Wearable Projects & Costumes

I love to express myself through my personal style. I am an avid seamstress and enjoy altering and painting thrifted clothing to make it uniquely mine. I'm always on the lookout for new and interesting techniques to incorporate into my wearable projects, including dyeing, stenciling, self-drafting patterns, and more. These are some samples of wearable projects I've made.

I also like to make elaborate and punny costumes, as seen at the top of the page!

For my three-dimensional sewing projects, see my Personal Projects page.

Table of Contents:

Costuming

I love making costumes. Costuming combines the creative fun of making wearable projects with the challenge of reproducing a particular character, or elevating an idea into a tangible form, as with my many punny Halloween costumes. Here are some examples of costumes I've made over the years.

Turnip Mage and Turnip Bard

I was so delighted by my first visit to the Eastham Turnip Festival on Cape Cod in 2024 that I decided I needed to make some themed costumes to wear.

I opted for a Dungeons and Dragons inspired look, with me as a mage and Shawyoun as a bard!

My favorite details are that my hood has a long point on it (as the "root" of the turnip!) and the 3D-printed turnip leaf-shaped clasps on our hood/capes!

The additional turnip accessories are all 3D printed and hand-painted.

This labor of love was worth it--We ended up in the Provincetown Independent newspaper, as well as on the Cape Cod news!

Bed and Breakfast

Back to the challenging costumes for 2025!

My dimensional plate of breakfast is mostly cardboard and foam--ultimately very lightweight and wearable!

The most difficult part of this costume was figuring out how to ensure that the bed would stay strapped onto Shawyoun comfortably without bending or being too much of a burden. I ended up making a "harness" (hidden under the pajama top) out of a pair of blue jeans, as well as adding a waist belt from a fanny pack. The rest of the costume folded around him like a book, and secured with carabiners at the sides.

I was extremely proud of how well this one turned out, and the fact that you couldn't tell at all how he stayed tucked into bed!

Bow and Arrow

I had a very busy fall in 2024, so I decided to go for a more straightforward costume that year...Bow and Arrow!

The bow was made from a roll of EVA foam edged with masking tape, and the arrow was cardboard covered in poster paper with more masking tape edges.

To make the arrow more comfortable, I cut foam into a "neck pillow" shape that helped keep it from twisting on his shoulders.

The most fun part of all of our punny costumes is wearing them out and about in downtown Boston. I love seeing the expressions on peoples' faces as they try to figure out what it is, then their joy when they realize!

Sometimes, simple is best!

Fish and Chips

After the success of 2022's Peaches and Cream, I opted for an even more ambitious costume in 2023...Fish and Chips!

The fish was one of the most difficult costumes I've ever made. I created a base with upholstery foam, then basically added "skin" by hot-gluing the sequined fabric in place. My favorite part was the tail, which could swish back and forth dynamically!

To make the Chips costume, I purchased and carefully opened a real bag of Cape Cod potato chips, then flattened the bag onto a scanner and scanned its front and back. I made some edits to its aspect ratio, then set both the front and back images side-by-side. I then had the combined image sent to a custom flag-printing business, which printed the high-res image on a flag for me! The result was a perfectly recognizable Bostonian snack, and a huge hit with all who saw it! The "chips" were also made of surplus sequined fabric from my fish fins, so we matched perfectly!

Peaches and Cream

I love a good pun.

For Halloween 2022, I created "Peaches and Cream" for myself and Shawyoun.

My costume was fairly simple, and combined a skirt that I had previously made with a shirt I made for a mock boilersuit. I strapped a basket of (fake) peaches to my front, so I looked like I was carrying them. In reality, they were quite lightweight, and strongly attached, so getting around in this costume was a breeze!

In order to create such a realistic carton of Hood cream for Shawyoun, I actually found a high-resolution picture of a Hood carton on an Instacart website...and it turned out that they included pictures from all sides! I used PosterRazor, an image enlarging site, to blow the images up to a specified size, then printed in color and assembled the "posters", which I glued to the sides of the cardboard carton. The costume was a hit, and very well-understood by all who saw it!

Amazon Prime

For Halloween 2019, I dressed as a rainforest covered in numbers divisible only by 1 and themselves to become...Amazon Prime!

I thrifted the underlying dress, and sewed on various Amazon Rainforest flora and fauna, including trailing liana vines and a Rafflesia flower. My favorite detail is probably the sloth hanging on the front, which I found at a dollar store and modified to fit the theme.

