Last year Mallory’s daughter Zelda who was about 2.5 years old went as Jessie from Disney’s Toy Story movie. Jessie wears cow print pants so Mallory magic marketed black holstein cow patches over white fabric pants she made. Since the pants were so little this was a quicker than appliquéing black patches on the pants.

Magic markers are great for adding details to costumes – don’t hesitate to use it. Mallory and Zede also note that dye and makeup foundation work great to add color to fabrics. They say these are great to use especially when you don’t expect the costume to last forever – these are quick, easy, and inexpensive but get the job done.

Mallory did order the red felt cowgirl Jessie hat. Costume pieces like this may be something you want to keep,  a resource for later. A storage tote of hats is a great thing to have available. Zede reminds listeners to label the tote accordingly so these items are easy to find when needed.

Mallory used the “wrong” side of some knit fabric she had on hand to make Jessie’s white shirt. The “right” side of the fabric had little light pink hearts scattered on it. But even on the right side of the fabric these were barely visible so they were even less noticeable on the wrong side. Mal and Zede suggest looking at both sides of fabrics or both sides of shirts when fabric hunting for costumes. They also say not to limit yourself to bolted fabrics but take a look at other household items as well. Rugs, curtains, bedspreads, sheets and tablecloths can be great fabric sources. Older tablecloths can be a great way to get lots of lace fabric.

Someone in the Self Sewn Wardrobe Facebook group needed a lace collar and another member suggested using paper coffee filters cut like snowflakes to create the lace design. The person was needing a quick and easy judge collar.

Speaking of judges, graduation gowns make awesome judge robes and can be so many things. Mal believes a grad robe or choir robe is what they are using in Sweeney Todd as well.

Non-Sewing Costume Ideas

• Scrubs – lots of people have these and there are many places to go with this. In fact Zede let her daughter Lindsay wear a pair and gave her tongs and she was a gynecologist.
• Stuffed animals safety pinned to regular outfit – Zede says you can safety pin a small cat to the seat of your pants and walk around saying “here kitty, kitty” thus being a person looking for their pet. This costume is sure to get laughs. Or safety pin on a bun of cats and go as a “crazy cat person”.
• Cat costume – its really easy to just dress in all black (or whatever color cat you want to be) and add some cardboard ears to a headband.
• Bags of candy – use a clear garment bag or large clear clean up bag and poke arm and leg holes in it, fill with different colored balloons and go as a bag of jelly beans or gumballs.

Magic Markers (Sharpies)

These handy black permanent markers are halloween mvps. Mallory used them many times in making Zelda’s costume this year Lightening McQueen form Disney’s Car movie. She needed to mark out appliqué lighting bolts and flames on slick knit fabric and traditional fabric marking pens were not working as well. She instead used sharpie on the back of the fabric to mark her shapes (remember to cut these in mirror image on the back).

Zede also says use a pencil they are helpful too. These items are cheaper than your chaco liners or other fabric pens and may work a little better on costume type fabrics.

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Mallory and Zede want to make more awesome sewing media for you. More entertaining and informative podcasts, more instructional videos, more online classes, and more time spent socializing and answering your questions on social media. Doesn’t that sound sweet? We think so too. To free up the much needed time to accomplish this, they have decided to use affiliate links instead of fulfilling and shipping orders themselves to make sure you get the amazing sewing products you need.

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