How To Make A Mermaid Costume For Only $10 - Steemit

in #art5 years ago

First rule to making a costume on the cheap: Don’t buy a stupid wig like I did.

Okay, so the wig was only $5.71USD. Which is pretty dang good for a wig.

But honestly, my costume would have been less than $10 total if I hadn’t gotten the wig.

So now I feel like I lost cheap costume bragging rights.

😆

In my overspending defense, there WAS a $500, $300 and $200 cash prize for 1, 2 and 3rd place costumes.

And my thought process was something like “who the heck travels with mermaid costumes in their suitcase? I may not have a ton of competition. Go for it.”

So here are some cheap ways to make stuff (especially in Bali):

🐚Buy a kid's fake pearl bracelet for .20. Make sure employees look at you strangely for shopping in a kid's store.
🐚Find a crap ton of seashells. Just go to the beach, find shells for 2 hours, then repeat.
🐚If you’re in the US, I bet you kind find everything at Goodwill. In Bali, I just drove around the “local” areas of town and popped in a bunch of different stores. I got a mermaid bra and a matching skirt for $4.28 total. Seriously. That’s only $2.14 each.
🐚Talk your friend into being in charge of buying the glue gun
🐚Get a roll of hemp for about .60 cents and then make a crap ton of jewelry with it.
🐚Get a green pancho for about $1 then draw mermaid scales all over with permanent market
🐚Just get a ton of glitter and put it everywhere. Glitter solves all crafting problems.
🐚Get a cheap chap headband for $1 then glue stuff all over it and turn it into a mermaid crown:

🐚Get costume jewelry rings or kids for .25 cents each, break off the top part, and then glue shells to the base:

🐚Cut up your costume jewelry package because it’s shiny and gold and you can borrow eyelash glue and then stick it in a cool pattern on your face:

See? Weird gold stuff. And a really bad wig job!

Crafting is really relaxing and fun. Unless there’s a glue gun involved. In which case, you’ll get burned. Literally. I burned myself 6 times haha.

Adult coloring books are a much safer option if you’re looking to relax via some sort of creative outlet haha.

Despite the burns, it was fun. And cheap.

I ran out of seashells while doing this one, so I kinda just did a seashell outline instead of the full thing:

A mermaidy ring I got for my friend but I think she lowkey hated it. It looked mermaid-fin colored though!

And it was only .20!

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Anddd last but not least, the drift wood tile necklace that Nari said was "stupid." 😆

She cracks me up.

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^^ It's the stupid blue one on the bottom right.

P.S. For all you pearl trolls, I know the pearls fell off. I fixed it! lol

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Lol!! When I first was reading this I read that one part as “get a cheap cheap husband for $1.” Also, thats defintely not MENE gold you are wearing :)

HAHAHA your brain is so funny!!! I think I should write a post called "get a cheap cheap husband for $1."

Yeah, sorry I'm wearing beach trash.

It's a step up from white trash but a huge step down from Mene.

I enjoyed making it though.. Kinda. lol. I burned myself too much to fully enjoy. It's like the glue gun didn't want me to be happy haha

Super creative idea :) looks awesome !

YOU look awesome in your goldmoney shirt

Goldmoney shirts can make anyone look decent, even ME! It’s mostly the “gold” part

looks like you had a really fun time putting together this costume! Idk how realistic it is in the states though, you'd need to live near the beach for one, and two it has to have lots of nice shells! But we have a bunch of 99 cent stores, so maybe there's a gold mine to be had there...sort of inspired to try and make my own $10 costume now hahaha

yeah!! you can actually buy big bags of shells on ebay for less than $3 BUT they ship from China sooo they take a long time to get there. And if you're worried about being green and carbon footprint it's not so good.

But yes...99 cent stores and goodwill and taking cheap jewelry apart and turning it into craft pieces.

I hope you DO make a cheap costume! I'd love to see it @corinneiskorean!!!

Awww I love it, I've not been lately in the mood of mermaid pictures (too conscious about that tummy hahhaa I need to get rid of) though I'm also very much on the DIY side and I love to make my own garments... that was impressive, I like the bras and the necklaces. I made myself a mermaid crown and garment... need to locate pictures of it. That wig was cheap! usually for cosplay wig that are not supershiny prices are considerable... I don't even know how to dive but I dream of those expensive tails to shoot a video underwater.

yeah, find pictures! I bet your mermaid crown is amazing!! I know what you mean about the tummy. Thankfully, high waisted mermaid tails are in! haha

And an underwater mermaid tail shoot would be a dream!

haha, so great!! What did you do for the rest of the body though!?!
That bra looks awesome!
Okay, I see everybody asks for the tail but it's a pretty important part of a mermaid's personality..! AND it would be interesting to know if you did it naked... :)

hahaha sorry to disappoint, didn't do it naked!!! Well, actually, it would be more disappointing if I was naked lol nobody wants to see that.

I better to a tail update soon!! For now it's fun to keep it suspenseful.

Actually, I did briefly mention it in the post but I didn't put a picture. So it's kind of funny

you did? Oh, I must have spaced out on that!

everyone did!! lol it's kind of like an interesting social experiment haha

This is super cool. You can do a bunch of stuff cheap if you're crafty, and this is just one more super great example of that. I agree about glue guns, though; I've burned myself on those plenty as well over time >.>

yeah!!! Cheapo's for the win! haha sorry about the glue gun incident. I think my glue gun gave me a mermaid scar

All my costumes cost even less than that! I once went as starburns. That would have been free except i was bad at shaving so we had to draw them on, heh

No way!!! You have to do a post about how you do this!! Then tag me so I see it haha

Wow !!! Talk about creativity and being resourceful. I salute you entirely.

aw thanks for this nice comment @ireenchew!!! Made me smile

I like it, creative, fun and cheap. 😊

thanks! Cheap is my favorite part haha

Ah... I feel like this is unfinished... what did you make your tail out of?

Ah... I feel like this
Is unfinished... what did you
Make your tail out of?

                 - aussieninja


I'm a bot. I detect haiku.

Literally everyone wants to know! Even bots want to know!

hahahahaha I want to keep it mysterious almost just for that reason! The tail was anti-climactic!

I'll update on the tail soon.

My friend's tale though... hers was climactic? Had a climax? Now it's just starting to sound weird lol

ALSO DID YOU WIN?!?!?!?

Looks like a lot of fun making that, and dangerous lmao. Really good job though!

lol the most dangerous mermaid adventure ever!!!

haha thank you!!!

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