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:
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!
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:
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.
I used a bobbin as a reference point for the starbursts and drew them freehand. Below is the front side waiting to dry:
After you let the front dry and do the same process on the back, you have a finished costume!
So there you have it – a costume for Halloween that is sustainable and fun. Have an amazing Sunday friends!
The Delicate Tension 