It’s a Joy-ful Halloween: My Recycled Halloween Costume

 

Sustainable fashion in costume form!

Hi friends!

Happy day-after-Halloween! I hope you all had a safe and fun day, and partied late into the night. I love so many things about Halloween – the candy, the parties with friends, the candy, Halloween movies, the candy (ahem)…..However I especially love the fact that it’s socially acceptable to wear full out, ridiculous costumes in public for one night. I think I saw a giraffe, Poison Ivy, and Marty McFly walking down the street together last night while a vampire flew past on a skateboard. Pure magic.

Halloween is also one of the worst days for sustainable fashion. The dropping prices of clothing, and specifically, Halloween costumes, means that more people are spending money on cheaply made costumes that will be worn for one night and then thrown away. And that process will be repeated year in and year out. This year, the UK is expected to spend £157 million on costumes, while the US is projected to spend close to $2.6 billion. And most of that revenue will eventually end up somewhere like this:

Photo from Fashion with a Mission.

So in light of all that, I wanted a costume that I could make from thrift store items and still expressed my creativity. I decided on Joy from Inside Out because (a) that movie made me sob unashamedly in a movie theater and (b) Amy Poehler is my spirit animal. Plus, Joy is so cute and fun!

So cute!

I found an amazing tutorial from coolirpa on Youtube for making Joy’s dress from T-shirts she found at the thrift store. Check it out here! It was a pretty easy make. First, you cut off the arms and neckline of a T-shirt, fit it to your sides and cut it at the waist. Then, cut the arms and neckline off the other shirts, sew them together to create a long piece of fabric, and cut out a 3/4 circle skirt based on your body measurements. Sew those pieces together and attach it to the bodice. The video explains it all really well. At that point you have something like this:

Ta-da!

At which point you are ready to start adding the starbursts on Joy’s dress. I used puffy paint and glitter, which means that my floor is now covered in glitter and will be for all eternity. Because glitter is like a bad guest – it just won’t leave.

The Addams Family and costuming = bliss.

I used a bobbin as a reference point for the starbursts and drew them freehand. Below is the front side waiting to dry:

Le front!

After you let the front dry and do the same process on the back, you have a finished costume!

My Joy pose

With several other party goers.

There was a Leslie Knope too!

So there you have it – a costume for Halloween that is sustainable and fun. Have an amazing Sunday friends!

Finished: Red Refashioned Tablecloth Dress and BONUS: Tips for Taking Better Pictures

Hey friends!

I’m generally not a fan of getting my picture taken. It seems like there’s always something off about any picture that I’m a part of. It’s a great photo, full of smiles, coy laughter, then BOOM – I jump in and it’s all half-shut eyes, weird crinkles of skin, and crazy hand motions. I exaggerate (only a smidge) but I’ve always been self-conscious in front of the camera. It’s just not my scene. I’m all, “What do I do with my hands?” and “Why do my eyes have to be open?” You may think the photos I take for this blog are ok, but you haven’t seen what doesn’t make it on here.

Which leads me into today’s post. As I was editing photos of today’s dress, I realized something – I actually like a lot of these pictures. I mean, I actually feel pretty positive feelings towards these pictures. Which got me thinking about why I liked these pictures and I realized it came down to two things:

My Quick Tips for Better Photos:

1. Get a good photographer – My roommate generously takes most of my pictures and she’s one of the funniest people I know. She makes me feel comfortable, relaxed, and gets a genuine smile out of me. So find someone you don’t mind looking like a fool around.
2. Take more pictures – When we take one photo of our selves every hundred millenia, it’s easy to judge your picture-taking ability by that one picture. But when you take lots and lots of pictures, you realize that some just turn out better than others, and it has nothing to do with you. So even if it’s uncomfortable and awkward and makes you want to scream, just try it.

Ok, now that that’s out of the way, let’s get on to the dress! Disclaimer: There will be lots of pictures in today’s post. Bonus to the disclaimer: I’m going to throw in some terrible pictures of me at the end.

I made this dress from an old tablecloth I found in the recycle bin at a former job. We hosted lots of events and one of the vendors had left a lot of stuff behind. Score! My boss thought I was totally weird to take it for clothes making. Which may be true, but also YOLO.

The bodice is from the Gathered Sundress pattern by Pattern Runway. It’s one of the first patterns I ever bought, and also one of the first to fit me relatively well. If I use this pattern again, I think I’ll shorten the back pieces by half an inch to take out some of the excess fabric in the back. But beginner sewist me didn’t know about things like fit. I generally really like the fit and style. The skirt is a self-drafted full circle skirt. Which gives it a lovely twirl.

Still twirling!

Annnnd stop.

All in all, I’m pretty happy with this dress. Most of it is handpicked, including the zipper and the hem. It’s the best way I’ve found thus far to get a beautiful, clean zipper. But very time consuming. Anyway, it seemed to work well on this heavier weight polyester fabric.

Le front.

Le back- look at that handpicked goodness!

Le inside

And as promised, if you’re still reading, here are some bad pictures from this photo shoot. Proof that it happens to everyone! Until next time, have a fabulous weekend!

Pulling weirdly at the dress

Oof, that face!