Halloween Crafts: Thrifted Dress to Fluffy Fantasy Costume

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Halloween is less than a week away and I needed a costume. Time for a little thrift store magic. 

Or should I call it formal dress hacking? It's one of my favorite techniques, especially for those "I have no ideal what I was to be for Halloween" moments.

I take an old cast off dress, and with a little imagination and a bit of cutting and sewing turn it into something special. The best dresses to use are old bridesmaid and prom dresses. The pouf-ier the better, more fabric to work with and more inspiration.

So, I found this dress at Goodwill on sale for a whole $2. It has a lot going for it already.

It has a sparkly bodice made using a floral lace. It's pretty and stretchy.

I love the material for the skirt, and there's so much of it. It's ankle length on me.

It has adjustable straps with is great, because I find myself having to shorten straps on practically everything I wear regardless of occasion.

Now the interesting thing about this dress is the extra set of "straps" made from the same material as the skirt. It's hard to tell if they're meant to hang on or off the shoulders. When I tried it on they wouldn't stay up, and they looked super frumpy hanging down.

Well, I know exactly what I want to do with this dress.

First, I pinned the droopy outer strap to the adjustable one about halfway up the strap.

I handstitched it down while folding it slightly to make little pleats and sewing down faux pearls on each pleat.

I turned the dress inside out and folded the skirt lining, then pinned the hem to the waist seam. I proceeded to sew it in place using a blanket stitch to keep it stretchy.

After sewing the lining, I cut the skirt to match leaving it about an inch longer.

I thought the neckline of the dress was too low for me, so to fix this I took a small amount of the skirt material and folded it half before gathering it by hand.

Once gathered, I stitched it in place from the backside, then cut away the excess material.

Now it looks a little more modest and cuter. Just needs a little bow in the center.

And I still had a lot more skirt material left, so I took a large rectangle of it and gathered it at the top edge. I needed it to just wide enough to go around my waist.

I pinned it to some ribbon leaving enough ribbon on the ends to tie in a nice bow.

After sewing down the ribbon, I can wrap the new "overskirt" around the dress and tie it in a pretty bow.  It's great because I can remove it and use it for other costumes or outfits as I wish.

And here's the finished costume dress. Perfect to pair with some wings or ears for a cute fairy or elf costume.

The little bow on the bodice was a nice touch. If the bodice hadn't fit me as well as it did, I would have added some loops to thread ribbon for a lace up effect. Maybe an idea for my next costume.

I trimmed the edge of the overskirt in a curve as an extra touch. It's one of my favorite parts of this project, there was still plenty of scraps of material leftover after making it.

Enough to make some hair accessories.

First, I cut the leftover material in strips about 3 inches long. I also cut 2 strips from an old pair of tights.

I tied the knot in the tights to make a loop to form a "hair tie". I could have started with store bought hair elastics too. Anyway, I just needed to tie the strips of material to the hair ties as shown.

The more I tie the fluffier it looks. Perfect for a pair fancy hair scrunchies to pair with my costume. The same technique could be used to make wrist cuffs or even doll sized tutus.

And with that I am ready for Halloween, well mostly ready. I just need to get the treats ready and finish another sewing project. Look forward to it.

Give it a Try:

• Loops & Threads™ Start-to-Sew Kit
  
• Assorted Bent Scissors By Craft Smart®
  
• Loops & Threads™ Long Pearlized Pins
  
• Dritz Darice Start-to-Sew Kit
  
• Dritz Sew 101 Pearlized Pins, 1-1/2", 75 Count, Assorted Colors
  

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Halloween Crafts: From Plain to Pretty Lace Fantasy Costume Dress

It took way too long, but I finally finished the first project on my craft list. 

A Halloween costume.

Does anyone remember this dress?  I made it two years ago around Halloween along with a couple of other accessories.  The accessories turned it into a cute fairy costume.

Sometimes great costumes can come from simple things, and I will show you how again with this dress.

I had this pink lace fabric leftover from an Easter dress (see Pink Lace for Easter).  Using the pink dress as a guide, I cut two tank top shapes out for a lacy bodice.

Then I stitched along the shoulders and “hemmed” arm area.  I just folded down the edge and zig-zag stitched it down.

I cut two half circles from the lace for cute flutter sleeves.

