Sue's NDAD Creation: Halloween Edition

The costumes continue coming in!!  Here's one from reader Sue

My daughter wanted to go as Poison Ivy from the game Batman: Arkham Asylum for a Halloween party, so we decided to DIY the costume!

Here's a peek at what the character looks like...

Time to see how Sue got this created!

We used a 25 cent top from Goodwill and stitch-witched it into the proper shape and then we took one of her bathing suit bottoms and covered and hot glued hundreds of leaves to it.

We had leaves left over so we decided to take an old bra and turn it into a leafy top for a future wood nymph costume.

We then decided to turn some of the left over vines and leaves into a headpiece for the costume.

A lot of work and a couple of minor burns later, we are quite proud of our accomplishments.

Total cost was about $10 for the leaves and top. :)

What a fabulous recreation!  It really looks just like the character from the game.  I would have been freezing all night, if this was my costume!  I hope your daughter was inside celebrating!!  I'm recreating a character from a TV show as my main costume this year, so I love your dedication to get the same copycat look.  More Halloween looks to come, so stay tuned!

Sandra's NDAD Creation: Halloween Edition

Here's another costume, on the couple front!  I love group costumes just for the fact that you pretty much have to stay together all night.  You can't have a "Saved By the Bell" group get-up without your Screech, right?  I'm working on a few costumes to feature here, but my main outfit is something that could work with a group.  I'm hoping that I run into other people who are dressed in the same genre to take photos with.  Cryptic much??  For today, check out Sandra's costume...

Hi Marisa, I'm a huge fan of your page, blog and talent.  A few years ago I had a themed party to go to and along with my crafty friend, we created costumes from Value Village - a Sonny and Cher duo costume that my husband and I went as!

For my Cher look, we found a beautiful bright-colored sari that we used as my vest, a pair of bellbottoms, and then used the scraps for a headband.  My hubby's cords were fun to work on as we cut them open at the bottom and added a brocade drapery curtain to create a far out pair of bells with fringe.  To complete the look we used some of my own clothing along with wigs, and voila!

We had such a blast and have gone on to create some other fun costumes as well!  Thanks for letting me share.  Your Canadian fan, Sandra.

You guys look SO groovy.  A fantastic duo costume, for sure!  Isn't it amazing all the stuff you can score at the thrift store for period pieces like this?  Can't wait to see this year's look!

Shelly's NDAD Creation: Halloween Edition

I've been getting so many fantastic Halloween costume submissions from readers, that I'm starting the weekend a little early featuring them!  I want to make sure I get as many as possible posted before the holiday in a few weeks.  This costume is adorable, because whenever kids and costumes are in the same sentence or photo, I just cannot resist!!

Right now all of the "extra money" in our household is tied up with back to school and home improvement projects, so when I planned our annual trip to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival, I still wanted my son to dress up (this is a tradition in our house -  last year he wore a homemade kilt and shirt). I dug around the house to see if I had something I could make-over and reuse and sure enough, I found a ninja Halloween costume that my older son wore 10 years ago.

I tend not to toss anything that I can reuse later, so that saved me in this case!

From ninja to...???

I took 4 inches off the bottom of the pants, hand stitched a new seam, inserted elastic in each new seam and took in the waist just a little.

They became instant pirate pants!!  I paired the new pants along with the shirt from a kilt outfit he wore last year...

...and a red scarf that I already had. Putting everything together, he was a very well dressed pirate. He had a blast and can even wear it for Halloween this year!

I think I just love anything pirate - your kiddo is adorable!  Is it weird that I secretly want that kilt? The plaid fabric is amazing! It's so fantastic all the reusing you're doing with your kids, just because they're probably constantly growing out of things all the time. Saving and finding new ways to make them work is just so wonderful. I'm looking forward to seeing all the other cool things that you come up with, Shelly!