Monday, March 17, 2014

Refashioning for Carnival (or Halloween) Costumes

Make your own refashioned from Despicable Me costumes!

A couple of weeks ago here in Italy we celebrated Carnival. Halloween is a pretty recent importation here and still hasn't really caught on where we live, but Carnival is the kids' occasion to get dressed up, go to parties, walk around the streets throwing confetti and silly string at each other (and rotten eggs for some unlucky folks). My kids just LOVE Despicable Me, so they decided pretty early on to dress up as Agent Lucy Wilde and the Minion Stuart. And, as usual, I did my best to use what we already had around the house.

Make your own refashioned Minion (from Despicable Me) costume!

Make your own refashioned Minion (from Despicable Me) costume!

The Stuart costume would've been incredibly simple if I'd already had a yellow hooded sweatshirt and jeans overalls, but I didn't and somehow I just couldn't seem to find them to fit my son and I refused to pay €30 to buy a sweatshirt online. I did have a white hooded sweatshirt and figured I could just dye it yellow, but I then couldn't find any yellow fabric dye nor turmeric for a natural dye and I didn't have enough time to buy either online. So I just bought a €1 used yellow sweatshirt at my local outdoor market and made a simple hat from it (like in this Refashion Co-op post). Black yarn for the hair, a jar lid, black elastic and fabric scraps for the eye/goggles, a yellow mock turtleneck we already had, and the top half was done. Sure, the yellows don't match, but hey, I did what I could in the time that I had.

Make your own refashioned Minion (from Despicable Me) costume!

As I didn't have any overalls, I decided to dress my Minion in regular jeans and just make the overalls bib from jean scraps. I freezer paper stencilled the Gru symbol on the front. My original plan was to just tuck the top bib part into the jeans so that I wouldn't have to sew it onto the jeans and ruin them for future use. However it kept coming untucked while my Minion played, so I then just stitched it onto the jeans' waistband. I made super quick 3-fingered Minion gloves from some scrap fleece. So costume number one cost me a grand total of €1! Not bad! (You can find all the details on the making of this costume here.)

Make your own Lucy Wilde (from Despicable Me 2) costume!

Make your own Lucy Wilde (from Despicable Me 2) costume!



The Lucy Wilde costume was a bit more involved. The first thing I made was a wig using an old pair of tights for the cap that the yarn got sewed on to. I made the various accessories from stuff I already had hanging around the house, so up til that point it cost me €2 (for the yarn). (Full tutorial on making the wig and accessories can be found here.)

Make your own Lucy Wilde (from Despicable Me 2) costume!

Make your own Lucy Wilde (from Despicable Me 2) costume!


For the scarf, I cut up an old white t-shirt of my husband's into strips, sewed them into a strip which I then folded in half and sewed, turned and topstitched. I then painted red dots on it to make it like Lucy's scarf. (More details on making the scarf and coat here.)

Make your own Lucy Wilde (from Despicable Me 2) costume!

I did have to buy fabric for the teal coat, which cost me €7. But hey, €10 in all for two costumes is still a whole lot cheaper than buying costumes, not that I would've been able to find Despicable Me costumes here, anyway. And even better, the kids had a ball as their favorite characters!

5 comments:

Refashion said...

The costumes are really great. They put a smile on my face. Thanks for sharing

Debbie EOD

Cucicucicoo: Eco Crafting & Sewing said...

Thanks, Debbie! Glad they made you smile! :) Lisa

Jennifer Elliott said...

I just saw the first Despicable Me movie -- haven't seen the sequel -- but I love the little minions. Great job on the costumes by using whatever you had around the house.

cfort82 said...

Super Cute!!!

Cindy @ Upcycled Design Lab

Cucicucicoo: Eco Crafting & Sewing said...

@Jennifer: I know, those Minions are just so silly! And using things from around the house really saved us money. I can't believe how much store-bought costumes cost!

@Cindy: Thanks so much!