The Thrift Store Costume

Having a daughter has given me all sorts of opportunities to be crafty, thrifty, and all wastenot-y and stuff. Perhaps it goes without saying that one of my favorite times of the year is assembling a creative Halloween costume for my favorite client. Of course, this post may have been more appropriate at Halloween, but if your anything like me, holidays of any kind can be consuming and exhausting and cause me to want to rest until months later when there is two feet of snow on the ground and I remember that I never made that timely post. So, here it is now.

My daughter decided she wanted to be a princess this year. Fine, great, far be it from me to squelch this act of pure girliness. But, will I go to the big box and buy a pre-made costume? No, no, no! Halloween almost always calls for a trip to the thrift store. We found this gorgeous flower-girl dress in the kid's section for ten bucks! The spaghetti straps on this thing necessitated some additional coverinh for fall in Wisconsin, so, with the intention of making a cape I found a few regal-looking scrap fabrics in the linens section that blended perfectly. I even found the tiara in the thrift store's seasonal section. One quick stop at the craft store for assorted adornments and I was all set to transform my finds into a princess costume.

Now, I want to give credit where it's due, so I should mention here that the design of the cape was a collaboration between my daughter and I. I am always amazed at the ideas children come up. The process may take a little more patience and time, but it's well worth it once you see how proud a child is that you have incorporated some of their ideas.

The other thing I try to do when assembling a costum is choose pieces that can come apart and still be used for other things. Last year, I pinned a bunch of bright colored felt leaves to brown apparrel for a little tree costum. Afterwards, I removed the leaves and my daughter was able to wear her "costume" again and again. While the flower-girl dress we found may not be worn daily, it will be worn for the next special event and the cape has been used for a several hearty games of dress-up. Next Halloween, I am told by my daughter that she wants to be "a mermaid... no a fairy... wait, no a unicorn.... Hmmm, or maybe a christmas tree."  Sigh, I better get started in June this year.