It's Halloween! Probably my favourite holiday of the year. This year, I got my act together and made myself a costume from scratch.
I'm Sally from Nightmare Before Christmas!
To make my costume, I went out and bought a bunch of used t-shirts from second hand stores. The weirder the colour the better.
Some of these t-shirts needed to be cut up more than others...
From there, I cut up the pieces of the pattern to match Sally's dress as best I could. I wrote on each piece what colour they were going to be and a number, so I wouldn't get confused on what went where.
I cut out my pieces, while adding a 1/2" seam allowance as I went (since the pattern had no seam allowances). To make some of the colours of the pieces better, I gave them a bath in tea.
I boiled water and added several tea bags. I then removed the bags and added the pieces of fabric. I let the fabric sit for some time and then dried them. It made for a nice effect. There was only one yellow shirt and one pink shirt, but now it looks like several different shades.
Then, to add the fun swirls, polka dots, and stripes, I took some brown acrylic paint and hand painted them on. The nice things about Tim Burton-esque designs is that you don't have to be perfect.
My finishing touches were to add some patches using some iron-on appliqué. I also took some black yarn and added some large stitches along the patch, the sleeve caps, and the center of the bodice.
A little make-up and some white tights, and my costume was complete!
And here's the back:
Not 100% accurate with the movie, but I spent as little time as I could on this costume. It took me about two afternoons to do this (including buying the t-shirts). Plus, a half hour one evening adding the large stitches. Not bad and I won the office costume contest! yay!
This is a very comfortable dress and plan to use it again in the future - I could even wear it for Christmas if I wanted to!
Happy Halloween everyone!
Some of these t-shirts needed to be cut up more than others...
...yeah...
To make my pattern, I used a simple dress pattern with darts and sleeves (I used Burdastyle 3-2013 #110 from my stash). I wanted to use a pattern with darts to add structure to the dress. I could have made a simple t-shirt style dress with the t-shirt material, but then I might have looked like I was wearing a giant sack of a t-shirt - not the look I was going for.
I copied both halves of both sides of the pattern on brown paper. I then taped the halves together.
From there, I cut up the pieces of the pattern to match Sally's dress as best I could. I wrote on each piece what colour they were going to be and a number, so I wouldn't get confused on what went where.
I cut out my pieces, while adding a 1/2" seam allowance as I went (since the pattern had no seam allowances). To make some of the colours of the pieces better, I gave them a bath in tea.
I boiled water and added several tea bags. I then removed the bags and added the pieces of fabric. I let the fabric sit for some time and then dried them. It made for a nice effect. There was only one yellow shirt and one pink shirt, but now it looks like several different shades.
Then, to add the fun swirls, polka dots, and stripes, I took some brown acrylic paint and hand painted them on. The nice things about Tim Burton-esque designs is that you don't have to be perfect.
Once the paint was dry, I assembled my pieces. I basically ended up with a patchwork quilt for the front and back parts of the dress. From there, it was normal dress assembly - I sewed the front and back together at the shoulders, added the sleeves, and then sewed the side seams. I didn't bother finishing any of the seams or hems, since it's made out of t-shirt material.
A little make-up and some white tights, and my costume was complete!
And here's the back:
Not 100% accurate with the movie, but I spent as little time as I could on this costume. It took me about two afternoons to do this (including buying the t-shirts). Plus, a half hour one evening adding the large stitches. Not bad and I won the office costume contest! yay!
This is a very comfortable dress and plan to use it again in the future - I could even wear it for Christmas if I wanted to!
Happy Halloween everyone!
