For Halloween 2018, I made a kind of fun 80s Rainbow Brite inspired costume. I didn’t stay completely true to her original style and worked with what I already owned. Yep, I own these things. The leggings are LulaRoe. The top was a €1 thrift shop find. The jean jacket is my own vintage gap, which I bought new. I bought the sweatband.
Materials
For the leg warmers, I considered knitting my own from scratch. There are ample patterns and it’s not hard to make one up anyway. I have ample stash for such projects. However, I had a cowl that I hadn’t worn in ages that I bought on clearance at Primark in the kids’ section. It was €2 and I was freezing and picked it up for immediate warmth. But it was always overlooked for my hand knit layers, so I kept debating donating it on as it was still in lovely new condition.
Then it caught my eye and I thought it was time to give it a second chance.
Process
I turned the cowl inside out and sewed it several times back and forth in two lines on the sewing machine using yellow thread.
I left just over one half centimetre between the two lines of stitches to cut them apart later. I was very thorough with the speaking because I didn’t want the leg warmers to unravel once I put them on.
The cut is always nerve-wracking! But it went fine.
Having said that, I was nervous still so I did one more go of stitches after they were separate.
Result
Warm, vibrant, era-appropriate, and sturdy! Winning.
Here’s my complete costume. My six-year-old had the nerve to ask me as we walked out the door if I planned to get dressed up later or wear everyday clothes all day. Harumph!
