Velma & Shaggy Costume Tutorial // DIY

*I LOVE HALLOWEEN!! For more costume ideas and my DIY (and money saving) tips and tricks check out this post! It includes links to all my other DIY costumes as well! Happy Haunting! XO - Alexandra*

HAPPY OCTOBER FRIENDS! :) - get ready for nothing but festive fall and Halloween posts coming your way! #sorrynotsorry

Last Halloween KC and I dressed up like Velma and Shaggy from Scooby Doo. It followed pretty much all of my criteria in coming up with a clever and inexpensive costume... read those 5 tips here.

Anyhow, these costumes were so fun and easy, I wanted to share a quick DIY and few costume-specific tips for you. :)

We pulled off each costume under $35!

Items needed:

Orange Turtleneck Sweater - might I suggest the thrift store?
Red Skirt - preferably pleated, or something with a little bit of a flare at the hem
Orange knee socks
Red Shoes
Square black framed glasses
Short brown wig with bangs

Extras:

A black magnifying glass
A map
A notebook and pencil - for clues, obvs.

Variations and Notes:

Don't worry too much about the hues of orange and red... just try to make them match throughout your outfit. My orange was more of a deep hue, and my red was kind of a rusty color. But that's not a problem so long as you make it consistent from head to toe.

Downside:

Holy cow, turtlenecks and bulky sweaters are NOT very flattering when you're busty. :( But you could definitely do a light weight sweater or long sleeved tee.

Items Needed:

Brown pants (these sweet sweet pants were in the Target Junior section, but they were stretchy so I knew they would fit KC and not be uncomfortable. What a trooper that guy... )
Bright Green Shirt - preferably baggy. Another good thrift store item!
Brown Shoes
Shaggy Hair

Extras:

A sandwich or a jar of pickles :P

Variations and Notes:

Because we needed a baggy shirt, we found this one at goodwill... but it was HUGE and hella long! So we did the good ol' duct tape him trick that I did on my Poison Ivy costume years ago. Classic. Works every time. :)

So there you have it, a quick and easy costume pair for your Halloween inspiration! 

What are you hoping to be for Halloween this year?

What has been your favorite Halloween costume over the years?

More Halloween Costume Tutorials: Cruella de Vil, Natasha & Boris from Rocky & Bullwinkle, and Poison Ivy. 

Happy Haunting!

XO,

Alexandra

5 Steps to an AMAZING (& Cheap!) Halloween Costume

Oh, Halloween. Such a fun holiday. We all love to dream up costume ideas, and wander through the Target seasonal section looking for the perfect thing don't we?

Whether you are going out, staying in, or throwing your own party, dressing up is half the fun of Halloween. (for me anyway!)

But if you are anything like me, you have really good intentions... and really not-so-good follow through. You end up with an almost awesome costume.

Well, in the past few years I've had a lot of practice coming up with a great costume, quickly, and inexpensively. So I thought I would share some tips!

Read on grasshoppers. (ewwww... grasshoppers...)

1) Pick a Character/Person That is Iconic, but that Won't Require You to Buy a Ton of Things

For example, a costume that takes a relatively solid colored dress + a few accessories is ideal. Especially if those things are inexpensive and/or you will wear them again. Be wary of picking a character that might be too generic. For example, if you want to be Ms. Scarlet from Clue.... you probably need more than a red dress. Follow advice for #2 however, and you've got a recognizable costume.

2) Props & Details Are Everything


What does your costume have to have to be recognizable? For example, being Holly Golightly in the men's shirt with the eye mask, is not convincing without the eye mask. You might as well be Risky Business Tom Cruise. Spend the money to DIY the eye mask or just buy it. You'll be glad that you did. To carry over the example from #1 Ms. Scarlet is just a girl in a red dress, until you give her a a murder weapon, like a rope as a prop. When KC and I were Natasha and Boris we carried around a fake old fashioned looking bomb and a wanted poster that KC drew. Those things cost maybe $5 and took so little time to come up with. This topic leads me to #3....

3) Just Buy the Wig (or Pick Someone Who Has Your Hair!)

If you are going to spend money on your costume, this is often the place to do it. It seems silly, when will you wear it again, right? Well, Lucy just isn't Lucy without the vintage styled red updo, believe me we tried it. We just looked like us, dressed up, and mildly vintage. Daenerys isn't Daenerys without the braided flowing blonde mane. Often times these wigs are $20, in the grand scheme of things, it's not too much. Heck, Target has some for $10 this year! You can always plan future costumes around a wig you bought a previous year. Poison Ivy's red hair could easily become Ariel's in future years. Plus, that fake hair dye never looks good, and just gets on everything else. amIright? And, it's more fun because you will look and feel different,  more in character! It's especially easy to foot the bill for a wig when you do #4...

