T-shirt Costume Tuesday #3 - The Powerpuff Girls

College was great.  There was always something to do and friends to do things with.  So, group costumes were a great option for Halloween.  Freshman year I did my own thing, but sophomore year, some of us decided to go retro and be The Powerpuff Girls!...plus Mojo Jojo.  We tried to get another friend to be The Professor, but couldn't convince him.

Photobombed by Indy

A bunch of us from the dorm

The three of us thought it would be easy to find matching dresses in blue, pink, and green and started our search at American Apparel since they tend to have simple styles in many colors.  Unfortunately, most clothes were very expensive and I wasn't comfortable with how tight and/or revealing some were.  We kept it as an option, but looked elsewhere.  My mom came up with the idea of using t-shirts and offered to make the costumes for us!  She did a great job.

We got the right color shirts at Michaels and all she had to do was cut one shirt of each color into skirts (right under the armpits, just like the Sally and Hobbes costumes).  Since she can sew, she put in an elastic waistband so they would stay on better.  I definitely need to visit home for some sewing lessons.  We rolled up the sleeves of the shirts so they looked sleeveless and tucked them into the skirts.  But, we needed more or we would just be girls in different colors of the same outfit.

The finishing touches were some accessories.  We found black belts (with heart buckles, because that made sense) to create the black band in the middle of the dresses, and that pretty much made the costumes.  I'm not sure if we wore anything on our legs, but white tights, knee-highs, or socks would add to it.  Lastly, we styled our hair.  I had hair past my waist and a huge collection of bows from my childhood (dozens and dozens), so I was clearly Blossom.  Julie had blonde hair she put in pigtails to be Bubbles.  Katie decided to cut a black wig to create her Buttercup hairstyle.  We all wore eyeshadow that matched our dresses for one last finishing touch, and, voila!  We were The Powerpuff Girls!

Mojo Jojo photobomb

Another friend helped to add to the costume by dressing up as the main villain, Mojo Jojo.  He wore a navy t-shirt and navy basketball shorts.  We put a ribbon around his waist for the belt and glued a purple triangle on the front of the belt.  He put on white surgical gloves, painted his face green, and wore a purple tablecloth as a cape.  My mom made the hat, which shouldn't be too hard to recreate with some white felt.  We decorated it with silver duct tape and a purple sharpie.  It was the icing to our costume cake.

Action Shot

Me and Mojo

This will always be one of my favorite costumes, and it's so simple!  Because of the belt, the elastic waistband isn't even necessary.  It's great for a group, especially for something last-minute and everyone loved it.

Perfect likeness

T-shirt Costume Tuesday #2 - Calvin and Hobbes

Law school can be fun in the ways that it's an extension of college.  One similarity is parties, including Halloween parties.  Halloween may be my favorite holiday, in no small part for the costumes.  I love making my own, helping other people with theirs, and seeing what everyone else comes up with.  My first year of law school was the first time I could convince my guy to really dress up and my first opportunity for a couples costume.  We finally decided on Calvin and Hobbes.

Unfortunately the clearest picture we have

While Hobbes is usually taller in the comics, he's also sometimes shown as the stuffed animal.  That was a great solution for us because I really like wearing a costume and he wanted to be as close to normal as possible (look at how much more adventurous he's gotten in just a few years: from Calvin to Jack).  But, the most important parts of both our costumes were t-shirts and neither required any sewing.

Calvin was easy:  Black stripes drawn on a red t-shirt with fabric marker, black jeans, and black converse.  The jeans cost something like $40 at Bob's Stores, but in a world where clothes are scarce for 6'7" people, they became one of his favorite pairs and he still wears them years later.  Walmart had cheap knockoff converse, and red t-shirts are easy to find.  I always have a black fabric marker, but they can be found anywhere you buy crafts (Michaels, Joann Fabrics, Walmart, etc).  But, unless Calvin is carrying a stuffed tiger, that costume needs a Hobbes to compliment it.

Hobbes was a little more complicated:  I started with 2 orange t-shirts in my size.  I originally had the idea to make tiger stripe cutouts in an orange shirt and layer it over a black shirt, but that didn't work well for the top and I couldn't figure out how to do the skirt like that.  So, I changed my method.  I got a couple of the 8.5"x10" (?) sheets of black and white felt to decorate the orange shirts.  I kept one shirt intact for the top, but cut the other shirt straight across right under the armpits for the skirt.  I checked how they fit and marked where to put the white for the chest and tummy.  One the white was hotglued on (which held really well), I cut stripes from the black felt.  I figured they didn't have to be perfect but tried to make them look like tiger stripes.  If you don't want bare arms and legs or additional parts to cover them, you can do the same method with a long-sleeve shirt or sweatshirt and pants (leggings or sweatpants maybe).

Front

Back

I included more accessories to flesh out the tiger look.  The lower arm sleeves are orange felt sheets.  I wrapped them around my arms and pinned where they fit.  I used my hot glue gun to finish them and added more black felt stripes.  They slid right on since the top was slightly larger than the wrist part.  I orgered tiger-stripe tights from welovecolors.com.  Regular orange tights with stripes drawn on would work too.  I bought a black giant chenille stem pipe cleaner from Michaels for the ears and tail.  I basically made a headband with round ears with part of it and looped the rest to a belt that I wore over the skirt.  It was a cheap, easy way for those parts, but there are plenty of ears and tails already made for sale.  Finishing touches were white gloves and socks.

The Hobbes part sounds pretty complicated, but it wasn't that hard to pull off.  And it looked good and was comfortable!  This was one of my favorite costumes, partially because it was my first couples costume.  I could even use it again since it's held up so well over time.  Plus, it can just be a normal tiger costume!