Karen's NDAD Creation: Halloween Edition

When I saw a photo of Karen's costume on Facebook, I reached out and asked if she'd share because I fell in love with what she did!  It's such a fun idea that I think you're all going to enjoy... It's sushi time!  Here's what Karen used...

Blizzard fleece prints were on sale at $3.50 a yard, so I got less than half a yard each of a red polka dot pattern and a maroon. The red polka dots became the suckers of the octopus and the maroon was the top. I took the polka dot fabric rectangle and made one fatter triangle in the middle and two longer triangles to the side. Laying the pieces out, I drew a two to three-inch border by laying the polka dot triangles on the maroon fabric and cutting.

I sewed the two long edges together with the "correct" sides facing each other and then flipped them inside out and stuffed them with poly fill. I cut out white fleece that I had on hand to the approximate size for the stump ends of the tentacles and hand sewed (whip stitched) the edges, making sure to tuck the edges of the while fleece inside.

See how cute it looks on!

I used a plain white t-shirt for the rice part and bought a nine-inch wide piece of black felt for the "seaweed". I doubled it up wrapped it around me and used two large safety pins to pin in place. Good thing about safety pins, they're easy to adjust on the fly! I had a friend help position the tentacles so they looked balanced.

The black headband was sandwiched between two pieces of cardstock and then I used marker on green construction paper to look like the plastic divider that comes with sushi. I hot glued scraps of pink cotton for the ginger and lime green fleece for wasabi (stuffed with a small amount of poly fill).

It was lightweight enough to not be bothersome, but if I had a re-do I think I would go with a wider black headband for stability. I found chopsticks and a soy sauce packet that I also glued on, after draining and washing the soy sauce packet to avoid any accidental sauce explosions!!

With black pants and boots, my octopus sushi was complete!

I absolutely love this costume!! What a fabulous DIY - I'm sure people were wanting to take photos with you all night!

More costumes to come!!

My 2013 Halloween Costume!

It's finally time to reveal my costume!!  I decided to stay true to my red hair and pick a character from a TV show that I'm obsessed with.  I had a few Halloween parties on the agenda this past weekend and was furiously trying to get everything finished just in time. I used two pieces that needed a little bit of work - this bodysuit was thrifted...

...and this lovely lace robe was a swap party score!!

Somehow at the swap party, I failed to see this lovely spottage action.  Who's got two thumbs and isn't afraid of that spot??

THIS GIRL!!

It's time to get cracking because “winter is coming.”

I started off costume prep by getting rid of this spotted area on the lace robe.  It's weird because this wasn't just a discoloration, but a hardened bit of something that got stuck to this piece.  Texture wise, it felt just like pockets do when gum is left in them when they go through the washer.  Super weird, right?

I decided to just follow the hem and trim off about five inches from the bottom.  The weird spot was gone in no time!

With the robe tweaked, it was time to dye!!  The character I'm dressing up as wears more muted tones and earth colors, so I decided to go with a shade of dark green.  I was super excited to dye both pieces because there are so many different bits of fabric that will take differently to the color.

I added them to my washing machine...

...and out they came, dyed to perfection!!

Now that dyeing was complete, it was time to work on my headpiece.  I found this wreath at a Salvation Army for $1.25.  I loved the paper flowers and it felt perfect for the vibe that I was going for.  I was originally going to make my own, but when I saw this one I just knew I could make it work!

Because it was too big for my head, I snipped the wire base of the wreath in half and adjusted it to fit me.  I overlapped each end of the wreath, unraveled the thinner bits of wire wrapped around the whole thing (you can see this thinner wire below) and rewired them on top of the layered bits to hold them together.

Now it was time for my main piece of flair...my husband!!

OK, if you haven't guessed by now, I'm working on an epic Game of Thrones-inspired costume, going as Sansa Stark.

Now I really wanted people to get who I was, so I bought a poster of Peter Dinklage's character Tyrion Lannister (Sansa just married him last season as I'm just an episode watcher and haven't dug into the books) and began to work on him, to make him totable for the evening!

I took an old cardboard box and cut one of the sides off from it.

I trimmed the poster to fit the square, coated the cardboard box with spray adhesive, and then affixed my man!!

To make him comfortable to carry all night, I turned him into a shield of sorts with some duct tape!  Perfect for my arm to slip in and carry throughout the evening.

Because she just got married, I ended up adding some white tulle and hand-stitched it to the back of my headpiece to create a veil.

Ready to see the entire look???

I paired my dyed pieces with a pair of comfortable vintage boots and a fabulous gold brocade skirt that I bought a while back at Goodwill just to have in my collection.

I'm really glad I talked myself into buying it years ago because it was the perfect complement to the ensemble!

Is it weird that I totally want to wear this headpiece out and about??  I'll just remove the veil for everyday wearing :)

I feel like a part of Winterfell.

Oh, and I can't forget my "raven" ring accessory.  We'll just pretend he's got three eyes.

There were SO many amazing costumes, but this one really takes the cake.  My pals TJ and AHJ really knocked it out of the park.  How 'bout some DIY Ghost Shark and Sharknado action?  Both stellar Syfy movies from this year.  I was secretly hoping that the real Ian Ziering would be at one of these shindigs just for photo taking purposes...I mean he is local and I do see him at my gym from time to time...

Smoke machines just don't allow for awesome iPhone photos at the end of the night either...

I think this year's costume went off without a hitch!  Unfortunately I did not run into any Jon Snows, however I did see a Khaleesi from afar!  There were a ton of super heroes, lots of Orange is the New Black convicts, and more than one Mike Tyson.

The best part of my costume is that I will be wearing all of these pieces again!  That bodysuit, since is has underwire, is going to be a staple layering piece in my wardrobe.

Happy almost Halloween!  I'm loving all the submissions that keep coming in from you guys, so I'll post a few more before Thursday to give additional ideas for those last-minute costumers!!

LaToya's NDAD Creation: Halloween Edition

My costume is coming tomorrow, but here's a little teaser of some of the supplies that I was using...

The floral piece was a wreath that I found at a Salvation Army and reworked into a headpiece.  You'll see the full rundown tomorrow, but today we've got the fab LaToya and the costume that she DIY'd

I love the latest Star Trek movies and was inspired to recreate the Lt. Uhura costume (played by Zoe Saldana) using a mix of thrift store finds and stuff I already had in my closet!

First was the top. I found an old Chico's shirt that I took in on the sides.

Chico's traveler... maybe space traveler? Then I needed a badge. I went to Walmart and got 1/8 yard of some shiny silver fabric that cost 99 cents.

I cut out the badge shape using my rotary cutter, added the Science and Engineering mark with a black sharpie marker, and glued it onto the shirt with some E6000 glue.

My last find were some spacey looking black boots that I got from the Salvation Army on Wednesday - that's the day almost everything in the store is half price - that ended up totaling $4.50!!

I swear these boots were never worn!

The hair and make-up were pretty simple. Since the shirt was short, I wore some black leggings underneath and a thin black turtleneck for the signature Star Trek look.

Trick or treating with my 4-year-old daughter, Maya!

Such a gorgeous looking costume, LaToya! I dressed up as a Star Trek-ian in high school in a costume that my mom made!  You nailed it from the amazing patch to those fabulous boots...way to go. Zoe Saldana, watch out!!