4) Thrift, Borrow & Repurpose the Bulk of Your Costume

If you are sticking with my #1 suggestion, this part shouldn't be too difficult. Elsa? Blue dress. Cruella? Red dress. Figure out what clothing you'll need, and rummage through your closet. Old formal dresses work well for costumes! Don't have it? Check with a friend or family member. Don't have time for that? Go to the thrift store. Goodwill and The Salvation Army have dresses for $5-10, in every color and size. This is also a great place to find weird shoes you don't want to spend the money on, handbags, and other quirky accessories. For Cruella, I thrifted my red dress, used red heels that I bought for my Poison Ivy costume, a camisole and jewelry I already had. I only had to buy my wig, and a few inexpensive accessories. I thrifted my Poison Ivy AND Natasha dresses from Goodwill too. None of them were more than $10!

5) Make It Work & DIY Your Heart Out

What happens when you find something that mostly fits the bill? Get crafty. I decided to be Poison Ivy the night before a costume party one year. I found the wig, I found the shoes and fishnets, ivy was easy to come by... the dress was the most important part. I stumbled upon a dark green dress at Goodwill that was perfect but it was REALLY long. I tried it on, it fit like a glove.... but again, so long. I have absolutely no sewing skills, but I knew the dress could be utilized. I took it to my dorm, put it on and had KC cut the bottom of the skirt off (a little longer than I wanted it). Then I turned the dress inside out, folded the bottom edge up and made a duct tape hem. It took about 5 minutes and it did the trick. The dress was perfect. Moral of the story: if you think something will work, put in a teeny bit of work. You can do it, and it will be worth it. :)

The biggest thing is to remember to have fun. Pick a character that you want to be. Then get creative, it will come together, and there is certainly no reason to spend hundreds of dollars!

I'm working on updating some of these tutorials but I'm going to put in these links anyhow:

Poison Ivy Costume DIY
Cruella De Vil Costume DIY
Natasha and Boris Costume DIY
Velma and Shaggy from Scooby Doo Costume DIY
(not yet a tutorial) Little Red Riding Hood and Big Bad Wolf
(not yet a tutorial) Professors Snape and Trelawney
(not yet a tutorial) Garden Gnomes

What have been your favorite Halloween costumes? How did you pull them off?

What are you planning to be this year? Or is it a secret?

XO,

Alexandra

Cruella De Vil Costume Tutorial // DIY

*I LOVE HALLOWEEN!! For more costume ideas and my DIY (and money saving) tips and tricks check out this post! It includes links to all my other DIY costumes as well! Happy Haunting! XO - Alexandra*

It's that time of year again! Time to think of a creative (often last minute!) costume for Halloween. Last year I resolved to decide on and pull off a costume in advance of Halloween... but the week of I was scrambling around again trying to pull together a costume.

Luckily, Cruella De Vil is just the costume for a last minute decider (like me)! 

Read on for some DIY inspiration and variations, and see how I pulled off this entire look for just $70 (but you could do it for less!). 

First off, why do we love Cruella?

She's mean (cruel is in her name after all), she's pushy, she blows smoke in everyone's faces and she wants to skin a bunch of puppies for a coat! What's to love there? - Nothing. But, sometimes the most ridiculous (and awful) characters are the most iconic. Cruella is fashionable and unmistakable amongst other villains. The black and white hair alone makes us think of no one else.

So, how to we nail down her style? -first, by taking a look at her portrayal in the movie versions of 101 Dalmations (yes, it was a book first!).

Classic Cruella from the (beloved!) 1961 cartoon version of 101 Dalmations is always dressed in the same slinky black dress, oversized fur coat, pointed shoes, red gloves and (furry) handbag. She's got crazy hair, gray skin, yellow eyes, dramatic makeup, an evil laugh, and green smoke constantly pouring out of her cigarette. If you pay close attention, you will also notice the slit in her dress, the panty hose, and the jade jewelry.

Glenn Close in the 1996 and 2000 live action movie versions of 101 (and 102) Dalmations took Cruella to the next level by varying her ensembles throughout the films. You will find Close in fur, feathers, hats, capes, cloaks... every animal print. But ALWAYS over the top. Keeping closely to the color scheme of black, white, and red. Close opted to look a little more like an eccentric woman of high fashion than a graying corpse. She didn't look like her skin was dying, her eyes were not yellow. Instead, she showed off a very fair complexion taking cues from the original Cruella's exaggerated makeup. While her hair is always black and white, her wigs varied throughout the film, which is great for people searching for a costume wig! --Anything black and white goes!

So how do you achieve so much, at last minute for this costume? -- follow this formula, and you can't go wrong!

