DIY Mummy costume

My little monsters are not so little anymore.

Halloween is not a Spanish festivity, but is really popular around the south of Spain.  It may be because of American movies, or maybe because a large community of Americans live in this area, or simply because everybody loves dressing up around Cadiz.  Carnival anyone?  Anyway, more and more schools and neighborhoods are celebrating it.  

I love costumes almost as much as I love dressing for Feria.  I just try to forget that there is candy involved.  I have to get rid of the lute bag immediately. My kids, on the other hand, don't like it period.  Are they really my kids?  So I try my best to make it fun designing their costumes and trying to build hype around the celebration, but it never works. So in the end, making the costume has to be fun for me, and I make it so I can use it too (see the last picture below). 

Mummy Costume
Making a mummy costume is relatively easy.  All you need is an extra large t-shirt and a white or cream old sweat pant or yoga pant.   If you don't have and old pair of sweat pants, you can make an easy pair of pants out of extra large white t-shirts.  I used a package of Fruit Of The Loom  xtra large t-shirts to make the top and pants.  

You will also need some black tea, bandages or gauze.  Basic sewing skills and sewing materials, a sewing machine, thread, and pins.  Or you can hand sew the gauze by hand. Maybe even use fusible web to iron on the bandages.  Haven't tried the fusible web, but looks possible.   

To make the pants from two t-shirts click here
If you happen to find white yoga pants really cheap, then you can skip, making the pants. 

I made the pants out of two t-shirts, and added an elastic to the waist.

For the top, 
Lay a t-shirt and starts pinning the bandages on one side, in a crisscross like fashion without wrapping it around the t-shirt.  Let excess bandages hang from the sides.  Then sew straight down the length of the shirt passing and stiching all bandages.  It is ok if some hangs and are not neatly attached. Don't cut the extra length.  Turn shirt around and pin the excess length of bandage in a crisscross fashion, like on the front, and sew down to secure the bandages. Now cut and rip the edges of the t-shirt to make it look old.  See the picture below.

Extra large white T-shirt

Dyed with tea and edges ripped and torn.  Dry line, the more wrinkled the better.

For the bottom, I ended attaching the gauze like a hawaiian skirts.  Most of the bandage hanging from the waist.  I also ripped some parts of the pant to make it look old.

Attach the bandages from the waist of pants.
Make holes and tears to T-shirt and pants.

Costume in tea bath

Brew some really strong tea and let the costume sit in the tea several days, I did not wash it afterwards, I just line dried it to keep most of the color and wrinkles.

For the head dress, you can wrap the bandages around several times, or sew together the bandages like a turban  which you can easily put it on and take off.  This was so comfortable and easy to wear, I took it to my zumba class and danced like a beast.  

Arriving to my Zumba class was fun