Cheap and Easy Costume

Around mid October of last year, my Colonial New England History professor told the class we could come in costume to class on Halloween since class was from 6-9pm. I love costumes. I never dressed up for Halloween as a kid, but I did dress up on normal days. Oh how I love costumes. I'm so weird. Anyway. The syllabus said that we would be discussing Native Americans on that night so, of course, I decided to dress up as Princess Tiger Lily from the live action version of Peter Pan. Though the character was fictional, the actress playing her is Iroquois and I always loved her in that movie. I did not want to spend $60 on an already put together costume. Costumes for girls/ women above the age of 9 tend to be tight, short and modeled on the package by someone with a seductive look on her face. I'm sure there is a time and place for that, however class is not one of them. I was able to make my entire costume (using the word make loosely) for under $20. It was wonderful.

• Huge brown men's shirt-- Clearance for $2
• Brown corduroy pants which can be reused-- $10
• Tube of face paint-- $1
• Hair clip with leather string, beads and feathers-- $2
• Headband-- a strip that I cut off the shirt
• Shoes-- moccasin slippers I already owned

How to make it look like a costume instead of an awkward outfit gone wrong:

The shirt had a picture and some words on it so I just turned it inside out. I cut the bottom into a V shape so that the sides were shorter than the front and back. I then cut strips into the bottom (they can vary  in length depending on the length of the shirt). I also cut off the collar (keeping it in once piece for later) and added a v-neck shape. For the face paint, I used a foam makeup applicator spongy thing and dabbed it onto my face. I put more towards my forehead and then dabbed down so that it was darker at the top and blended and got lighter towards the middle of my face. I braided my hair, stuck the clip onto the collar, and then used the collar as a headband. It was nothing elaborate or fancy but it worked. (Not the best picture I could have taken but this was before I decided to share it with you)

I came to class and realized that I was the only person who actually dressed up but I didn't mind. It was a tiny class and everyone loved my costume plus I had a lot of fun with it. Try making your own costume sometime!! Whether it is similar to mine or not, I'd love to hear about it!!