Holy cow! Where does the time go? Last I knew it was March and now suddenly...boom! OCTOBER! Well, if I'm going to get stuck in a time warp, at least it dropped me off in my all time favorite month! Happy (almost) Halloween!!!
I confess, I've already started working on a few costumes (a girl has to have choices) and am my happiest with a glue gun in one hand and pinking shears in another. I was thinking about posting some how-to's for simple homemade costumes and wanted to know if there was anything you guys would specifically like to see made? For right now I'll post up my most recent creation...a horrible prom dress into a dainty fairy costume. It's a petite medium or regular small but with the right dress you can make yours any size you want.
I LOVE Goodwill! Not only are they doing great things for our communities, but they also have some amazing finds for anyone who's got the time and patience to do a little digging! We found this (horrendous) prom dress for $10 and knew it was perfect! I went to JoAnn's (another amazing store) and bought a half yard each of a light green sheer and a darker green sheer as well as some bright green ribbon (2" wide). After that it was off to Michael's (need I say how great?!?) to pick up some sparkly fake plants they've set out for Christmas. Last but not least we got the wings at our local Big Lots. We had originally purchased a pair from Target for $10 but found that the ones at Big Lots were much larger and only $8. It helps to shop around sometimes!
The dress, as it was used, did need a little love but with a few quick stitches, it was as good as new. I took the two colors of green fabric and roughly cut them into a leaf shape and then hand basted them onto the green ribbon I had purchased. I also sewed these "leaves" to the bottom of the underskirt so they just barely peek out along the hem. Once I had the fabric all sewn to the ribbon, I then sewed that to the bodice following the lines that were already a part of the design. I clipped the plastic greens apart into individual leaves and then attached those to the ribbon using hot glue.
The wings were the easiest! Luckily they were already green when we purchased them so all we had to do was apply a light coat of sparkly green paint to the black frame to help liven it up. We then glued a few longer shoots of our plastic plants along the same frame to add a little more sparkle. We decorated the back with more leaves and greens to help hide the slightly unattractive area where the elastic straps connect to the frame.
Finally we replaced the plain brown lace that cinched up the back of the dress with the left over green ribbon we used on the front.
All in all...$25 in supplies and 2 hours of work and we have a great, cheap, easy Halloween costume! All you need are some great shoes and a wand...maybe a crown of flowers? Oh, and don't forget...GLITTER!
I apologize for only having these photos as the "after" of the project and will start posting step by steps for upcoming costumes. Again, anyone have any ideas for what they want to be but need some help getting there??
