My toddler wanted to be a sand dune for Halloween. I asked a costume expert for help and the results didn't disappoint.

• My toddler decided he was going to be a sand dune for Halloween, months in advance.
• He also wanted his siblings to be pails, and us parents to be towels.

When we asked our three-year-old what he wanted to be for Halloween this year, he replied with immediate certainty: "A sand dune!"

My husband and I looked at each other, confused. How did he know what a sand dune was and how were we going to pull this one off?

I asked for tips in my Facebook parenting groups and people told me to keep asking him to see if he'd change his mind, in typical toddler style. But the more I asked the more annoyed he got.

"A sand dune, I told you," he'd said, later adding that his twin sisters needed to be sand buckets and my husband and I towels.

I looked for inspiration on Google and found nothing. My husband, who loves a costume challenge and has won "Best Costume" every time he's participated in a Halloween competition, thought about how to make it happen. But he came up empty-handed.

Not looking to give up, I contacted a costume specialist to give us a hand. Making our family costume from scratch by using things we had lying around while also getting crafty made it extra-special. We got to make our toddler's dream come true without generating more waste or spending a ton of money.

Nguyen Le has been working with Primary, a gender-neutral clothing brand, for five years now. She is the brand's Costume Concierge, where she takes requests from parents like me trying to figure out how to make their kids' ideas come to life for free.

I asked Nguyen if there are any trends this year when it comes to custom costumes, and surprisingly my toddler is right on-trend. She's most often asked to create inanimate objects, including cashews, tortilla chips, the International Space Station, water heaters, and of course sand dunes.

Putting the costume together was easy

I don't think I'm particularly handy. In fact, I can't really do any DIY projects because in true Gemini fashion, I have no patience and give up quickly. However, the box that Nguyen sent had detailed instructions, including a sketch of my smiling son wearing his costume, which made it easy to follow.

The best part is that it required zero sewing. Instead, I got to play with a glue gun, some fabric, and a little imagination.

Nguyen recommends parents keep it simple and remember costumes don't have to be perfect. Instead of buying a pre-made costume that kids will outgrow by next Halloween, use materials you already have and safety pin or hot glue things together, as she recommended for our costume.

As long as you get the gist of the costume, everyone will be happy.

To top off my son's costume, we added a beanie with a stuffie seagull attached to it, and a sign that reads "Stay off the dunes" to avoid any confusion about what he is. He is thrilled about being a sand dune, especially because he gets to have a seagull on his head, which he had repeatedly requested.

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What I like most about this costume, besides the originality, is that my son gets to use all the elements of it after Halloween is over, like the sand-colored sweatsuit, his beanie, and the stuffie seagull. Becoming a parent has made me more eco-conscious, so being able to re-use clothes made this experience even better.

Plus, costumed as a towel, I get to be cozy while we trick-or-treat.