The Princess Costume is a classic for a reason! Who doesn’t want to dress like a princess? It’s simple to create your own no-sew princess costume for use as a Halloween costume, or just for everyday pretend play. 

Even if you don’t sew, this princess costume idea is perfectly simple to construct. You can make this princess dress in under an hour using a few no-sew tricks. The main requirements for a great-looking princess dress are proper length and the right color, so let your child help you pick out the perfect color of fabric and ribbon for a dress she’ll just love.

Don’t let these instructions stress you out! You’re basically making a tube of fabric with elastic. You can do it!

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DIY Princess Costume Materials:

• 1 yard of fabric (color of your—or your child’s—choice)
• 1 spool of coordinating ribbon
• fusible fabric webbing tape (I used Stitch Witchery)
• ¼-inch wide elastic (length depends on your child’s measurements)
• safety pin
• hot glue gun
• hot glue sticks
• scissors
• iron
• measuring tape
• ribbon (at least 36-inches long)

Princess Costume Instructions:

Adjusting the Size: This dress fits a 5T nicely, but if you want to make a different size, measure from your princess’s armpits down to the tops of her feet and get your fabric cut to that length. Once you add the casing and the bottom hem, the dress should be about 3-inches above her feet, to keep her from tripping.

1. Iron the fabric to remove excess wrinkles and creases. Open up the fabric and lay with right side down. You should have a rectangular piece of fabric with two raw edges and two finished edges. Fold over one raw edge about 1-inch and iron to crease. After fabric is creased, iron a piece of fusible fabric webbing tape under the crease and fuse fabric according to package instructions. This is the hem of the dress.

2. With fabric still right side down, fold the other raw edge over about 2-inches and iron to crease (this will be the edge opposite the hem). Use your hot glue gun to glue just the very edge of the 2-inch fold, leaving a casing. You will run the elastic through this casing later, so be sure to leave an unglued area wide enough to eventually feed through a safety pin and the elastic.

3. Lay fabric out flat with right side up. Fold in half so that the plain edges meet. Hot glue the two plain edges together to form the back seam. You should now have a tube of fabric with the hem at the bottom, the casing at the top, and a seam at the back. The dress will be inside-out.

4. Leave dress inside out for now. Flatten the dress so the seam is in the middle back. Cut a 24-inch piece from your ribbon. Fold the ribbon in half to find the middle. Hot glue the very middle of the 24-inch piece of ribbon to the front-center of the dress (over the casing) so it forms a V. This will be a halter strap to keep the dress from falling down.

5. Turn dress right side-out. Flatten dress so seam is in the middle back. Take your remaining piece of ribbon (about 12-inches depending on your child’s size) and fold it in half to find the middle of the ribbon. About 6-inches down from the top of the dress, squirt a 4-inch line of hot glue horizontally on front of dress, and attach the center of the ribbon to the line of hot glue. This will fix the ribbon waist ties to the dress.

6. Use the measuring tape to measure around your child’s chest right at the armpits. Add 2-inches and cut a length of ¼-inch elastic using that measurement. Attach a safety pin to the end of the elastic, and thread through the casing at the top of the tube. When the elastic is threaded completely through the casing, tie ends of elastic together.
 

7. To wear the dress, the elasticized top will be pulled up to the armpits. Tie the neck ribbon around the back of the neck halter-style. Take the long waistband ribbons and criss-cross them around the body as many times as you can and tie at the back or the front.

No Sew Princess Costume Tips

What to Wear With This Costume: Pair this dress with a long-sleeved top or t-shirt underneath, and add tights for warmth while trick-or-treating.

Accessorize: Be sure to glam this dress up with the right accessories. Every princess needs a crown, jewelry, a wrap or feather boa. You can find most of these things at the dollar store or your local department store, or craft them up yourself.

Fabric choices: Plain cotton is the cheapest option, and the easiest to work with in terms of ironing. Polyester can come in many different finishes, and can look very shiny and princess-y, and will have a good drape and fluidity. You can find inexpensive costume fabrics at your local fabric store that will work nicely. You can add additional ribbons and trim to fancy it up as much as you like.

Washability: You can actually wash this garment, even though it’s constructed with hot glue! Hang to dry.

