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General Halloween Costumes for Women Refashioning Tutorials

DIY Queen of Hearts Costume

You don’t need to know how to sew to make a fun costume.  In this tutorial on a DIY Queen of Hearts Costume from Bethany Mota, she shows how a glue gun and craft glue can refashion a corset, add a layer of lace to a skirt, and even create a new skirt.  Who needs thread when you have hot glue? This opens a whole new world of costume possibilities…

 

Categories
Cosplay Refashioning Resources Sewing Costumes

American Sewing Expo: How to Make Costumes

If you like to sew or want to learn how to sew and have a girls getaway, there is a huge sewing expo happening September 26-28, 2014 in Michigan! Three days of interesting sewing classes for all levels of stitchers including costume classes on cosplay, refashioning, fit, fabric, and costume design careers.  Here are the costume class descriptions:

*Costume Magic by Bernadine Vida

Join professional costume designer, Bernadine Vida
as she demonstrates fast and easy costume making
without breaking the bank! It’s fun and simple to cre- ate a multitude of costume pieces using thrift store
garments or even clothes from your own closet.
Watch her as she performs this costume magic right
before your very eyes. Be inspired by

Categories
Halloween Costumes Halloween Costumes for Women Hats Period Costume Refashioning

White Witch Halloween Costume Idea

white witch
White Witch Halloween Costume Idea Photo by Erin Smith of Archive Costumes, Orem, Utah

My friend at Archive Costumes of Orem, Utah posted this picture on their Facebook page of a white witch costume that is available for rental and I fell in love with it!

First, it’s a great photo in a beautiful local park.

Second, I love the hat. I am a sucker for hats.  I haven’t made tons of original hats, but I love to refashion and embellish existing hats.  The broom is pretty cool too.

Third, I love the idea of a witch dressed in white.  It seems so updated.  So fresh.  So youthful and kind. Black is so normal. So predictable. Pink is too Glinda.  White (it might be off white)  is just right. Romantic even.  White may be on my mind because

Categories
Boy Costumes Ethnic costumes General Group costume Halloween Costumes Halloween Costumes for Men Refashioning

Three Amigos Kids Halloween Costume

Image by Brookie Photography
Image by Brookie Photography

Not only is this a great group costume, but isn’t this a great image? Just so stinkin’ cute.  This is from my friend who made these costumes for her son and his cousins.  These costumes are easy to make from black sweats.  The hardest part may be waiting for the silver glitter glue to dry so that you can flip the sweats to decorate another area. I dare my three girls to pull this off when they are all teenagers.  With a mustache, of course.

Three Amigos Costume Recipe

Ingredients:

Black sweat bottoms

Black zip up hoodie, or crew neck sweatshirt

LOTS of silver glitter glue

White shirt

Categories
Couples costume Dresses General Hair Halloween Costumes Halloween Costumes for Women Makeup Movies Period Costume Refashioning Shoes Tutorials

The Roaring 20’s: Great Gatsby Costumes and Flapper Costumes for Women

This page is for all you who need a costume for a Great Gatsby, Flapper, or Roaring 20’s event.  You will see a brief overview of 1920’s costume ideas along with links to 1920’s fashion images and tutorials for hair, makeup, and 1920’s clothing.

When assembling a costume, I always consider 6 magic ingredients to make sure you look put together:

  • Hair
  • Clothing
  • Makeup
  • Shoes
  • Accessories
  • Props

Here’s the breakdown for each of these 6 magic ingredients in a women’s 1920’s costume:

Hair: Bobbed or cropped to fit under the close fitting cloche hats, waved

Link to 1920’s hair styles

20’s Inspired Fashion 

Clothing: Straight-line chemise style, sleeveless, dropped waist or no waist at all, hemlines near the knee to make dancing the new dances like the Charleston easier, straight bodices with flattened chests.  Sashes, bows, lace, beads, artificial flowers, feathers, and fringe adorned the dresses. If you would like a bit more coverage, wear a cap sleeve layering tee or wide-strap tank camisole and bike shorts, spankies, or leggings underneath the dress, although that will alter the look some.

blue flapper dress
Click image to view in Amazon
Categories
General Halloween Costumes Refashioning Trick or Treat Bags

Personalized Homemade Halloween Trick-or-Treat Bags

When you put so much thought and effort into a Halloween costume, why stop when you get to the trick-or-treat bag?  I always try to customize a treat bag or container that coordinates with the costume.