This costume was a fun experiment in working only with what I had on hand--with the exception of the dress ($5), the sloth ($1), and the bird on my head ($1), I used or repurposed materials that I already had or found at home, including the silk flowers and the "vines" (which were made of the cut-off edge of a brown fitted sheet I used to make a couch cover a month prior).

Similarly, though the dress fit me, it couldn't zip well in the back. I worked around this issue by sewing in elastic paneling, which I incorporated into the design of the costume. Rather than hiding a repair, I featured it!

Queen Bee and King Bee

This costume was my first foray into dyeing clothes! I dyed the underlying dress yellow, and added felt details to mimic gathers in the dress and provide the "bee stripes".

I also made the King Bee costume for my friend, which includes bee-themed "medals" and epaulettes!

I really enjoyed making this set of costumes, as it was the first time I had the opportunity to design two coordinating costumes from scratch, then make them a reality. I made sure to incorporate coordinating elements wherever possible--for example, matching yellows, reusing the same materials at various locations, and repeating the honey-colored rhinestones (on his buttons and cuffs, and on my necklace and crown!).

I'm extremely proud of these costumes, as I feel that their overall look is cohesive, coordinated, and true to my original vision.

Bee and Puppycat Cosplay

This was my first ever cosplay, as Bee from the animated web series Bee and Puppycat! After attempting unsuccessfully (it stuck straight up, oops!) to attach a Peter Pan collar to the shirt via a self-drafted pattern, I ended up cutting a different shirt into a small false collar, which I wore underneath the yellow shirt. Not everything goes perfectly the first time!

I also made a casual Puppycat costume for my friend Lee, and we wore the cosplays together to IkasuCon 2015 in Fort Wayne, IN.

Fionna and BMO Cosplay

Making these costumes of Fionna and BMO from the show Adventure Time was a blast! I particularly liked painting the BMO box, which turned out extremely well. Luckily Patrick was able to get into and out of it easily!

I'm also pretty proud of the cartoony "crystal sword" I made (out of cardboard, printer paper, and packing tape!)

It can't be seen in these pictures, unfortunately, but I actually made the hat reversible--one side has the "bunny ears" for Fionna's hat, and the other side has the "bear ears" for the character of Finn in the show!

Sailor Collar Shirt

I thrifted a blouse with a standard turn-down collar, which I removed and replaced with a self-drafted sailor collar. It was a very challenging project, as I had to figure out (from scratch!) how to interface the inside to allow the collar to lay flat while worn.

Reversible Apron

One of my first ever self-drafted patterns, featuring over 12 feet of hand-gathered ruffles and symmetrically placed pockets on both sides. It's now my go-to apron for all cooking adventures.

Bee's Knees Jeans

I used my Cricut Explore to cut out a bee stencil I prepared in Inkscape, then painted with acrylics for a bee-utiful pair of pants!

Clothes and Jewelry

Vegetable Shorts

I transferred vegetable shapes found online into SVG files, then cut them as stencils on my Cricut Explore machine out of freezer paper and painted them with acrylics! They turned out exactly how I wanted!

Acorn and Leaf Button Covers

I made these out of wax, then formed a plaster mold off of the wax originals. I then cast the shapes in the mold with lead-free solder and attached them to button cover blanks. A little heavy, but a fun proof-of-concept!

Wool Coat Alteration

Altering this wool coat was an amazing (and challenging) lesson in garment construction. Prior to this, I had never attempted to alter a fully-lined garment, but the success of this project has inspired me to try more in the future!

Wool Shorts Alteration

I applied the skills I learned during the wool coat alteration to shorten and shape these fully-lined vintage wool shorts to fit my preferences. The result is a far more wearable and unique design with craftsmanship that will hold up over time.

Miffy Earrings

I made these cute earrings in honor of Miffy's 63rd birthday. Her dress is made of a pretty sheet of origami paper! Her body contains air-dry clay, to ensure the earrings weren't too heavy.

Double Circle Skirts

These skirts each contain two full circles of fabric attached to a single waistband for extra volume. Making these skirts was an interesting exercise in formula-generated patterns, as their sizing is based on my unique measurements

Don't Be Afraid to Take Whisks Apron

This self-drafted apron was made to my friend Collin's measurements, and features an encouraging embroidered message!

Dyeing a Vintage Jacket

I thrifted a lovely vintage jacket, but wanted it to be a more saturated yellow. So, I dyed the whole thing with polyester dye! I think the coolest part of the process was that the plastic buttons even took up the dye and became a darker color.

Tea Towel Apron

A simple utility apron sewn from a tea towel with bias tape straps and a patch pocket. I like to use this as a project when teaching others how to sew!

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