Melissa's NDAD Creation: Halloween Edition

When I saw the costumes that Melissa submitted, it reminded me of a fabulous costume that my parents wore some years back to my aunt and uncle's annual Halloween bash!  A little Bonnie & Clyde action??

I think my dad was all over that fake mustache!  I also still have that scarf that my mom wore in her hair!  So, there's a little throwback for you before we check out Melissa's costumes!

I'm putting together a family costume for my sons, husband, and myself - they're going to be gangsters and I'm going to be a flapper at our Halloween party! This is my son Aidan's costume - each piece came from the Goodwill in Rochester, MN.

Want to see how much this whole costume ended up costing??  Melissa gives us the breakdown!

Here's the price breakdown:

Calvin Klein pants - $2.99, Calvin Klein belt - $1.99, soft lined suit coat - $2.99, white long-sleeved shirt - $1.99, tie - $1.99, fedora - $2.99, belt chain - $1.99, shoes - $2.99 = $20 BUCKS for a FLY costume!

And honestly, they could wear these outfits to a wedding, I swear!

My dress was an elastic size 2x that I took in on both sides, and added 10 yards of decorative fringe to. The necklace is vintage from 1950.

After taking the dress in, I was ready to put on my costume!

Organized crime never looked so good!

It's like a scene straight out of Public Enemy, Melissa! (PS, this is one of my favorites - I even have a smaller poster of the movie on my art wall!)

It was silly fun! The boys had a great time and everyone loved the "family" costume!

Watch out Bugsy Siegel!! I LOVE the tags on the fellas... Don't/Touch/Her!! Really, what a fantastic group costume - you guys look a-mazing!!

Fabiola's NDAD Creation: Halloween Edition

I loved the movie that Fabiola's costume is based on and she did a knock-out job recreating the character. Check out how she did it!

Dear Marisa, I have been following your site back when you were in the beginning of your journey and it's so exciting to see all you have accomplished and the huge amount of fans you have all over the world. After checking your site, I started shopping at garage sales and at Goodwill and was making all kinds of outfits that I get complimented on everywhere I go. People always want to know where I bought them so I would like to share my Halloween costume with you, since you inspired me to do so much more for less.

Her inspiration...

See how incredible her costume turned out using tons of garage sale/99 Cent Store goodies!

I got the jacket at a garage sale for $1 and dyed it purple (I watched your video on how to do it) and I cut an old dress that I was going to give it away to make the skirt.

I bought a 1/8 of a yard of fabric from the fabric store and made a scarf/tie with it and the gloves were a score from the 99 Cent Store. I had an old green t-shirt and found a pair of cheap purple leggings to complete the ensemble.

The makeup for 98 cents at Walmart and I got green hair spray to coat my hair. And TAHDAH!!!!

Let's put a smile on that face. Thanks for letting me share. Fabiola

This is such a great costume, Fabiola! You're channeling the Joker and it's cool, but creepy, yet awesome, and a little scary. You hit the Halloween nail on the head. And your cohort...that Batman costume is adorable. Can I go trick-or-treating with you guys? I'll have to whip up a Catwoman suit or Penguin!

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!!