I’m a little obsessed with Halloween. I don’t remember a time when I haven’t been. Its not the candy I look forward to, its the dressing up. Even when I was younger, I LOVED dressing up. My mom sewed us fantastic costumes that we wore long after Halloween night. My love for playing dress up still manifests itself in my vintage pin-up photography (check these tuts out for more on that here and here) and of course on Halloween. I secretly envy my boys and their freedom to dress daily as a different superhero or cowboy or ninja. They are young and cute so this apparel choice is somewhat socially acceptable for everyday. I on the other hand am a grown up and have lost the right to play pretend. Unless, I want to be like one of these people on the “People of Walmart” site.
Anyway, when October rolls around it is my chance to revert back to my younger years and funnel all of my creative energy into cool costumes and makeup and hair, transforming myself (and my fun-loving husband) into a completely different person or thing. In the years past we have been a scarecrow (him) and a crow (me) (see that here), and flapper vampires. This year it was hard to decide what to be, according to my husband none of my ideas were “cool” enough. So I got frustrated and left it up to him. He came to me with the idea to be the Mad Hatter and Alice from “Alice in Wonderland”. The wheels in my head started turning and I began to envision our costumes and looks. I decided that I like his idea with one change, I wanted to be the Queen of Hearts instead of Alice. This decision was based on two things: Alice’s costume looked boring to me, and I already had almost all the stuff I needed for a Queen of Hearts costume on hand. So it was decided, I was excited for our Mad Hatter and Queen of Hearts couples costume. I set to it and came up with this finished look:
I’m SO happy with how it all turned out! My husband doesn’t even look like himself! Haha! If you’d like details on how I put these looks together, keep reading…
Queen of Hearts: Wig, crown, top, skirt, apron, bolero, gloves, tights, shoes, necklace, makeup.
Wig: Bought the wig at Walmart for $7. I actually turned it around backwards to wear it because I like the way it looked better with the long pieces hanging over my shoulder instead of by my cheeks. I teased the back up really big and poofy and pinned it up to make it look fuller.
Crown: I made the crown using a sparkly gold foam sheet, red sparkly canvas sheet cut into 3 small hearts, a heart shaped jewel, some leftover lace from the top, a queen of hearts playing card folded into a fan, and some feathers and pearly sprigs. All attached to a black headband with hotglue and hard felt. I first cut out my crown shape with sharp scizzors. I hotglued the ends together to make it round. I then glued the bottom to a piece of hard black felt (you can find it in sheets at the craft store). Then I glued that felt piece to the headband (off to one side slightly) and glued another piece of felt to the bottom of the headband and round crown piece to secure it. Then I got to work hot gluing on all the little details. I glued the feathers on first (off to one side a bit at the base of the crown), then glued on the pearly sprigs and the fanned card. Then I glued lace all around the base, on top of the card and feathers to secure them and hide their glued spots. I then glue the small red hearts to the 3 front tips of the crown and glued one jewel to the center heart.
Top: I already had a black velvet sleeveless top on hand that I had picked up a while ago from a thrift store for $3. If you’re doing this costume, you could also use a black tank top or try your hand at thrift shopping. I simply added the lace detail at the top, using Fabri-Tac glue and then cut out two big hearts from a red sparkly canvas sheet I bought from the craft store. I then positioned the hearts and glued them with the Fabri-Tac to the top. Easy breezy.
Skirt: To make the wonderfully fluffy white tutu, I used about 250 yards of 6″ tulle on a spool. Yep I said 250 yards. It is a giant fluff ball and I love it. I bought the 6″ spools of tulle (which came on 100 yard spools so I bought 3) in the wedding section of Hobby Lobby. They were 50% off so I got them all for about $15. Then, I cut out strips about a yard and a half long. I already had some elastic on hand so I measured it around my waist and cut it and then just tied the ends of the elastic in a knot. If I can get away with not sewing something, I’ll do it. Then I simply sat down, put on a movie, and knotted each strand of tulle around the elastic waistband following this tutorial. I packed them in pretty tight so I could get all 250 yards on there and make it ultra poofy.
Apron: For the “apron” I used some scrap fabric I had and cut out 4 large rectangles of black fabric. I finished the edges with my sewing machine (but you could probably just use fray check if you want to avoid sewing). Then I took a long piece of wide red satin ribbon and sewed the tops of the rectangles side by side along the ribbon, leaving a good portion of the ribbon hanging on either side to tie it in a bow in the back. Then, I cut out 4 big red hearts out of the sparkly red canvas sheets (get about 2 per sheet), and glued them to the center of the rectangles with Fabri-Tac. Lastly, I glued some of the lace to the bottom of the rectangles with Fabri-Tac to tie it into the top and finish it off a bit.
Bolero: To make the bolero I simply took the remaining 50 yards of 6″ tulle leftover from the skirt and cut it into about 40-50 ” strips. Basically, you’ll want to measure from armpit to armpit going up behind your neck and then multiply that measurement by 1.5-2 depending on how ruched you want the tulle at the end. I basically followed this tutorial being less careful to get the strips lined up because I wanted it to look a little more messy and couture. What I did is I simply stacked all the strips on top of each other, lining up the ends. Then I took a piece of elastic cut so that it would be the length of my armpit to armpit measurement when stretched slightly. Then I used a zig zag stitch on my machine and white thread and sewed the elastic right down the middle of the tulle stack being sure to pull it tight as I went in order to have the elastic snap back and gather the tulle. Watch the video link above if you’re confused. Its really simply. By then I had a poofy gathered strip of layers of tulle. Then I simply attached a piece of white ribbon to each end with my sewing machine. Lastly I went through and separated each layer of tulle so that it became fuller and more fluffy looking. To wear it I simply loop it under my arms and behind my neck and then tie it in a bow in the back.
Gloves: I found red lace fingerless gloves in the Halloween section at Target for $5.
Tights: I happened to already have these but I’m sure you can find them at any Halloween section near you.
Shoes: I found these booties at the thrift store for $4.
Necklace: I found a red glass heart pendant at the craft store and then simply threaded it on to a piece of black ribbon. Voila.
Makeup: I used makeup that I had in my makeup drawer to achieve this look. The video tutorial will be linked shortly.
Mad Hatter: Wig, hat, sport coat, shirt, scarf, pants, socks, shoes, accessories, makeup.
Wig: I found this wig at Walmart for $5. It was actually a “werewolf” wig but I turned it around backwards and cut the front down the center slightly.
Hat: I bought the hat at a Halloween shop for about $8. It was a pain to find the right kind of hat. Some of the “Mad Hatter” hats I saw were $20 or more in stores and online. I took this plain brown hat, added a scarf (thrifted for $1), and hot glued the iconic “10/6” card as well as a sprig of feathers and a purple little swirly-gig (bought in the floral section at Hobby Lobby 50% off) to the top along with a couple playing cards. Here is the 10/6 card I made and printed off onto cardstock on my home printer. I then took a match and burnt the edges (CAREFULLY!).
Sport Coat, Shirt, Scarf, Pants: I found basically the entire outfit at the thrift store. The key is to find a colorful scarf that you can tie into a big bow as well as a purple shirt and grungy looking sport coat.
Socks, Shoes: I had these already on hand.
Accessories: I have a silver clock as decor in my home that worked perfectly to hang on a chain and use as an accessory.
Makeup: The makeup was all things I had in my makeup drawer already. Video tut on that soon.
So thats basically how I put these costumes together! What are you planning to go as this year? Whats your favorite couples costume idea? I’d love to hear from you!
