American Girl Doll Halloween Costume

American Girl is one of the sweetest brands out there in my opinion. We put together this beautiful and modest American Girl Doll outfit for Halloween one year. If you are looking for a sweet idea for your girl, American Girl has lots of costume inspiration. Our daughter found the perfect dress and glasses to play Molly (her favorite doll!), and there are so many other options too!

Now that I have ‘tweens’ I am always looking for a modest Halloween Costume. My oldest is a bit of an American Girl Doll fan. Imagine my excitement when I found an authentic Pleasant Company American Girl Doll dress in my daughter’s size at a local thrift store!  Not only was it an authentic American girl doll dress in her size, but it was from the doll I wanted as a kid – Molly! I think this dress would make a perfectly sweet American Girl Doll Halloween Costume.

I recognized the dress that had been placed in the “Cinco de Mayo” dress section a couple days before the holiday. Molly’s party dress is a crisp white with multi color rick rack on the fluttery sleeves. I suppose it could be mistaken for a festive Cinco de Mayo party dress, but I knew what it truly was the second I saw it. The doll Molly is one of the retired dolls so my daughter did not recognize it when I first came home, but once she did she was thrilled! “I have dress up glasses that will work for her too!” she squealed.

Keep your eyes open! I have found several authentic American Girl Doll items at thrift stores and garage sales over the years. Finding an American Girl Doll dress from the actual store or catalog is certainly a great find, but you can broaden your search by finding something close to the dress you are looking for. With so many new American Girl Dolls being available and many of them from modern times you could easily find an outfit that looks similar to your child’s favorite and work with that!  I am fairly certain we will be looking to make a McKenna, Isabelle, or Grace costume later this year too.

Our dress was so easy to compliment. Molly wears ruffle socks (hers are trimmed with red but we just went with plain white #closeenough), she also wears black Mary Janes (J just outgrew her Mary Janes so she wore black slip ons -#closeenough), Molly typically wore her hair in two braids with red ribbons. I purchased a spool of ribbon with a coupon at a local craft store for about $3 – we had plenty for hair ties and we will use the rest for upcoming crafts.

Our final count – $10 for the thrifted dress, $3 for ribbon (we have tons left over), toy glasses we already had, socks and shoes she already had – a pretty cute little costume for only $13!

I’ve noticed at about size 8 costumes have really started to get flirty and some are downright inappropriate. I am not one for keeping kids covered neck to toe, but I don’t see any reason in a little girl being all tarted up. So far, sweet and innocent costumes are all she wants and that is wonderful. I want to foster that as long as possible – if you are looking for a lady like, modest costume for your little lady keep your eyes peeled for American Girl Doll items or even make your own! (If you are patient you can find this one on Etsy once both my girls outgrow it!) 😉

While I think this is a sweet trick or treat Halloween costume, if Halloween isn’t your thing you could still use an American Girl Doll costume for several other dress up opportunities. Our kids have had ‘favorite literary character’ dress up day as well as ‘decades day’ at school – we could easily use this costume for a school spirit dress up day too!