Cruella's look, (while over-the-top) is very easy to achieve with these basic items: A black and white wig, faux fur, a slinky dress, heels, fancy jewelry, and some animal print. Luckily, these are things are easy to come by, relatively inexpensive, and best of all: can often be found in your own closet!

In depth detail & variations:

The Dress: To start pick out any slinky dress in black, white or red that hits about knee length. Most women own an LBD of some sort--I chose red because I ended up finding the perfect dress for me at the thrift store! If you use a black or white dress, just remember to use red accessories.

The Shoes: Pair the dress with heels (or pointed toe flats!) again in black, white, or red work well. -- And again, most women own some basic dressy shoe! I already had the red heels from my Poison Ivy costume a few years ago! --this is also a great place to add animal print or snake skin!

'Fur': Top the dress and shoes off with some sort of fake fur accent, a convincing fake fur coat is hard to find and kind of expensive. Luckily, the 'fur' look has been fairly trendy, so finding 'fur' scarves, hats, gloves, vests etc. isn't too difficult. It's certainly something that you could own already, but if you end up purchasing something try to make sure that you can wear it again. I found this 'fur' infinity scarf at Target for $25 last year, which also looks really nice with winter sweaters! Twisting and draping it a little allowed me to wear it as more of a shawl for this costume, which is much more 'glamorous' looking.

Jewelry: Cruella is certainly a lady of luxury, so finding oversized costume jewelry is a must. I happened to have a ($2) flapper-length string of fake pearls from a party a few years back, so that worked perfectly in this case. However, diamond-y statement jewelry can also fit the bill! If you are wearing black or white, this could also be a time to throw in a pop of red! Really anything goes here!

Animal Print: It doesn't hurt to throw in animal print for good measure. I chose to do this in my handbag mostly because I already had this bag.... but animal print isn't hard to come by. You could probably find a cartfull of animal print at the thrift store that would work if you don't have something already. You could also do this in the print of your shoes, leopard print or snake skin print would also work well!

The Wig: The wig is probably something that you don't currently have in your closet... (I'm just guessing here...) so just see what you can find! I found this one at a local costume store for just $20. There are many options online and in stores, just find what works for you. I loved the price of this one, but not the style (it is actually 3/4 black in the back and 1/4 white in the front, not quite right), so I used bobby pins and hair spray to 'style' it into a Glenn Close Cruella-esque style. -Just have fun with it!

Want to take your costume to the next level? Including some of these extra items can really add to the illusion. - and I bet you own at least one of them!

If you would like to make your Cruella look more detailed, adding one or more of these items can create that depth in your ensemble. Most of these items and their variations are very inexpensive! Be creative! 

Gloves: Long silky gloves are a fun (and inexpensive!) way to make your costume look more glamorous. I purchased my white pair for just $10 at a costume store. Depending on the color of your dress this is another item that would work in either black, white, or red. Red is especially great if you are wearing a black or white dress and shoes. --Bonus: these can be worn with other costumes later!

Cigarette Holder: A cigarette holder is an easy and extremely inexpensive item you could add to your costume. I purchased mine for just $2 at the costume store. -- This could also be used with several other costumes later, like a flapper or Holly Golightly. 

Feathers: Including feathers is another way to add extravagance and exaggeration to your costume. Glenn Close's Cruella De Vil often wears feathers, both in addition to and instead of animal print. So, think of this as an alternative if you'd like! Feathers could be purchased at a craft store and added to existing pieces (like a handbag). Or you could purchase an item such as a hat, handbag, boa, earrings etc. with feathers to complete the look. I happened to have this fun little hat (that I'd never worn), and it ended up being the perfect occasion to wear it! 

Tights: Cruella is often wearing panty hose or tights. Adding a cheap pair of fishnets or sheer black tights can be an easy way to amp up the glamour. But feel free to be creative! Black lace, two toned, poka dotted, lined etc. would all be great options!

Lipstick: Lastly, adding some red lipstick finishes off any Cruella costume. You probably already have some, but if you don't it is inexpensive, easy to come by, and can be fun to play around with for your everyday looks. Pair it with a smoky eye and bold blush for that over-the-top Cruella look.

Just $70?!? 

(and it looks a heck of a lot better than these more expensive options- which can't be worn again!)

Really the only non-reusable piece is the wig. That is pretty much a Cruella-only item. But for $20 that's really ok with me!

What do you guys think? 

I hope that this post helps you create a Cruella De Vil costume that both looks good, and is easy on the wallet! 

What has been your favorite DIY Costume?

XO,

Alexandra 

Fall Bucket List 2013

Happy fall friends! 

I know it has been fall for almost a month now.. but let's be honest... the temperatures are still in the mid 80's here... it doesn't quite feel like fall yet! :)

I have started posting my yearly goals and summer bucket lists here, and thought doing every season might be fun and help keep me from looking too far ahead (ahem, Christmas anyone..?). 

