Friday, October 28, 2011

Last Minute Costume: The King

You did it too?  Committed to making your 6-year-old niece an Elvis costume and it is days before Halloween?!  I feel your pain, Gorgeous.  Follow these steps and you will have it thrown together by the time the Project Runway episode on your DVR is finished.


What you'll need:

1 - white fuzzy track suit from Walmart
1 - red snowflake sweatshirt from Walmart because the white sweatshirt comes with the blue scarf and you need the white scarf for the popped up collar and of course they have the scarves fastened to the sweatshirts and you can't handle the guilt of breaking the plastic attachment and switching the scarves.
1 - 1/4 yard of the blingiest fabric you have
1 - big drawer of beads, sequins and random bling
1 - Beaddazzler that you have had for years and has been waiting for this very moment.
1 - 1/4 yard of sheer fabric for a scarf.  Like the red beaded stuff you got at an after Christmas sale intending to make a new tree skirt and then changed your mind.


OK, cut up the seams about a third of the way up the outside of the legs and about 6 inches up the inside seam of the arms.


Then, cut out a V at the neckline.  If you are worried about getting your sister pissed at you for going over the line, then cut a nice sensible V that will be filled in with opaque fabric.  If you aren't worried about keeping it classy then cut that V almost down to the navel and get the flesh tone fabric to fill in the space.  Sew on some random chest hairs to make it more authentic.  OK, back to classy.


From your blingy fabric, cut out pieces to fill the leg, arm and neck holes.  Fold the bottom edges over (the edges that will not be sewn to your sweatsuit fabric) and sew them over to make a clean hem.  Measure the neckline and cut a section of the scarf to use as the collar.  Don't go crazy, you will use the rest of the scarf fabric for the belt.


Pin the blingy sections into place for the arms and legs and sew them in.  Sew your collar on before the neck fabric so that you can position the blingy fabric to butt up again the collar nicely.  Unless, you are going for the Elvis years when he was struggling with drugs and alcohol.  If that is the case, the more disheveled the better.  Just throw that crap on there.



Next, beadazzle your ass off.  I chose to just go around the edges, because I'm not up for 'Aunt-of-the-Year' this year so I wanted to have this wrapped up by wine thirty.


Measure out the remaining section of the scarf and cut it to just longer than waist length for the belt.  Sew the side seam, flip it right-side out, tuck the edges in, then sew them down.  Sew a few inches of velcro to each side of the belt so that it can fit snugly.


Cut out a proportionally large piece of cardboard for the belt and spray adhesive/hot glue it to a section of your blingy fabric.  Fold the edges over the buckle, hot glue them down, then hot glue a piece of felt over the back to hold down the raw edges.  Hot glue on two additional strips of felt fabric to the back of the buckle for the belt portion to slide through.  Hot glue some beads or bling to the front of the buckle for some extra pop.  Sorry that this is the only picture of the buckle process that I took.  Like I said, wine thirty.  Tick tock, my friends.


Cut out a length of your never-used Christmas tree skirt fabric for a longish scarf.  Roll the edges under and sew them down.  I chose to roll as I sewed even.  Out of control.


Next, pour yourself that glass of wine and cheers to another mission complete!  You can tell your sister that you slaved for days, and she might actually believe you!  Drink another glass in honor of The King.



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