A Brief Costume How To!

I had fun making our Halloween costumes this year, I don't know if I will ever be able to top these. I will start with the Mad hatter (who is checking college football scores on his phone)

I got most of his costume from Savers, a local thrift store. His Hat was my first purchase. It was intended for a leprechaun, so I had to unpick a four-leaf clover and add a tag. (which if you are wondering what it means it is the price of the Hat! Ten Shillings and a sixpence.) I just got a piece of card-stock, wrote on it with a marker and used a straight pin to attach it. It worked out great.

I made the bowtie out of some old fabric I had, and the green shirt was also a savers purchase. .99 cents thank you.

Now getting the jacket right was as key as getting a good hat. But, I did NOT want to sew a jacket for an adult man. it just didn't sound fun. So I got this one at savers for .99 cents and SPRAY PAINTED IT!

I went with orange, because I thought it would go better with the Hat and shirt combo I had purchased. I also didn't spray it evenly. I meant to do that. Seriously. I wanted it to be a bit messy, more like the Jonny Depp style Mad Hatter.

I also discovered the best low budget painting tool you could ever purchase. A spray painting gun. You attach it to any bottle of spray paint and shoot it like a gun instead of cramping up your pointer finger. It also helps you to get the paint on evenly. The best part... it cost me $2.89 And it is reusable. I got this one at Lowes.

What kind of spray paint did I use? the kind you get at walmart? I wasn't too picky, but I will say DON'T get the cheap 99 cent spray paint, it does not work as well. Promise. I tried and failed. Although I didn't use special spray paint, I did discover they make FABRIC spray paint. I would like to try it sometime. If you have tried it, let me know what you think.

For the Cat, I used a roll of masking tape to create the stripes. Put the tape on, Spray painted, and when it dried, I removed the tape. It worked REALLY well.

Maybe if I get some of that fabric spray paint I will make a striped shirt this way. Since I LOVE stripes. I think I got away with having the most comfy costume. I made my tail out of an old T-Shirt, and attached some little cat ears to a headband. My girls were concerned that I had no purple stripes, well kids, I couldn't find purple sweats ANYWHERE (or pink ones that I could spray paint purple) So, this cat was pink and white instead!

They dried really fast, or at least faster than I expected. I did these the day of our trunk or treat. I was lucky it was a warm day, which sped up the drying. I hope my neighbors didn't mind my costumes hanging everywhere!

I was SO glad and THANKFUL to my little Liza for wanting to be Alice, since I had already slaved over a costume for her once this year. This picture is from her birthday, but for Halloween she had tights, and I put a pettiskirt underneath to make it nice and puffy. This is a pretty basic dress, with a double layered gathered skirt, and a collar. I love it. So it made me so happy to see her wear it again.

Oh now Addie's Costume.... This one was so much fun to make! I decided to use a pattern, one i already had, and just add a few details to make it my own.

I used this pattern size 3 (which was a bit big and had to be taken in for my small framed girl), I did pattern B, the pink on at the bottom. I decided to do the bodice out of a stretchy fabric so i wouldn't have to put in a zipper. I added the collar and several embellishments and trims to make it queen worthy.

I got in a fight with the collar trying to get it to stand up like the Queen's does, in the end the collar won, and I know how I would fix it if I were to do it again. But I was not about to do it again! The crown and the Wand were GREAT finishing touches. I also had a few trial and errors with the crown, I ended up finding an 8 x 10 sheet of sparkly craft foam which I basically stapled together and slid it onto a headband. It was so easy, I was mad for trying the vinyl and the spray paint, and the cardstock. Duh. Why do I make things so difficult? The wand is similar to THESE but with a heart on top instead.

YES! Your MAJESTY!

(I am hoping to add more detailed pictures soon. we will see if it happens!)