3 DIY Costume Ideas #2

I've been cleaning up my computer files lately and in the process, I found some pictures. These are photos of my children dressed up in a DIY costume. 

I know some parents like me prefer to make costumes the DIY way to save money. Since our kids only wear these costumes for a particular project in school or in a one-time event, it's just practical and sensible to DIY and not spend a lot of money on it. 

I remember sharing one DIY costume Ideas post and another post mentioning the United Nations Kid's parade that Angel had to join as Miss UAE. She actually wore a hand-me-down red dress. But to make it match the UAE theme - the color of UAE's flag, I just sewed together black, white and green satin fabrics and wrapped it around as a skirt. 

For this post, I would like to share 3 DIY costume ideas: a Pocahontas themed costume, a little girl baker or chef costume, and a Prinsesa Laura costume. 

Pocahontas Theme Costume / Tribal Costume

I can't exactly remember what event Angel had in school for the first costume. It simply consisted of a headwear, a brown shirt, and a green skirt. I think my daughter's teacher made the headwear. It looks easy to make. 

1. Just cut a red cartolina about 2 inches thick and the length should fit the child's head. 

2. Then make 2 leaves using cartolina, in this case, colored orange and yellow. See how 4 slits are cut on the leaf edges, 2 on each side. 

3. Staple the leaves onto the red cartolina. 

For the shirt, the teacher asked the children to wear a plain brown shirt. My daughter doesn't have one, but I saw a brown printed shirt that is a little bigger than her size. So, what I did was cut out the middle portion of the shirt and sewed the top and bottom parts together. I took pictures to share each step of the process. (Sorry. Photos 6 and 7 show the same step)

If you need a tutorial on how to precisely do this, here's a video that teaches how to make a big t-shirt smaller. 

For the skirt, it was easy because their school uniform was a green skirt, so the girls all had the same skirt design. 

Little Girl Chef or Baker Costume

This second costume was for a "What I Want to Be When I Grow Up" lesson in class. Since Angel likes baking, she said she wanted to go as a baker. A full costume was not needed for this lesson. The teacher just told them to come to class wearing something that would identify them as having a particular career.

I just made her an apron and a baker's hat. She also brought some baking tools (a bowl and a wire whisk.)

For the apron, these are the simple steps:

1. Cut out a white rectangular cloth, the length of which is from the armpits to her knees. Sew by hand (or by machine if you have one) all the edges. 

2. Then sew a strip of pink cloth on the upper left and right corner of the white cloth. 

3. Sew also two strips of pink cloth on the left and right side of the white cloth. Be sure to sew strips along the waist. 

4. Cut out a small rectangular piece of the pink cloth and sew it on the lower part of the white cloth to make a big pocket. Remember to just sew the left, bottom and right side. You may also make a stitch on the center, so as to make a two-compartment pocket.

Making the baker's hat is a bit tricky. Thank goodness there are many tutorials on YouTube. I just followed this tutorial, which just uses paper. I specifically used white cartolina and white crepe paper.

This is how she looked like . Not bad, right?

Princesa Laura Costume

This third costume is part of the requirement of my daughter in Grade 8. Her Filipino class was discussing the novel Florante at Laura by Francisco Balagtas. One of the outputs required was to dress up as Princesa Laura. She just had to dress up, take a picture, and submit the photo. 

The problem was, she already outgrew all her princess-like dresses. So, what did we do? 

Well, we got her pink dress with spaghetti strap. Since it was already small, she just wore it as a skirt without zipping it. Then, we found a satin pink top that surprisingly fitted her. For the royal blue cape, we used a shiny curtain. 

Sometimes, these kids need a costume for a school project right away. That rattles me. It's a good thing that I already have a bunch of "costumes" and cloth at home. These were from the old costumes my children used before. I could just recycle and mix and match. 

I wonder if this time, with the new normal school year, my students would still have the same requirements for costumes. I hope it would be manageable.