Most years I make our Halloween costumes. By "ours" I pretty much mean anyone who is in earshot. Stand around me long enough and I will probably put you in a coordinating outfit too! With an entire cast of characters to costume, I can't make everything from scratch. Lots of outfits are recycled, either from thrift stores or from previous costumes. Here are a few examples.
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This was my Halloween costume in 2007, they year I made all my friends into carnival freaks. Most of it
came from the thrift store with some minor adjustments. PJ's jacket started out as a red blazer that got the front cut a an angle and the extra sewn on as tails. I added a felt color and a lot of gold fabric paint. I lucked out finding my jacket which matched a skirt I already had in my costume bin. I bought some old shower curtain valance for $1 just to have that long black ruffle to add to the skirt. I gathered the skirt vertically in a few places to show some leg, glued on some facial hair, and we were a carny couple.
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Pj's jacket reappeared in 2010 as part of his Mad Hatter costume for Lydia's Alice in Wonderland birthday party.
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In 2008 I was on maternity leave prior to Halloween and
PJ was out of town for the holiday, so I turned three thrift store dresses into mermaid costumes for Jennifer, Lydia, and myself. They were a challenge that I enjoyed making and then promptly gave mine back to Goodwill after Halloween. I kind of wished I had kept it, but I was overwhelmed with baby stuff and my body was a weird post baby shape and I don't repeat my costumes and couldn't see a way to turn this one into anything else, but still I kind of wonder who loved it after me.
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OK, remember my skirt from 2007?
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It became Jennifer's witch skirt in 2009. It was supposed to be her Flower Fairy skirt, but that idea never really panned out so the day before Halloween, I scrapped it and made us all witch costumes out of our failed fairy skirts.
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Remember that jacket from 2007? It became part of my Wicked Witch of the West costume for 2010. I had a black skirt and a black shirt from the thrift store, but the outfit needed a little something. I wasn't sure about adding
the jacket at first because it wasn't solid black, but in the end I loved the extra shape it gave my outfit and even the pop of the red, blue and purple that stemmed from
the jacket. I still need to figure out a Flying Monkey costume for
PJ. I think the circus jacket may make an
appearance in that one too. Hmm, I wonder what it will turn into next year!
1 comment:
Wow, great skills! I love your recycling attitude... I usually try to find a few key pieces that I already have and try to make a costume out of them as well...
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