
With simple instructions and a few items you likely already have in your home, dress up your little girl in a fun, unique costume that won't mirror everyone else's store bought looks. Best of all, since the supplies are gathered from your home, you'll have the bonus of a super-affordable Halloween costume. Think of all the money you'll save. If you have more than one kid straining your budget, this is a huge benefit. Why not dress up all the kids with homemade costumes? They can often look better and cost far less than store-bought ones.
Quick, Easy, Affordable Native American Indian Girl Halloween Costume
If your kids enjoy arts and crafts, chances are that you have many items that can be used to make a unique Native American Indian Halloween costume for your toddler. If not, surely you at least have construction paper for crafting.
You'll need craft feathers, glue or tape, construction paper, scissors, a package of safety pins, a plain white or brown dress, and some brown shoes. Moccasins work best for the shoes, but if you don't have any, use whatever you have that gets as close to them as possible.
The first step to making this costume is to make some simple Native American jewelry out of construction paper and safety pins. Take some light blue (preferably turquoise) construction paper. Tear off square shapes about 2 inches around. Crumble them up into balls. Slide these balls onto safety pins. Leave the safety pins open for now. Once you have 20 or 30 safety pins filled, it's time to make them into a bracelet, an anklet, and a necklace. How many you use for each depends on the size of your little girl. Did you know that Native Americans often crafted their own jewelry from handmade turquoise beads? This is a fun fact you can share with your little girl as you create together.
Start fastening the safety pins together until you make a circle that will easily slip on for an anklet and a bracelet. You'll also want a necklace long enough to slip over the child's neck with plenty of room left over. You can create a belt the same way you created the other jewelry. The belt will need to be tighter, of course. Since you are using safety pins, one can easily be unattached and reattached to put the belt on the child. In addition to the paper beads, you'll also want to use feathers every so often for the belt. If you cannot find craft feathers, you can make some from construction paper by cutting out the feather shape and then using the scissors to cut strips all around them to make them look more real.
An alternative to the construction paper is any other type of paper that you and your little girl can color turquoise or whatever color you have closest to it in a crayon or colored pencil. Color both sides of the paper.
If it is long enough, put two braids in your child's hair, allowing them to hang over the shoulders in front. To secure the braids, take a square piece of construction paper and wrap it around the bottom of each braid about two or three inches up. If you want to also create a headdress, simply make a construction paper band that fits around the top of your little girl's head. Glue or tape feathers all around it. These can be craft feathers or construction paper feathers. You can also create two extra safety pins filled with paper beads to pin to the child's shoes.
Now on Halloween, simply slip the dress on your little girl. Next, put on the shoes. If you chose to create safety pins for the shoes, you may have already secured those ahead of time. If not, do so before putting them on your child. Now put on the belt, necklace, bracelet, anklet, and headdress. Don't forget about the braids. Your child is now ready to go trick-or-treating or to go enjoy a Halloween party or school celebration.
If you and your child will be out at night, don't forget the glow sticks or flashlights. Have a safe and happy Halloween!
*I originally published this content via Yahoo Contributor Network.