What to do if you dislike store-bought costumes that contain a bunch of plastic and other chemicals and undoubtedly pollute the earth just by being created, worn, and disposed of?
How about if you have zero sewing experience or skills?
Well, you could do like I did and use a mix of enormous stitches, fabric glue, materials already owned, and store-bought fabric. Also mix in some good humor and understanding that the costumes will not look even remotely close to store bought “quality.”
This is how I made mine and my daughter’s costume. A BEEEE and and Carrot.
I decided immediately that I would be a vegetable since my venue was our local Farmer’s Market. As a volunteer at the kids’ education/craft table, myself and the other vendors dressed up in the spirit of the season and because it was the 3rd anniversary of the market. It was a festive occasion indeed, with live music, more than ever vendors, trick or treating for the kiddos (after about 80 of them stopped by my table to decorate their bags), balloon animals, yummy food, etc.
The Bee is basically a “pillow case” dress design but even more simple and (of course), enormous stitching on the seems and hems. You can’t see them here, but there are grey felt wings glued to her back.
For the carrot, I folded over and stitched the top and used fabric glue to “hem” the bottom parts. I wrapped it around me like a towel and added velcro to the back to keep it on. As you can see, pipe cleaners rounded out our headwear.
As one little boy told me about my costume, “You can tell the costume is homemade because the greens don’t match.” Yep. But, I’m cool with that :)
100% “Green”?? No, because I’m pretty sure the glue and its packaging and maybe the pipe cleaners, felt, and dyed fabric are not neutral in their production and consumption. But, I think I achieved my goal of reducing my imprint.
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