Make Your Own: Fred & Wilma Costumes

Halloween is right around the corner so if you haven't purchased your costume yet and the racks seem to be getting a little bare, consider making a costume for yourself. I put together a couples costume for both Larry and I for a whopping $20!!

Here's the cost breakdown:

$10 on my white satin 'leopard print' fabric

$4 on my styrofoam balls

$4 on felt for the Fred costume

$2 on red lipstick

I already had elastic, ribbon, fishing line (or thread) and earring backs on hand

*Side note--all of my fabric was purchased at Jo-Anns. Coincidentally BOTH fabrics were marked down to half off and I had a 40% off a cut and a 50% off a cut coupon. Felt always seems to be 50% off and coupons come out on a weekly basis!

:How To:

Fred: After some googling I knew creating Fred would be easy. I made his entire costume from large pieces of felt. Simply create an over-sized extra long shirt with a fairly large hole for the neck. Cut up the edges for a torn effect. I cut a long piece of turquoise felt into the shape of a tie--a very OVERSIZED tie. Larry really wanted this piece to be dramatic. He tied it on like a real tie and I hand-stitched it on in a few places to make sure it was secure. Cutting out the black shapes was actually very simple; stitching them on was the most tedious part. I used my machine to create a few stitches on the corners of each of the spots rather than stitching around the entire piece of fabric. ALL DONE! 

Wilma: I was originally going to use a white knit material for Wilma's costume but when Larry spotted a satin 'leopard print' white fabric for a great price I couldn't pass it up. The downfall = it wasn't stretchy. I didn't want to go through the hassle of adding a zipper just for a halloween costume, so I made a simple one-sleeve design for my dress and added an elastic band below my bust for some shape. Here is a tutorial I skimmed over to get a jump-start on my dress design. I made MANY changes in my design compared to this one, but it was a good reference. The dress shouldn't have too much of a shape and should be just big enough to fit over your head to wear. Now, to create some shape! How to create an elastic waist: Sew a piece of ribbon (larger than your elastic) measured to the dress (not your waist) to the INSIDE of the dress just below your bust--edgestitch the top and bottom of the ribbon, leaving each end of the ribbon open, creating a casing for the elastic. Push the elastic through the ribbon casing using a safety pin, decide on how much stretch you like (making sure it can go over your head) and sew the elastic together on the ends. From here, adjust the gather around your waist and stitch over the dress, elastic and ribbon casing along both side seems to keep the gather even and the elastic from rolling. Cut up the hem of your dress and you have a Wilma!!

Strand your styrofoam balls onto some fishing line (or thread) with a needle and glue two balls onto earring backs...add some red lipstick and you're good to go! An orange wig would totally complete the look, but that was the one splurge I wasn't willing to make. :)

Hope this might inspire you to make your own costume for this coming Halloween!

Need other ideas for a DIY costume? 

Check out my $5 mini poodle skirt, lace masquerade mask or Sew Woodsy's mad scientist costumes!