The post No-Sew Princess Costume Tutorial appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

These fabric crowns are such a simple no-sew project that your little princes and princesses can create their own with minimal assistance! Jess at Let’s Do Something Crafty shares just how easy it is to whip these up yourself! It’s a great way to use up random odds and ends of supplies – put out a pile of embellishments and let your littles go wild! [how to make no sew felt crowns]

Project estimate:

• Felt, on hand or $1
• String or ribbon, on hand or $1
• Embellishments, on hand or $1 and up
• Glue, on hand

Total: Free and up!

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If you haven’t visited Dollar Store Craft’s Facebook group, you really should!  I get so many fun ideas and am often inspired by the other crafters in the group.  Not too long ago, someone posted pictured of Princess inspired wine glasses.  Someone asked how to make them, and I offered to make a tutorial for the project.  It took a while, but here it is:  how to make glittery princess wine glasses!

Project Estimate:

• Wine glass – $1
• Glossy glass paint- $2.50
• glitter glass paint – $2.50
• Printout – free

Total:  $6

You could cut down on the cost by simply using the glitter glass paint.  I like using a gloss color first just because it makes the project quicker and you don’t need to apply as many layers.  You can achieve the same look with just the glitter paint, but you’ll have to apply more layers of paint.  The key to getting an even finish with glass paint is to apply multiple thin layers and to allow each layer to dry completely before adding more paint.  If you put too much paint at once it tends to look streaky or you chip paint off.

Step one:  Paint the stem with the gloss blue paint.  Let it dry, then add another layer of paint.

Step two:  Paint over the blue paint with the glitter paint.  Apply three layers of paint.

Step three:  Print out a silhouette if the desired princess figure.  Tape it inside the glass.  Use a fine tip brush and repeat steps one and two.

Follow the directions on the package to set the paint permanently.  Usually you have to let it dry for about three days, then place the glass in a cold oven and bake according to package instructions. Once the paint is set you can use the glass regularly without worrying about scraping off the paint.  Then you can enjoy your custom made glass!

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Do you know a little prince or princess?  This super easy DIY from Vanessa at Cafe Craftea will show you how to make them an adorable mini crown out of wire!  This particular type of wire comes in several different colors at Dollar Tree, so you have multiple options.  You could even take this further and add beads or other embellishments to your crown, attaching them using glue or more wire.  And while it’s miniature-sized on a human head, it’s a full-size crown if you put it on a doll’s head!  [how to make a mini wire crown]

Project estimate:

• Wire, on hand or $1
• Pliers, on hand
• Ruler, on hand

Total:  Free or $1

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It seems like every town in the USA has a Fourth of July parade. Stand out from the crowd waving flags and wave these sparkly star wands instead!  Morena shows us how to make these fun wands over on Crafts Unlimited. Make sure you bring your wands home from the parade – they make a great safe sparkler alternative for little hands. [how to make patriotic star wands]

Project estimate:

• Styrofoam stars, $1 and up
• Dowels, on hand or $0.50 and up
• Craft paint, on hand
• Glue, on hand
• Glitter, on hand or $1 and up
• Ribbon, on hand
• Metallic gift wrap shreds, $1 and up

Total: $2 and up

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Whether you know one special little princess or a whole slumber party’s worth, here’s an idea you will definitely want to pin! Nikki from Whimsy Love made this pipe cleaner tiara after seeing a similar idea in a library book. It’s a perfect party favor or activity for a princess party, and a must for any dressup clothes collection. And did we mention that we find it abso-stinking-loutely adorable? [how to make a pipe cleaner tiara]

Project estimate:

• Pipe cleaners, on hand or $1
• Rhinestones (optional), on hand or $1
• Glue, on hand

Total: Free and up

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You can never have too many possible uses for empty cardboard tubes; they are one of those recycled craft supplies that are unlikely to be in short supply.  Grace from Finley and Oliver used some to create tiny crowns!  These whimsical little royal headpieces would be great for photo booth props or to do as a slumber party craft.  And they are just the right size to turn dolls into princes and princesses!  [how to make miniature crowns]

Project estimate:

• Toilet paper or paper towel tubes, on hand
• Felt, on hand or $1
• Trim, on hand or $1
• Glue, on hand

Total:  Free and up

The post Make Miniature Crowns appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