Plus, I'm not going to lie... I'm not much of a fall girl. Don't get me wrong: it's gorgeous, the temps drop, the clothes and food are great... but it's just never been my season. But this year I am determined to make the very most of it, and fall in love with fall.

So here you have it folks, my very first Fall Bucket List!

leaf image via.

eat cider donuts from the farmer's market

watch Hotel Transylvania

get cider slushes at Reese's

visit the pumpkin patch

find a Halloween goodie to pass out at school

have a small board game night

watch Hocus Pocus

come up with some type of fall decor for our apartment

bake pumpkin bread

post my first outfit posts, with some cozy fall fashion!

make the AMAZING pumpkin waffle recipe from last year!

come up with some type of clever and original Halloween costumes & one normal one for school

go to the renaissance festival

attempt to read our palms

thrift some amazing finds

watch Clue

pick out and decorate pumpkins 

have some small dinner parties (double dates?)

play in the leaves

acquire the perfect slouchy, cozy knit scarf... and wear it daily

take pictures of the season!

come up with some type of gratitude project 

go to the Baldwin Maple Leaf Festival

try a new pie recipe

make baked goods for fall and Halloween to share at work

acquire some type of seating for our balcony for scenery watching and cuddling in the nice weather

wear my brown boots as much as possible!

have both of our families over for dinner 

cozy up with some classic novels

try 10 new soup recipes

go stargazing (with a cozy blanket)

take some cute couple-y photos

start a gratitude journal again

one last thought

"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower." 

-Albert Camus

What are your goals for fall?

Or your favorite fall traditions?

I want to know!

Thank you for reading!

Alexandra

Previous Fall/Halloween Posts:

Halloween 2012

Last Minute Costume Instruction

Halloween 2010

What happened to Halloween 2011? ;)

How to Throw Together Great Costume At The Last Minute

*I LOVE HALLOWEEN!! For more costume ideas and my DIY (and money saving) tips and tricks check out this post! It includes links to all my other DIY costumes as well! Happy Haunting! XO - Alexandra*

Last Minute Costume Instruction

In college and within social circles that like to have parties and get-togethers often its good to have a creative mind when it comes to designing a costume on a budget and often in a matter of hours. Because when you go to a party its always more fun to get into the theme. 

Recently Miller had our annual Joe's Place dance where the theme was classic villains. I was swamped the week before and got to the point where I didn't even want to go.. but then I hit a wave of inspiration. I was going to be Poison Ivy from Batman.

In a matter of hours I had a complete costume and for the most part it was on the cheap! :) 

First Here's a Little History of Poison Ivy. 

As my inspiration I used the comic book version of Poison Ivy. She's a little classier than the Uma Thurman version. 

Pamela Lillian Isley was a beautiful and talented Seattle botanist. She was seduced by a villain who convinced her to help him steal an artifact that contained an ancient herb. After the artifact was stolen the villain poisoned her with the ancient herb because she knew too much. However she did not die, she instead gained new powers. She had pheromones that attracted men, kisses that poisoned them and many mutant plants at her disposal. Many of these men she also used to do her bidding before she killed them.

So as far as classic villains go, poison ivy is very recognizable, pretty sexy, but when you go classic not too scandalous... :)

Here is what I did and instructions for making a great costume on a budget and in a matter of hours!

My Costume.

Sweet Green Dress from Goodwill $5!

 Fake Ivy from Hobby Lobby. About $2.50 pinned onto dress, hair etc.

The Skirt was REALLY long, so we cut it (while it was on me!) and made a duct tape hem! Worked perfectly!

$30 red wig + $.99 hair net

$5 fishnets and $45 candies heels (had to go for a more vintage style ... nothing to be found at goodwill as far as shoes go)

Tips for creating a great costume of any kind at the last minute:

Cut corners = use duct tape, safety pins, whatever you have on hand

Bargain = goodwill, the salvation army and other second hand stores are great for costumes! This dress was absolutely perfect for the part!

Pick a Distinct but Easy Character = poison ivy is unmistakable! And all you need to pull it off is a little green, a little red and some ivy. The rest can just be filled in where you have supplies! 

 My "big sis" at Miller was also poison ivy! Tons of possibilities when it comes to variation!

Last Minute Costumes for men? 

Kyle just bought an eye-patch for about $1! The perfect creepy super villain! {doesn't he look exactly like the critic on Ratatouille? Minus the eye-patch?}

But my goodness! He is so gorgeous!!

I'm working on updating some of these tutorials but I'm going to put in these links anyhow:

Poison Ivy Costume DIY
Cruella De Vil Costume DIY
Natasha and Boris Costume DIY
Velma and Shaggy from Scooby Doo Costume DIY

What is your favorite last minute costume?

All for now,

Alexandra