DIY Halloween costume: Toddler Cleopatra

As a girl who went trick-or-treating every year while I was growing up, I really miss Halloween. That’s because Halloween is a non-event in the Netherlands. Though it’s gaining popularity, especially in cities like Amsterdam with large international communities, Halloween events are few and hard to find.

If you’re lucky enough to find a Halloween party, people rarely go all out to dress up. Remember my Angry Birds maternity Halloween costume? I wore that to an expat Halloween party where, like, four people wore something vaguely resembling a costume. Pfff.

When our babysitting coop announced a Halloween meetup, I decided to just go for it and make Tala a DIY Halloween costume. And why stop there when Mama and Papa could wear matching costumes too?

So, here’s a family Halloween costume idea that reflects the true power relationships in our family: Cleopatra and her slaves.

Because, truth is, in a household with a toddler, the toddler rules!

The idea started with Tala’s hair. I racked my brain for a fictional character with black hair and blunt bangs, who could come with a couple of matching characters. Then it hit me: Cleopatra.

I must’ve spent hours poring over pictures of Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra. With 65 costume changes throughout this ruinously expensive 60s film, there was a lot of inspiration! Eventually I said, “Well, eff the first look, what mother on earth has time for that?!” and decided that Tala’s Cleopatra DIY Halloween costume would be inspired by elements from the second and third looks pictured here.

Here’s how it turned out.

Gotta tip my hat to DIY bloggers here, because taking step-by-step pictures and a final, decent picture for a DIY blog post is hard. Believe me, I tried—and failed miserably.

What I can do, however, is just give you a quick run-down of what I used and how I did it. Oh, and show you more pictures of Toddler Cleopatra, of course!

I used:

• Lining from an old skirt I was about to toss out (already hemmed, so no sewing required). To make a simple tunic, I tied two knots at the shoulders to make a tunic. This no-sew trick was inspired by none other than Dobby the House Elf.
• Gold sequin trim for wristbands, fastened with stick-on Velcro (because who has time to sew?)
• Gold sequin trim for headband, also fastened with stick-on Velcro (no sewing, see what I did there?)
• Gold snake twisty armband (€1 from the costume shop), twisted into an S and fastened to the back of the headband with Velcro
• All the gold and turquoise statement necklaces Mama doesn’t wear anymore

Did I mention that this whole thing was a no-sew project?

The most difficult part of all: getting eyeliner onto Tala! In the end, we succeeded with an elaborate plan involving biscuit bribery,

In comparison, whipping up matching costumes for us parents was a breeze. Plain black outfits, gold fabric wristbands, a costume shop Egyptian headdress for Marlon, and lots of eyeliner. I think he totally rocks the guyliner, by the way.

Motherhood lesson learned: with toddlers, you can’t really expect a Halloween costume to turn out exactly the way you planned it. For example, I had envisioned an exotic turquoise tunic inspired by Liz Taylor. In this picture, I see that I dressed my daughter in the fabric equivalent of an Albert Heijn grocery bag (see behind her).

But, hey, it’s all in the spirit of fun! We’ll have these pictures to laugh about some day.

In keeping with the ancient Egyptian theme, we also made some mummy juice boxes to bring to the party! We stuck a strip of masking tape on them, drew eyes on with a Sharpie, and wrapped them with gauze. It’s a fun, easy and healthy snack for any Halloween get-together.

Please say you love Halloween as much as I do. What’s the best costume you’ve ever dressed up in for Halloween?

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