Looking for a relatively inexpensive yet cute costume idea? Why not try making a paper doll costume? I opted for an Alice in Wonderland look. but you can use these techniques to make your own custom design too. Add some cartoon makeup if you'd like to give your face a paper doll vibe (I just winged it, but there are tons of tutorials out there on how to do cartoon makeup. Here's one that looks pretty good, and certainly more skillful than my attempt).
Materials:
*1-2 sheets of blue poster paper. I was able to get away with just one, but it was a tight fit. A good rule of thumb would be that if you are making the costume for someone who wears about size 12-14 kids clothes, then you can probably get away with just one sheet, but if you're making it for someone who wears larger sizes or is tall, then you probably will need two sheets.
*1-2 sheets of white poster paper. Since the pinafore apron is narrower and shorter than the dress, you probably have a little more leeway here, but I'd still pick up an extra sheet of poster paper if you're unsure.
*Red cardstock, poster paper, or construction paper
*Black marker
*Scissors
*Pencil
*Glue
*Black or blue ribbon
*Duct tape
*Dress or romper with little stretch
*Ruler
*Black poster paper
*Headband
*Form fitting clothes, ideally ones close to your skin tone, to wear underneath.
Directions:
*Take a dress or romper that fits you or your intended recipient well and isn't stretchy. Lay it down on the sheet or sheets of poster paper you're using to create the dress. If you're making this in two pieces, I'd recommend lining things up so the top of the dress lies on one sheet of poster paper and the skirt or shorts portion lies on the other.
*Trace around the dress, leaving about an inch or so extra space along all sides. One tricky part of making this is that if you don't want what you're wearing underneath to show through the costume, you'll need the dress to be wide enough to hide it. This is why initially you want to add a lot of extra room.
*Cut out the dress shape. Put on the clothes you'll be wearing underneath the paper doll costume, ideally something form fitting like a cami and shorts or leggings, and hold the dress up in front of you. See if there are places along the dress that need to be trimmed or taken in, keeping in mind that anything you take away can't be added back. If the dress is in two pieces, you can tape the two pieces together with some duct tape along the back. We'll reinforce the waist seam later, but for now you just need it to hold together.
*Make adjustments to the dress as needed. Here's what my dress looked like after alterations:
*Once you're happy with the shape of the dress, it's time to start working on the pinafore apron. I made the apron by tracing the shape of the dress onto the white poster paper and using a ruler to draw an apron shape inside the dress shape. That way, I knew the apron should fit the dress perfectly. I've included a picture of what I did below. Note that I had to turn up the contrast a ton so that the pencil lines would be visible. This works best if you can make the apron as a singular piece (it adds more stability at the waist and will hide the waist seam, so even if you had to make the dress in two pieces, I'd recommend making the apron as one continuous piece if possible.
*Glue the apron to the dress.
*Optional: Cut out a red heart shape from your red paper of choice and glue it to the apron.
*Use a black marker to define the edges of the pieces and make the dress look more cartoony.
*Next it's time to make the tabs. Sketch out six tab shapes on the leftover poster paper using a pencil. Follow the pencil line with a black marker, making dashed lines like you will often see on paper dolls.
*Glue one tab to either shoulder and tabs to either side of the waist. Set aside two for the bow.
*Draw a bow shape onto black poster paper and cut it out.
*Use a black marker to add an outline and details. The details may not show up super well, depending on how dark the black of the poster paper is.
*Glue tabs to either side of the bow.
*Next it's time to figure out how to fasten the dress on you. I've seen some people attach Velcro to the dress and also to the clothes they will be wearing, so the dress just sticks on. However, since I didn't want to mess up the clothes I'd be wearing under by permanently affixing Velcro to them, I decided to use ties instead. Cut off two lengths of black ribbon which are long enough to tie comfortably around your waist.
*Turn the dress over and glue the ends of the ribbons to the waist area. Let dry.
*Glue two to the shoulders as well. Let dry.
*Once dry, reinforce the ribbon with a little duct tape.
*If you cut the dress from two different sheets of poster paper, you may want to reinforce the waist. You can cut off strips of excess poster paper and glue them across the waist seam in the back, or perhaps use some thin cardboard, like what you might get from a cereal box.
Tip: One tricky piece to this costume is that since it's 2D and we're 3D, it's easy for the costume to shift and show what you're wearing underneath. Wearing tight fitting clothes will help minimize the impact, and wearing clothes close to your skin tone will make it less noticeable. I was wearing a pale pink romper under my costume for the photos. Here's a picture of me turned slightly to the side, so you can see behind the costume. Since the romper is so close to my skin tone, I feel like it's less noticeable than if I'd worn a high contrast color, like hot pink or neon green.
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