How to Make a Hello Kitty Costume for Girls

It's kind of funny the things that we see as important when we are children. I remember that as a child we did not have much extra money so most of our Halloween costumes were 'put together' or homemade costumes. One year my sister begged my mom for a store bought costume. She just really wanted to have a 'cool' costume. It seems to me that nowadays, kids are looking for something that is a little different so that it stands out above the rest of the crowd. I have to admit that as a parent, I love the look of the homemade costumes, but have very little time to really make something that looks halfway decent. So I typically default to the store purchased costumes.

This year, we had a little problem. My daughter wanted to be Hello Kitty and I could not find a single costume that I deemed appropriate for a five year old. So as I continued to search for a costume, I also decided that I needed to come up with a Plan B, and the Plan B was a homemade costume.

The first thing that I did was study many pictures of Hello Kitty. I was very careful to look at the kind of clothes that Hello Kitty wore, along with the color of her bow. Traditionally Hello Kitty has a red bow. However, there are many times that Hello Kitty changes the color of her bow to pink. She also wears cute but conservative dress. So that settled it. First I would transform her into Hello Kitty and then dress her up!

• White long sleeved shirt
• White leggins
• White gloves
• Pink ribbon
• White craft foam sheet
• A headband
• Glue gun
• Cute dress or skirt and shirt combination
• White, black and yellow face paint

1. First trace and then cut two rounded, hill type shapes out of the white foam. This will be the ears for Hello Kitty.
2. Next, hot glue the foam ears to the back of the headband. The hot glue will sort of melt the foam, but it will not enough to be noticeable This will only show on the back side of the headband.
3. Cut about 18 inches of ribbon from the spool to make the bow. I like to have a little more than what I will actually need so that I have some extra in case of mistakes. Tie the ribbon into a bow. I used ribbon that has the wire edges so that it will hold its shape a lot better.
4. Then hot glue the bow to the front of the ears. Glue it to the right ear when facing the headband. As you wear the headband, the bow will be on the left side.

You have now completed your Hello Kitty Costume! Finish the costume by wearing the long sleeved white shirt and leggins under the dress or skirt to make it look like Hello Kitty's body. Add the white gloves to simulate the white paws. Paint the face white with a yellow nose and black whiskers to complete the Hello Kitty look.

The great thing about this costume is that for the most part, everything can be used again. All of the clothing that made up this costume are clothes that Grace has worn since Halloween. And she also loves to wear the headband ears around the house. I hope that your little one enjoys this homemade Hello Kitty costume as much as mine did!