DIY Teacher Halloween Costumes

My DIY costumes so far as a teacher:

 I was Dora. I got orange pants and a pink shirt from a thrift store for $2 and bought this wig at a Halloween store for $12.  I hemmed the pants to be shorts. As for the  yellow socks and accessories I already had them. My mom was so awesome and made me the backpack with her scraps. 

  Looks just like it, right?

ROCK PAPER SCISSORS

I was the Rock and the 2 other preschool teachers were Paper and scissors.

This was made out of paint, leftover duct tape and cardboard. This costume didn't cost me anything, it was FREE.

Salt and Pepper

Here is our no budget, last minute costume.  We printed a S and a P on paper and pinned it to  the back of our T-shirts. We also added had holes/dots; 2holes "dots" for the salt and three holes "dots" for the pepper.

DIY Little Mermaid 

 I bought the wig on Amazon. Here is the link to the one I bought: Wine Red Wig  Beware the wig is not vibrant red, it's more of a maroon. I was slightly disappointed when I received it, but it turned out okay. 

$5 Little Mermaid Fin skirt that I made myself. I spent $10 at Joanna's on green stretchy lining, green sparkly fabric, thread and the tulle.  Lucky for me, I had extra fabric that I made 2 mermaid skirts! 

For step-by-step beginner sewing directions click here

My make-up. 

I'm no expert, but I decided I wanted some teal green and shimmery purple with red lipstick. I also colored in my eyebrows with red eye shadow that I had. 

I bought a bag of plastic pearls for $3 on amazon and made my own necklace, bracelets and earrings with tons of extra "pearls" for another project. 

Ariel and Prince Eric. Ready for Halloween! 

DIY: Step by step Little Mermaid Skirt tutorial

Ariel The Little Mermaid How to Tutorial 

Materials:

1. Thread
2. Green Stretchy sequence fabric
3. Any color stretchy lining, I got one that was on sale  (OPTIONAL)
4. Tulle of your choosing preferable a lighter or brighter green that matches your fabric

Depending on your size you will need less or more fabric. Here is what I bought, also remember that I had plenty of left over, I was able to make 2 skirts:

How much I bought ( My size: I typically wear a size 3, height 5'0", weight 117lbs)

• 1 yard of stretchy green sequences 
• 1 yard of stretchy fabric for lining ( the lining is optional, I bought it for 2 reasons, 1st the sequence fabric was too see-through and 2nd the fabric I bought was not a bit itchy. 
• 4-5 yards of tulle, depends how full you want the skirt

Cost breakdown:

Sequenced fabric- ONE SALE

Lining- ON SALE

Thread-

Tulle- ON SALE 75 cents a yard

I am a beginner and I am certain that there are other, better ways, so feel free to skip some steps or just look at the pictures for a guideline. This is just how I did it, I made the tutorial for beginners like me. Hope it helps :)

I started with the lining since no one sees this I figured I could alter it and do a little trial and error to make a template for the outer skirt.
If you are not making a lining do the same steps with your nice fabric. 

Step 1: Take your measurements or simple wrap the fabric around your waist and pin it. I took my hip measurements as well as the length I wanted. I started at my hip and measured to my knee. Afterwards I folded the fabric in half (hamburger style, its the preschool teacher in me :) and then mark your measurements. 

**make sure that it is folded right side to right side, which means the nice sides touching

The folded line will be your front, and where you cut will be the back of your skirt. I cut 17 inches starting at the crease (left to right, this is your waist line) and then cut the length that I wanted.

After you cut, hopefully it looks like a rectangle. Hand sew or use your sewing machine and sew right down the back.

**make sure not to sew with the pretty sides showing. The nice sides should be facing each other.

This is just to make a simple pencil skirt, later you will be pinning it to make it more fitted. 

Step 2: Now that you've sewing down the back and made it into a pencil skirt, put the skirt on and place 2 dots. 

Make 1 dot with a fabric marker or whatever else you have on your hip or the highest point you want and a dot on the lowest point you want it to go in the front, this once cut will make a V shape around your waist.

Now Fold the skirt in half with the seam line in the back. Take a ruler and draw a line about 1/2 inch above your dot and cut. 

Step 3: Try the skirt on and pin it from the back so that it is the shape you like, or you can free hand draw it to the shape a little at a time until it's perfect.

**make sure to use a stretch stitch, this is what it looks on the sewing machine I used

This step can be tricky without a 2nd person. As you can see in my picture there is my 1st straight stitch down the back, then I measured right below my knee to see if it fit well and it was still looser than I'd like, but my tooshy fit fine, so I just hand drew a nice curve and lucky me it fit just right. 

Once the lining is perfect, use it as your template and do it all over again with your sequenced fabric. Then place the lining inside the outer skirt (right side to right side)

DO NOT sew the waist just yet. IF you would like the hip fins like I have in my picture. If you would rather have sew them on once you skirt is completed. then go for it and sew it. Another option is to add some elastic in the back if you'd like. 

Option 1: Place the gathered tulle in between the 

 Option 2: Sew the waist and then do tulle after the skirt is completed 

Then measure your tulle, use a stitch that is far apart. make sure to do 2 rows leaving extra thread thread in the beginning and the end. 

IN PROGRESS...

to be continued...