My daughter is going to be Cruella de Vil this year, so this post is going to show you how easy it is to personalize a simple $2 purse from the thrift store with a few trims I already had on hand to make a fancy, fun, and flashy treat bag that will enhance her Cruella costume.  This is the purse I started with.

Cruellapurse

 

I cut a 2″ wide strip of dalmatian print fabric that was about 6″ longer than the length of the area where I was going to put it.  This extra length allows for gathers. This was leftover fabric from the dalmatian print ruffle I added to the bottom of her dress to extend it to her ankles.

 photo 1 copy 3

I used hot glue to first secure each end of the fabric where I wanted it to start and stop.  I put a drop of glue in the middle to glue the fabric down.  Then I ran a strip of glue

Categories
General Girl costumes Halloween Costumes Refashioning Shoes

Refashioning Shoes Into Spectator Shoes

 

My daughter is going to be Cruella de Vil for Halloween this year.  She found some cool shoes at  Savers, one of my favorite local thrift stores.  She is young, but loves to wear high heels, so this chunky heel is a bit easier to walk in for her.   I refashioned these 30s style oxfords into the spectator shoes she has always wanted! So simple and easy, you just need hot glue, fabric, and trim. This is a fun way to add a pattern or color into your Halloween costume and even some bling, depending on the trim you choose.  Cruella de Vil needs dalmatian print, right?

Cruellashoes

1.  Position the edge of the fabric 1/4″ away from the opening of the shoe ( I knew I would be adding trim, so I needed just a bit of allowance), and then down to past the bottom of the shoe on the side.  It’s fine to be too long on the side because will trim it later. Start on one side of the shoe with a bit of hot glue, then move across the toe of the shoe adding hot glue along the top edge, under the fabric to secure it, until you get to the other side of the shoe at the bottom edge.  Cut around the bottom edge to trim away the excess fabric, being careful to leave some allowance.  You can trim any additional extra away as you get ready to secure the bottom edge.

photo 2

2. Unfortunately, I didn’t take pics for the next few steps.  Sorry!  After I cut away most of the excess fabric,

Categories
General Girl costumes Halloween Costumes Refashioning Resources

Girl Frankenstein Halloween Costume Ideas

A friend recently asked on my Facebook page if I had any ideas for a Frankenstein Halloween costume for girls.  I immediately went to Chasing Fireflies, one of my favorite costume resources for inspiration. They have amazing looking costumes, though they may seem a bit pricey. However, they are very detailed and often come with numerous pieces. This “Green Monster Girl” costume retails for $89.50, but you get the purple top, the textured green shrug, tiered skirt, the furry boot covers, and the SO fun Frankenstein hat & headband.  If you are running out of time to put it together yourself or don’t feel crafty, Chasing Fireflies is a good online resource for boutique costumes and they have really unique costume accessories that I haven’t seen at other retailers. It’s getting close to Halloween so if you want a costume from Chasing Fireflies, you will need to get right on it and pay attention to the delivery date in case you need rush shipping.

If you love this girl Frankenstein, but would like to recreate your own version, this is how I break it down:

Frankenstein girl costume
Photo courtesy Chasing Fireflies
Categories
Boy Costumes Cosplay Couples costume Disney Costumes General Girl costumes Halloween Costumes Halloween Costumes for Kids Halloween Costumes for Men Makeup Movies Refashioning Tutorials

Sully Halloween Costume Idea: Monsters University

I just had lunch with a friend who said her son wanted to be Sully, but she was having trouble finding the costume in his size, so she was going to make one. Here are some other options for Sully that are simple and no-sew. Top it off with the Sully hat or mask shown.

Easy Sully for a boy or girl:

Categories
Cosplay Family Costumes General Girl costumes Halloween Costumes Refashioning

Tips for Restyling an Adult Halloween Costume into a Modest Halloween Costume

I thought it was just me, but I am starting to notice more chatter online about all the costumes that show waaaaay too much skin–it’s becoming accepted now as “normal”, even for teens. Crazy how some people use Halloween to push the boundaries. Not only does it seem that many of those costumes are inappropriate for public use, but isn’t it freezing in many locations by Halloween time? Wouldn’t you want to be a bit more covered up? And frankly, they aren’t very flattering to most every-day body types.

This site is a safe place where the costumes are appropriate and I do my best to promote modest and family friendly costumes for all occasions.

There are many ways to tone down those “adult” costumes into something a bit more appropriate.