Crafty Recycling: Turning an Infant Costume into a Halloween Loot Bag

If you're like me, you hate to waste anything. I never want to throw out anything that might be useful, but I can't always think of an immediate use. One of the items I can never seem to get rid of in any way are those old infant costumes. Specifically those one-piece infant costumes that aren't wrecked but aren't in good enough condition to give away. usually an arm or a leg is frayed to the point where the local thrift shops don't want them. My children are both too old for the costumes, I'm not have any more kids, and I don't know anyone pregnant or planning to get pregnant.

But I did eventually find a way to use them. Turn them into bags. The first one, a little turtle costume, I used for a Halloween loot bag for my oldest son, but others soon turned into all kinds of bags. One is a Lego bag, another holds coloring books and crayons, and I use one to carry my laptop. With only basic sewing skills, you can turn an old costume into a cute little bag. You will need the following supplies

• one-piece infant costume
• scissors
• ribbon at least 1 inch thick
• needle
• thread
• sewing machine (optional)

Start by cutting off the legs and arms of the costume (if applicable). You want to be left with just the torso. But don't cut down the sides or across the crotch. You want to leave as much of the costume intact as possible to cut down on your own sewing. You should cut the shoulders of the costume to enlarge the opening of the bag.

Sew up the leg holes of the costume. You can do this by hand or by using a sewing machine. Hem the opening at the top of the bag, again either by hand or with a machine. I prefer a machine because it's faster, but you might like sewing by hand. If the costume has a zipper or other fastener, stitch it closed so it doesn't open while you're using the bag. I like to actually remove zippers and sew it up like a seam, but you can simply secure the top of the zipper with a little thread.

Cut two 18 inch lengths of ribbon. You can cut longer ribbon if you want longer handles for the bag, but I prefer to keep them short.

Stitch the ribbon to the costume where the shoulders used to be. Attach one ribbon to the right front and back, the other to the left front and back. Make sure both ribbons are equal or you'll have a lopsided bag.

That's it. You now have a bag that can be used for anything. You can decorate it with self-adhesive sequins (found at your local dollar store), but only do this if the bag will be used by kids three years of age and older. Younger children might peel the sequins off and eat them. It happens.