERY little girl costume really need a tutu? Since when do cow’s wear tutus?) to bring you the creme de la creme of handmade kid costumes. You’re welcome.

I was all prepared to do the same thing this year, so you can imagine my delight at discovering only 4 of the shops from last year’s roundup were no longer around. So I went the lazy route, found 4 new choices and am reposting the list for you today.

As always with Etsy, if the item’s sold out I’d recommend convo-ing the seller as they will very likely be happy to make another for you. Oh, and one last thing. Since Etsy specializes in handmade goods, prices can sometimes get a little ridiculous – at least in terms of children’s Halloween costumes (I’m talking $400 ridiculous). To keep things from getting out of hand, I’ve arbitrarily limited this list to get-ups priced at $50 and under (There’s actually one from last year that went up in price from $50 to $60, I decided to grandfather it in). Several are in the $20 – $30 range and one is only 14 bucks (that one’s actually $18 now but the good news there’s a new edition for only $12.50)!