Budget Halloween

Normally I’m kind of a big spender at Halloween. I love dressing up and I love making costumes. This year I had very little money to work with, and to be honest, my spirits are kind of low as well, so my creative juices are running low. But despite all that, I ended up with a pretty awesome costume.

I’ve been reading a lot of Melissa Marr fairy books*, and as such, that was in the forefront of my mind. That said, I went to the Halloween super store one evening with no real plan in mind. I just knew that NOT dressing up is LAME and I wanted to spend very little.

These wings were so pretty, and only $11.00. So I took them home and figured I’d go from there.



I added:
1. A formal dress I have passed over for re-wearing at least a dozen times now. It had a buble hem and I just didn’t care for it anymore. So I hacked off the end, which worked really well as there were three layers of fabric, all different textures under there which looked really nice.

2. A petticoat from last year 50’s day costume, I took about 2 tiers off, by ripping them

3. A sweater I used to love, but that had holes and had seen better days. I cut off the bottom, and made all the edges raw. I added slits in the back to insert the straps on the wings into so that they were not visible, since I felt that look kind of weird.

4. Black tights

5. Ankle boots

6. A ton of bird/bat skull jewelry and such that I already owned.



I managed the wings OK both night I wore them. They got caught in doorways and I had to fold myself into the car pretty carefully but it was not so bad overall.

The necklaces included this awesome bat skull but the same maker as my tiny bird skulls...




It’s little jaw is hinged and moveable.



As a finishing touch, I made this awesome hand piece to wear a fourth skull I just couldn’t make work with the three already around my neck.





*I’m not normally a fairy person. At all. But MM makes them dark and urban and real.