A friend of mine came to me with a Halloween crafting question.  Her daughter is dressing as Princess Peach from Super Mario Brothers this year, and she needed a way to mimic Peach’s yellow crown.   Taking the cheap and easy route, I made a simple crown headband that I shared at Dollar Store Mom.  (Alright, I know it has more points than Peach’s crown, but I like really spiky crowns.  Let’s just call it “artistic license,” okay?)  [how to make a princess crown headband]

Project estimate:

• Craft foam, on hand or $1
• Headband, on hand or $1
• Hot glue, on hand

Total:  Free and up

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Can you believe Halloween is this week? You probably have one or more parties to go to that involve dressing up. Have you decided what your Halloween costume will be yet? Have your children? If your kids are like mine, many ideas have flown around (ours: Backyardigans, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a piece of pizza, candy corn), but you  might still be looking for that perfect costume. At this point, the “perfect” costume has to be quick and easy! No problem. I have a bunch of no-sew costume ideas for you.

No-Sew Pumpkin Costume

I made this one out of an orange t-shirt (find it at your dollar store or craft store), some felt, and a hot glue gun. The hat was quick and easy to make with recycled cardboard, felt, 1/4″ elastic and a hot glue gun. [Pumpkin Costume Tutorial & Video]

No-Sew Princess Costume

I don’t have any little girls, but if I did, I’m betting they would want to be princesses for Halloween (and beyond).  I came up with a simple no-sew princess dress for you to make. That’s right, even if you can’t sew, you can make this dress! [instructions for the no-sew princess costume]

This would be a good one to combine with the Rapunzel costume.

No-Sew Popcorn Costume

My sons are so excited by the idea of dressing as food (see our list of possible costumes above). My 2 year-old son was so excited to dress as a bucket of popcorn for our photo shoot. Secret sidebar: I added an interactive element on this tasty costume: popcorn you can attach and detach and move around on the costume. Hot glue the popcorn kernels onto the scratchy side of a piece of velcro, and then they’ll stick to your costume. [No-Sew Popcorn Costume Tutorial]

No-Sew Pirate Costume

There are so many ways to dress as a pirate, I practically wrote a book about it. You can cobble this together from stuff you have on hand, and add a dollar store pirate accessory set to give it a little extra zing. [get all my tips for dressing like a pirate at AmazingMoms]

No-Sew Ladybug Costume

This costume is all based on that grade school trick to making a symmetrical heart. If you can do that, you can make this costume! Making a ladybug costume is so simple, but it could not be cuter. It was so cute, in fact, that I made one for each of my boys. All you need is about $1 worth of felt yardage, cute ribbon, and a hot glue gun. [how to make a ladybug costume]

Other Homemade Costume Ideas:

Last month, I gave you some other great no-sew costume ideas, so don’t miss them:

• Bumblebee costume
• Rapunzel costume
• Octopus costume
• Spider costume
• Paper Doll costume
• Homemade costume roundup

So, have you decided what you’re going to dress your child (or yourself) up as for Halloween this year?

The post Roundup: Last-Minute No-Sew Costumes appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

Welcome to day 5 of Homemade Costume Week with our last quick and easy no-sew costume: the Rapunzel costume complete with long braid and tall tower. This Halloween costume is the one in the group that I wasn’t sure I could pull off, but I was excited by the concept and wanted to give it a try. There were two unknown components: the long braid (turned out just like I imagined) and the wearable tower (totally different than I planned). Find out how to make this costume over at my post at Kaboose: [how to make a Rapunzel princess halloween costume]

Project Estimate:

• 2 yards of plain cotton fabric, $5
• Duct tape, on hand
• 2 sheets of foam core board, $2
• 2 yardsticks, $2
• 1/4″ elastic, $1
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks

Total: $10

The original concept called for a box with a window cut out in the front, and arm holes in the sides. When I tried it out, the box was awkward and unbalanced on the child and it just didn’t work. I wanted to make sure the costume construction was uncomplicated, so the box idea wasn’t good enough. It could have worked with a tall, narrow box, but those aren’t easy to find and it wasn’t a practical solution.

I ended up using two pieces of foam core board attached sturdily together with yardsticks in the back to brace them together and add enough substance for the child to wear them without being afraid the foam core would disintegrate.

What are your big Halloween costume plans this year?

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