The Little Mermaid Ursula Costume

You may look forward all year to Christmas or your birthday, but Halloween IS my Christmas.
I got the idea to be Ursula from the Little Mermaid while attending a Tedx event at my University, where a duo played "Part of Your World" on the piano/cello.

The inspiration came from a picture of an octopus costume from a Burlesque show that came across my feed on Instagram. The only part that wasn't made by me was the corset, although I did add the straps. I put the corset on and then pinned two pieces of black material from back to front. I was hoping this was going to offset the weight of the tentacles and it did! (The corset cost was 34.99 and was purchased at a Halloween store, I did check some second hand stores but no luck!)

I spent more than an hour at FabricLand picking out the absolutely perfect materials for the tentacles. I cut a random piece out that was tentacle-ish shaped, and held it to my waist to test for length. I didn't do one single measurement for this costume! I guestimated the amount of fabric I would need, and knew that I could always go back if I needed more. (I actually ended up having more than enough, and paid $37.50 for the two colors)

I pinned and I cut and I sewed to have 8 hallow wavy tentacles. What's great is that they didn't have to be perfect! I then grabbed some wire we had kicking around (about metal hanger width), and lined down the one side of the tentacle down to the tip, and back up the other side. At the widest point at the top, I made a circle out of the wire, which is how I would attach it to the corset. I sewed knots around the wire and fabric to keep the wire in place. I then stuffed it with ALL the plastic bags we had in the house. There's even some tissue paper in some because I ran out. (The wire and the plastic bags cost me nothing!)

Attaching the tentacles to the corset was a procedure and a half. They were heavy, and needed to be reinforced really well so it wouldn't rip off. I watched 5 Halloween movies while doing this.

In the close up picture you can see my necklace and earrings more closely. I made them both out of Clay (purchased from Michael's craft store). I had never baked clay before, but it was really simple and they turned out amazing. I did use some crazy glue to keep the spirals together while it baked. For the earrings, I took apart a pair of old dangly earrings I never wear, and smushed it in the top of the purple spirals, and reinforced with glue. For the shell necklace I pushed a safety pin in the back at an angle (again, reinforced by glue), and its string is actually a shoelace! In terms of makeup, I watched a bunch of makeup tutorials online.... and then winged it myself. Eyebrows are KEY for Ursula. My hair was done using typical silver temporary hair spray that you can get from basically any store at this time of year. (Two small clay portions from Michaels was $6, two cans of silver hair spray were $7. My makeup I had kicking around in random palettes).

I'm already looking at costumes for next year :). The entire thing cost me about $90 to make, and so many hours I don't even know. It was more expensive than I anticipated, but if I had known sooner what I wanted to be I could have ordered the corset online for less than $10, and cut the cost a bit. That being said, it was totally worth it because the costume was a hit, and I love the look on people's faces when they say, "You made that?!"