It’s nearly Halloween. Time to carve spooky faces into pumpkins and make pumpkin soup. It’s also time to get dressed up! Costumes can be costly so making one yourself from stuff you already have is an easy and inexpensive option. When I got invited to a superhero themed birthday party I raided my wardrobe. I was able to quickly make a DIY Batgirl costume that didn’t cost me anything.

How to make your own Batgirl costume

I already had a black dress, a black evening scarf, which I wore instead of a cape, and black boots.

I had a rummage through my kids fancy dress box and found a yellow batman belt and a black eye mask. The only thing I needed to make for this outfit was the yellow bat on the front of my dress.  

I found some yellow fabric in my fabric stash (TIP – build up a fabric stash by viewing old clothes as fabric) looked up the batman logo picture and drew out a similar looking bat on a piece of paper.

To make the bat symmetrical I folded it in half and cut it so that each side matched. Then I drew around the bat on the fabric, cut it out and hand stitched it onto my dress. When I had finished being batgirl, I unpicked the stitches and voila – I had my dress back!  

This costume was simple to make, didn’t cost me anything, isn’t clogging up my wardrobe, didn’t harm the environment, wasn’t scarily flammable and was fun!   

If you’re interested to learn more about zero waste celebrations I have more tips and tricks here.

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My next challenge on My Year of Eco Challenges will be all about slowing down fashion.  I am writing about it early, because I want to invite you all to join in with this one!

• Many clothes contain cotton. To produce cotton takes a large volume of pesticides – according to this site cotton ‘soaks up 11-12% of the world’s pesticides. Pesticides can be very damaging to the environment and to those that work with them. The same site also claims that most of the cotton grown in the US is genetically modified.
• New fashion trends are being turned around so quickly that it is putting tremendous pressure on factory workers, who in some cases are being locked in factories with no regard for health and safety, until the work has been finished e.g. Rana Plaza (read more here). 
• Clothes are being chucked out at a fast rate and a large proportion of them are ending up in landfill – according to WRAP ‘Around £140 million worth (350,000 tonnes) of used clothing goes to landfill in the UK every year’, ‘More than 30% of our unwanted clothing currently goes to landfill’ and ‘More than 60% of householders in the UK say they have unwanted clothes and textiles stored in their homes’ (see here for more info).  There are a large proportion of clothes being recycled too, but recycling puts pressure on the environment too.

• Wear the same pair of shoes every day for a month
• Thin out your wardrobe and choose a set number of clothes to wear for the month – how low can you go?  Do you need 20 items or could you cope with 5 or even less?
• Get creative and embellish just one unloved item of clothing, shoes or accessories. You could even make an accessory like a brooch with scraps you find around your home..
• Mend something that wouldn’t otherwise
• Take on the Passion Fashion DoAction in support of my Year of Eco Challenges – see more info here
• Or join me and create a whole new outfit – it doesn’t have to fit in with the latest fashion trends, it could just be a reflection of your own personal style!

The post What is the problem with fast fashion and a challenge for you all! appeared first on Eco Thrifty Living.