The Best Family Halloween Costumes for 2016 - Beauty, Baby, and a Budget

I had the privilege of collaborating with some of my favorite bloggers (I will list these gorgeous ladies below, don’t you worry!) on creating the best family Halloween costumes that you will find this year. Evie and I were a witch and her black cat! I know its very “typical Halloween” but these two very chic halloween costumes took me under and 30 minutes to create and I had a blast doing it!

My costume was created with this gorgeous Shabby Apple Dress and the hat came from Target’s dollar section! I have created a video and picture tutorial showing you how to create Evie’s no sew, DIY black cat costume! The video helps you see really well what each step entails but the picture tutorial definitely goes into more detail.

For The Tutu

6″ roll of black tulle
1″ sturdy black elastic
two pieces cardboard (trimmed to the proper size, see the chart below to know what size that is)
scissors
iron on hemming tape

1. First you will need to decide what size you want your tutu to be. The best way is to measure your child but you can also use the chart below as a reference!

2. Next you will cut your elastic about an inch longer than your desired waist size. You can either use the iron on hemming tape (my preferred method) or tie the ends together.

3. Next you will need the two pieces of cardboard. You can use anything from a cereal box (what I used) to the side cut out of a cardboard shipping box. You will want to to cut two identical rectangles out of the cardboard.

The width needs to be anywhere from 8-12 inches (it doesnt need to be exact, just wider than your tulle) and the length will be 1/2 in longer than your desired tutu length (see the chart above).

My tutu was size 3-6 months so the cardboard I used was 10″x6.5″.

4. The next step will be to cut the tulle. You will need approx 50 strips of tulle for a size 3-6 months tutu. See the chart above for how many strips of tulle you need for your tutu size. I use the cardboard because it will make it easy for me to cut.

5. Place both pieces of cardboard together. Then take your tulle and place the end of the tulle at the end of your cardboard and wrap it around the cardboard. MAKE SURE YOU WRAP THE TULLE AROUND THE LENGTH OF THE CARDBOARD, NOT THE WIDTH, so I was wrapping my tulle around the part of the cardboard that measured 6.5″. When you reach back to the beginning of where you started wrapping, that counts as one time. Continue to wrap the tulle around your board until the number of times you need (based off the chart).

6. Now you will cut down the side of the cardboard between the two pieces of cardboard which will allow you to cut straight across the the wrapped layers of tulle so it looks nice and neat with no jagged edges. This should leave you with a nice bit pile of tulle.

7. Next gently stretch your elastic waistband over the width of your cardboard so that it stays in place but is not super stretched out.

8. Now I start wrapping the tulle around your elastic. Take 4 pieces of tulle, (you can take more or less depending on how fluffy you want your tutu) neatly lay them on top of each other, then fold them in half. Take the folded middle part and slide it under the elastic about and inch or two.

9. Next take the end of the tulle and pull it over the elastic and through the loop that you made by folding the tulle in half. Tighten the tulle.

10. Then take the end again and pull it in the other direction and tighten. (the video above shows a really good example of this step).

11. Repeat steps 8-10 until all of the elastic is filled with knotted tulle.

12. Now it’s time to fluff your tutu! Go through each layer and pull the tulle out to separate it. This will create a big and full, gorgeous tutu!

For The Cat Tail

Take the black feather ribbon and hot glue gun the beginning of it to the beginning of the wire. Then use the hot glue gun to spray glue all the way down the wire and wrap the ribbon around the wire. Easy peasy!

For The Cat Ears

1. I created a printable with the two different types of cat ears that I made so you don’t have to trace your own :). Click here to download the printable.

2. I traced the bigger triangle on the black foam sheet and the smaller triangle on the silver glitter foam sheet. The smaller triangle is supposed to resemble the middle of the ear.

3. After you have traced and cut out your desired cat ears, wrap them around your back head band and glue gun the two ends together. Then glue on your silver glitter triangle to the middle of the black ear that you just made.

For The Rest of The Costume

Here are the other cute bloggers that were involved in this collaboration! I absolutely adore their costumes. They are all DIY and super easy to create! Make sure to visit each of their blogs to see how they created their family Halloween Costumes!