DIY Headband / DIY Halloween

Halloween is one week away but the Halloween parties all start this weekend. Every year, I struggle with coming up with a unique costume idea and then struggle again with executing it with aplomb. I'm definitely a fan of DIY costumes, as this ensures that even if someone has the same idea as I do, our costumes won't be exactly the same. Admittedly, it's not as embarrassing to walk into a costume party wearing the same costume as another person as it is to walk into work to see that your coworker and you are wearing the same funky top BUT, it's always nice to stand out on your own.

This year, as I do almost every year, I'm celebrating one of my favorite holidays in New York City and I decided to do something a little simpler with my costume. AND the great thing is, I'll definitely be reusing some of my DIY-ed pieces on regular, non-costume, normal days. I've decided to be some sort of forest fairy or woodland nymph and make some flower headbands, bracelets, and a flowery bustier top. The headbands and bracelets will definitely be reused in my everyday outfits, especially once springtime rolls around.

For the headband, you will need:
ribbon
hot glue gun
hot glue sticks
silk flowers
scissors
optional: rhinestones, glitter, anything you want to add to the flowers to give them a little extra oomph

I chose these two types of ribbon. I picked a color theme of pinks, beiges, and gold, so that the look wouldn't be too overwhelming.

Start by measuring a piece of ribbon around your head. Subtract 4 inches from that length. Cut a piece of elastic that is 3 inches. Using elastic and subtracting 1 inch from the length will allow the headband to fit snugly on your head. Then, trim the flowers off of the silk bouquets. Make sure to snip the little piece of plastic stem carefully - you want to leave that 'v' part so the flower doesn't come apart but not so much that it'll be difficult to glue the flowers to the ribbon.

Soon, you should have a nice big pile of lovely flowers.

Lay your piece of ribbon flat and apply a bit of hot glue and press the flower into the ribbon. Continue until you've covered the entire ribbon. Apply the flowers as densely or sparsely as you like.

Once you're done gluing flowers, you can glue the elastic to the ribbon to form the headband. Make sure to press down hard (but carefully since the glue is hot) so the headband won't fall apart on your head. If you're worried about it coming undone, you can sew the ribbon and elastic together.

If you wanted to make a normal headband without flowers, you can do the same thing with a bit of pretty ribbon and elastic.

Repeat the same process to make bracelets (and/or anklets). For the bracelets, I was more generous with the elastic - I measured enough ribbon to cover the top half of my wrist and enough elastic to cover the bottom half - that way it would be easy to slip past my hand.

To add to my costume, I took this old star-topped wand from a previous costume and added a few flowers to keep in theme.

Here's a pile of the finished headbands, bracelets, and wand.

For my bustier, I didn't want to potentially ruin a shirt I wanted to wear in the future so I took a piece of tulle, laid it over a camisole (which was being used as a template), and carefully glued flowers to the tulle in the shape of the boobs-part of the shirt.

Once I was done gluing, I trimmed the tulle and then sewed it to my pink bustier. This is an easy way to vamp up a top for Halloween without ruining it. Once Halloween is over, I can just undo the stitches I used to attach the flower-covered tulle to the top and it's back to normal. This is a great way, in general, to modify your existing clothes semi-permanently. The tulle is virtually see-through so it'll look like you've attached all the flowers (or gems or pompoms or feathers or what have you) to your actual item of clothing but if you change your mind, you can remove it rather easily.

Happy Halloween-ing!