2 years ago we started what has now become a little tradition of ours and that is dressing up as Disney characters for Halloween. The first year, we dressed up at Cruella DeVille while we were out in Miami and last year we dressed up as Aladdin and Abu. We’re trying to keep with characters that are a little “out of the box” and not necessarily the more standard Disney pairings- like the prince and princesses, etc. Although, when the day comes that Joey agrees to be Prince Eric, we will 100% be Ariel and Eric. Because they’re my favorite so we’ll just have to do a classic pairing on that! Joey has yet to agree to being Eric so I’m just not going to hold my breath on that one lol. 

While we both SUPER love Halloween, we also aren’t too fond on spending a ton of money on costumes every year; especially when usually we go to more than one party and like to have a different costume every time 😉  So we brainstorm and create our costumes without spending a lot of money. Which believe me, is a lot easier than it sounds! You just have to get creative! 

So without further ado, let me start by breaking down how we created our 101 Dalmatians costume. 

Cruella Costume:

• I’m wearing a $5 dollar black long sleeve bodysuit that I bought at Forever 21 and then a black mini skirt that I already had and have no idea where I bought, but it’s super simple and I’m sure pretty easy to find! Also, simple black boots that I wear with everything like all year round lol. 
• Fur overthrow: we bought about 3-4 feet of white fur fabric ($8) from Joanne’s and with black spray paint, sprayed on the dalmatian spots.
• Tights: These I bought at a costume store for probably $7, if that. I decided I wanted to do something a little different with my version of Cruella and once I saw the two toned tights, I knew they were perfect! 
• I also bought a little string of black fabric from Michael’s to use as a choker around my neck ($3).
• Hair: of course I had to recreate the classic hairstyle- black hair spray dye for one side, and white on the other! The spray paint cost $5 per bottle at Target.

Dalmatian Costume:

• We found the all white jogger pants at TJ Maxx  (~$10)and again, using black spray paint, sprayed on the spots. 
• The all white long sleeve top we bought at a T-shirt warehouse (super cheap) and then spray painted the dots as well.
• All white hat, bought at Michael’s for $3 and then again spray painted ourselves.
• Joey already had all white converse so they were perfect for the costume! 

Next up, we will go over last year’s costume: Aladdin and Abu.

Abu:

• Brown long-sleeve T-shirt: bought at Target in their basics section for $6
• Ears and Tail: bought at a costume store as a pair for I think $8.
• The brown boots were in my closet already. 
• Skirt: the skirt was actually the most expensive part of both our costumes. The skirt was originally white and it was $20 at a costume store. Using brown spray paint (Michael’s $5) we spray painted the entire skirt. We couldn’t find a brown one to save our lives and it was too late to order one on Amazon.
• Vest: I bought 2 feet of red sequin fabric from Joanne’s and we sewed the vest ourselves following a Youtube tutorial ($5 and Joanne’s always has coupons online!). 
• Hats: for both our hats we bought elastic string from Michael’s ($2) and using red plastic cups that we already had, cut the cups to the size we wanted and pulled the string through the sides to create the hat. Then using square fabric sheets that we bought at Michael’s ($1 per sheet -we bought 2 red) wrapped the fabric and hot glued it around the cups. Then using purple sequins (Michael’s $4 for a box) we glued the sequins to create the purple section of Abu’s hat. 

Aladdin:

• White costume pants: bought at a costume store and were originally for a “genie” costume, $12.
• And again, the white converse coming in handy!
• Hat: described above!
• Vest: We found this cool, purple, magical looking fabric at Joanne’s and bought about 3 feet of it to create Joey’s vest- the same way we did my Abu vest, following a Youtube tutorial of how to sew a vest (also like $5 for the fabric).

I hope this helps inspire some of y’all to do some DIY costumes this year! I cannot wait to share with you our costumes soon! We will have 2 this year and I’m so excited! 

xoxo,

Amanda.