alien trousers

minimooch

You'll have to excuse me, I'm not usually like this, but I'm just feeling so inordinately pleased with myself :rotfl:

DS and DD came home with letters saying alien costume needed friday week for school. Sigh. Can't afford 2 ready made costumes and i have M.E. so traipsing round shops trying to find bits to make a little green man outfit is not an option. couldn't find anything on ebay either.

We do have a local charity shop, and i found a very large bright green T-shirt. 30 minutes later and using the instructions

http://madebypetchy.blogspot.com/2008/06/tutorial-10-minute-trousers.html

I had a pair of alien green trousers ready to go with the very cheap green t-shirts I found online. I've never made trousers before but they were so easy and cost me the grand sum of £1.

Got the kids to help decorate headbands I had in my craft box with pipe cleaners, eyes and some ribbon made by cutting a long strip from the T-Shirt arms.

Hoping it might help people, because trousers are always the hardest thing to find for school cosumes, and charity shops always have such a trove of things that can be cut up. And these really were easy.

(wish i could work out how to post a pic)

charlies-aunt

Brilliant stuff and I'm sure that you children will be pleased to have an individually designed costume than a run on the mill off-the-peg costume.
Pikkies please!

maryb

Well done you!!

This reminds me of a pirate's costume I had to do at short notice. I made some knee length trousers like this using pyjama bottoms for the pattern and making them out of leftover beige curtain lining. I ran some elastic through the hems and they wore long white socks and black school shoes with a silver foil buckle. An old white shirt of mine with the sleeves rolled up and worn loose with a wide belt over the top made it look very Johnny Depp.

I know exactly how good you felt when you can do something like this for pennies. Everytime I look at my sewing stash I remember how useful it was being well stocked when I needed to do something at short notice and I can't bring myself to get rid of any of it even though my two are way past needing costumes.

I tell myself that one day I'll be doing costumes for the grandchildren. That way I don't have to feel guilty about all those UFOs (unfinished objects)

minimooch

I have to say I do feel a lot more inspired for their costumes now, and as DS started school last sept, the requests are coming thick and fast. Little girls can always make do with tights on their bottom halfs, but little boys get a bit sniffy about that idea. And I spent AGES online at xmas trying to find him white trews for a star outfit.

Now I can justify my material stash OOh just remembered I've got some denim i've had for ages! shorts for the summer coming up.

maman

Well done minimooch. It's so much better than the shop bought costumes. I've made some super costumes over the years and think it's a real cop-out buying stuff off the net. Charity shops are fantastic for buying bits to adapt but your stash will be useful too.