The Carnival It's fun and it's color, especially for the little ones. And there's not much left to enjoy them, so it's time to start thinking about their costumes. In Mothers Today we encourage you to bet on creative and sustainable alternatives and we propose five children's costumes made with recycled materials.
When they are little we often buy costumes that they never wear again. So why not get creative and create with them? original costumes with recycled materials like the ones we propose to you today? Cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, old tights... they can become fun robot, astronaut or princess costumes, find out how!
Advantages of using recycled materials
The use of recycled materials to make costumes gives us the opportunity to educate children about the importance of sustainability. By involving them in the creation process, we encourage the development of ecological awareness from an early age, while at the same time we stimulate your creativity and skills manuals.
Furthermore, the use of recycled materials offers numerous advantages both from the environmental point of view as economical. The reuse of objects and materials that would otherwise probably end up in the trash reduces the demand for new resources and contributes to the reduction of waste production. Likewise, using recycled materials is, in general, cheaper than purchasing new materials, which allows us to save.
Materials you can use
There are an infinite number of materials that you can use to create original and creative children's costumes. The key is to reuse objects that no longer fulfill their function original and give them a new life. The list of these is long, although some of the most common are:
- Paper and paperboard: Cardboard boxes, newspapers, magazines and cardboard can be reused to make crowns, butterfly wings, jetpacks, superhero shields or any other element you need.
- Unused fabrics and garments: Old clothes, curtains or scraps of fabric can be transformed into unique outfits. With a little imagination and skill, you can make capes, princess dresses or animal costumes.
- Plastic bottles: Plastic bottles can be transformed into surprising items, such as astronaut helmets, futuristic accessories or animals.
- Yogurt containers or other plastic containers: With yogurt containers and plastic caps you can create masks, accessories for animal costumes or decorations.
5 children's costumes with recycled materials
Now yes! What are those five children's costumes with recycled materials that we propose today? As you will see, they are fun costumes, easy to create and carry even the smallest ones. And fun, very fun.
Astronaut
The astronaut costume is one of the easiest to create. Imitating an astronaut diver is easy with a white diver, black adhesive tape and some NASA stickers that you can draw yourself. Once the diver has been customized, it will be time to create the astronaut helmet and jet pack mainly with cardboard and paper. In the following video you have a tutorial on how to make a helmet. And to make the backpack you just have to take inspiration from the image above and gather cardboard boxes, plastic bottles and old pipes.
Robot
Another fun and easy costume to make is the robot costume. Do you have any saved cardboard boxes of your latest shipments? It's time to take them out and use them. And you will need little more than cardboard boxes, some sheets of paper, some colored markers and aluminum foil to create the frame of the robot. There are simpler and more sophisticated ones as you see in the images. The key is to choose the one that your little one will feel comfortable with.
El Caracol
The snail one is one of our favorites for the littlest children. It is economical, easy to make and very easy to carry if we control their weight. To do this you only need brown paper or that which normally arrives when completing the boxes for home delivery orders. You just have to create a wide, elongated strip with this paper, wrinkle it slightly and roll it so that it takes the shape of a shell. Secure it with glue, attach it to a hard cardboard base and attach a couple of ribbons to it so that the child can carry it like a backpack.
You will only have to complement this accessory with the appropriate clothing in nude, cream or light brown tones and with the same paper and a headband shape the snail antennae, that will become the most fun element.
princess costume
The princess costume is one of the most requested children's costumes. And it is relatively easy to create it from items you may have at home. An old fabric can become the ideal base to create a shiny layer with some creativity and glitter. A cardboard box is ideal for shaping the crown and in case it is not clear that it is a princess, why not put it on a horse, unicorn or cardboard bed?
Octopus
Do you have any fabric in a bright color like yellow or orange at home? You can also use purple, pink or green. Any bright color will work for you create the octopus legs as a skirt. Another fantastic idea is to use tights and stuff them but you would have to buy them.
The idea is to create the legs and head of the octopus with the same fabric as a hat and then use clothes of the same or contrasting color in a complementary tone. For example, if the paws are orange, teal; if they are yellow, violet; and if they are red, green.
Do you like these children's costumes made with recycled materials? Will you choose one of them for the next carnivals?