Just hem them and sew on along the arm area to finish.

The skirt on the pink dress is a circle skirt, but for the lace I made a half circle instead.  Here’s a great tutorial for half circle skirts.

I decided to cut the lace bodice down the center to open it up before sewing on the skirt.

Then I hemmed all the raw edges and layered the lace “overdress” over the pink dress.  Looks pretty now.

I then grabbed a needle and thread and to attach the lace to the pink dress along the front and neckline.  Just enough to keep things in place.

I wanted the stitches to be easy to remove in case I want to wear these pieces separately in the future.

Just throw on a few accessories, and my costume dress is done.  I still haven’t really decided what to call it.  This dress could work for so many pretty outfits.  From princess or fairy to anime style magical girl.  It all works.

Anyway, in addition to the left lace fabric I’m reusing the flower headband I also wore for Easter.  The color matches this dress perfectly.  Check out my flower headband tutorial to make your own.

Using more of the stretchy lace fabric, I whipping up some finger-less gloves that are easier than they look.  They are basically just tubes of fabric, hemmed and adjusted to fit my arms.

One end was pinned and stitch to go around my thumb.  An easier method it to cut the legs off a pair of lace tights and  cut off the toes for your fingers, but I didn’t have any.

So, now we have a pretty costume dress with matching accessories, and just in time for Halloween.  Yay!

Here’s the updated list:

• Costume
• Case
• Doll and Kitty
• Little Halloween
• 3 Skirts
• Accessories
• Socks
• Overalls
• Ornaments
• More Cases

One down, nine more to go.  The next one should be up soon.  Look forward to it!

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Story Time — To Be a Princess

Updated 6/13/2023

Once upon a time there was a little girl who loved to wear pretty dresses.  Dresses with lots of ruffles, lace, and pretty ribbons that seemed to float in the breeze.

She liked to spin around while wearing her lovely dresses, and she felt like a graceful swan gliding across the water.  But mostly she felt like a beautiful princess as she twirled about in her dream world. 

One day the little girl was twirling around in her best dress.  It was her favorite one, all white with the loveliest of lace and a tiered ruffled skirt. 

Her head was so full of thoughts and dreams of swans and princesses that she didn’t notice several other little girls had approached her.  They were all wearing “fashion” jeans and t-shirts for the most popular TV shows. 

Most of them started giggling at the little girl in her pretty dress and teased her.  No one dresses like that except babies they thought.  This made the little girl so upset that she felt like crying and running home.

Instead she took a deep breath and held her head high.  Princesses were too dignified to let mean little girls see them cry.  So she gracefully walked on until she was out of sight, then the tears burst out and she ran home.

She got home and hid in her room.  The tears continued until her mother came in and asked what was wrong.  When the little girl had finished telling her story, her mother asked her a strange question.  Will the little girl stop wearing her pretty dresses and dress like those other girls?  This puzzled the girl, why would she want to dress like those mean girls?  She didn’t like jeans and those t-shirts all looked the same, plus she loves her dresses way more.  Why would you wear something you didn’t like?  When the girl told her mother this, her mother smiled. 

The next day, the little girl went out again this time in her second favorite dress.  A pretty sky blue dress with puffy sleeves and a lovely sash. 

Suddenly she notice one of the girls from yesterday coming toward her wearing one of those horribly “trendy” outfits.  She started to get scared that the girl would laugh at her.

But then the girl remembered the talk she had with her mother.  All the girls could laugh as much as they wanted she thought, it won’t stop her from dressing how she wanted. 

But the girl from yesterday didn’t laugh at her, she very quietly said that the dress was pretty and so was the one from yesterday.  This surprised the little girl, she didn’t know what to do. 

For a second, she thought about saying something about how ugly this girl’s jeans were, but then she would be like those mean girls and princesses are better than that.  So using her best princess-like manners, she said the nicest thing she could think of.  Thank you. 

Now there are two little girls who love to wear pretty dresses.  Dresses with lots of ruffles, lace, and pretty ribbons that seemed to float in the breeze.  And the little girl feels more like a princess now than ever before.  A strong, kind and beautiful princess.

Update: After years of pondering and what not, I finally adapted this simple story into a full-fledge book.  It is available here on Amazon as a Kindle ebook.  I am still working on the paperback and hardcover versions. Please check it out.

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