Costume Frenzy

I have never felt so thrifty in my life. I wanted Cati to have two costumes this year. But only if I could get them for the right price. Because Alex and I plan on dressing up with Cati, I wanted to make sure the costumes were as inexpensive as possible (it's ridiculous how much generic costumes cost!). I wanted Cati to be a poodle so I could get some pictures of her with Perla. I was lucky and found a new poodle costume in Cati's size on eBay and I paid a whopping $5.95 for it (including shipping!).

 

I also wanted Cati to be a cupcake. I wasn't so lucky when it came to this costume, but I did find this cupcake costume how-to and figured it would be an easy enough project to undertake. And it was! For this costume I wanted Cati to wear a red bow as the "cherry on top," a tutu around her chest as the "frosting" with pom poms glued on as "sprinkles," white/ivory bloomers as the "cup," pink tights, and booties. The only things I needed to buy were the tutu and the pom poms; I already had everything else! When I was pregnant I bought a red crochet headband as part of a set, the ivory bloomers ($.99 at Marshalls!), and the white booties (picture below). The pink booties where my baby booties (picture below). My mother-in-law had red ribbon leftover from last Christmas and she bought Cati a set of tights when she was 3 months old. I ended up finding the tutu at The Gap for $6.99 (technically it's half of that because I bought a Groupon deal where you got $50 at The Gap for $25, but who's really going to care about that technicality other than me?). The pom poms I bought at Jo-Ann Fabrics using a 40% off coupon and they came out to $1.92.

I love details so my favorite part of the cupcake costume is the red bow. I thought of making a traditional bow but then I felt a surge of creativity and I free handed the loops and came up with the bow that you see. Isn't it cute? Doesn't Cati look adorable modeling it?

I'm undecided when it comes to the booties. I like the white ones because they are really girly but I also like the pink because of the pom poms. What do you think?

 

Here's the breakdown on money I actually spent once I decided on these two costumes:

$5.95 poodle costume
$6.99 tutu
$1.92 pom poms
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Total: $14.86

I still can't believe I was able to DIY the cupcake costume mostly using things I already owned. Next time Alex questions a purchase I make I will remind him of this costume creation and how it was made possible (and cheaply) because of my shopping and vision skills (I buy a lot of things for Cati based on how they would look in pictures).