Homemade Halloween Costumes: Fred & Wilma Flintstone

Hello my fabulous fall friends!

Today I'm going to talk about my latest project, mine and Jared's Halloween costumes! What are we going to be? Your favorite stone-age cartoon characters, The Flintstones!

But before we get into that I'll share with you the principles I grew up with surrounding Halloween that my mother has instilled in me to this day.

I know what you're thinking, I have this crazy mother who thinks that Halloween is the devil's holiday, no.

The thing is, my momma always insisted on making our costumes homemade. These weren't the days that pinterest inspired adorable creativity into almost every mother. These were the days where my 5 year old self didn't understand why instead of going to Meijer to pick out my favorite princess costume like all my friends, we got dragged along to Jo-ann's to pick out fabrics and patterns. 

Most times we had the cutest of costumes.

But other times my mothers desire to go with a theme didn't turn out quite as well...

All in all, homemade costumes provide more memories and, in Michigan's cold Octobers, more practicality than any store bought costume available.

Now looking back it makes me appreciate my mother's love and creativity and explains why I took an hour long bus ride to Jo-ann's last week instead of picking up a slutty nurse costume like some of my collegiate counterparts. 

So, back to Mr. & Mrs. Flintstone.

Fred Flintstone Costume:

For Fred, I choose to use felt. Practical, cheap and no need to hem! 

The actual design of the Fred costume is very simple. Essentially a tunic, cut a rectangle with arm holes and a hole for the head. After that, simply cut out the misshaped black patches and stitch them onto the tunic. For the tie, the bigger the better, make this piece very noticeable. To finish, simply cut jagged edges along the arm holes, bottom and the tie.

As far as the amount of fabric I used?

I purchased: 

2 yards of orange felt

1/2 yard of teal felt 

1/2 yard of black felt

But I ended up with plenty extra. Keep in mind, many times felt runs "tall" so 2 yards of felt is a lot more fabric than 2 yards of cotton.

Wilma Flintstone Costume:

For Wilma, I struggled with a fabric choice but I ended up choosing a satin-like fabric.

I first made Wilma's statement necklace! To do this I simply strung small styrofoam balls with needle and thread, done! To create this one-shoulder dress (which I'm still doing!) I doubled up the fabric (4 layers total) and laid one of my own dresses over it to estimate the appropriate length and width. Cutting around a dress, make sure to allow plenty of seam allowance (you can always take it in later!) This is as far as I've gotten, but I plan to finish sewing the dress, add elastic around the waist for shape, and cut jagged edges (similar to Fred's) to complete the look!

What did I get for this one?

I purchased:

4 yards of satin-like white fabric

12-pack of 1-1/2 inch white styrofoam balls

1 inch x 3 yards white knit elastic

I'll be sure to upload the final products! and fill you in on my first college Halloween experience!

Until then!