Pinterest is a dangerous vice of mine. It's how I hoard...online. I have over 5,000 pins in numerous categories: school, home, running, crafting, you name it. "Hi, my name is Laura and I'm a Pin-aholic." I can't help it. Pinterest is a mecca of ideas and downright time-consuming. As we speak, I'm pinning. However, with great power comes great responsibility. Wait - that's from something else. But seriously, with the right idea and follow-through, you can come out with some great stuff.
But - I digress. The reason for my gushing over Pinterest is this: it is an AH-mazing resource for costumes. Not just Halloween, mind you - running costumes as well! Search for any possible costume or character and add the word 'running' and BAM! Type in 'Princess Half Marathon running costume' and be prepared to lose several hours of your life. Well worth it, I promise. At least, I thought so.
In the planning of our Dory and Maryland Princess costumes, one common accessory made its presence known - sparkle skirts. Sparkle skirts are just that - sparkly skirts. I first stumbled across them via a cute photo of Kelly from
Sparkle Athletic/
According to Kelly donning several colors as various Disney characters and I grew curious. Then - I wondered some more and decided to Google Sparkle Athletic. Lo and behold, I discovered an overabundance of sparkly skirts and other accessories. Beautiful sparkly sparkles in an assortment of colors, fit for a princess or cute fish. I wanted to own them all..but I was not fully prepared to pay the $25 they cost. Which is a fairy reasonable price but given the amount of cash we were already forking over to do the Glass Slipper Challenge, stay at a Disney Resort, flights, etc... I wanted to find ways to be frugal when possible.
Armed with an idea and Pinterest, I sought out Do-It-Yourself tutorials and enlisted the help of my mother and her faithful Kenmore sewing machine. The tutorial we used was from a blogger/runner at
Beauty Still Remains - great explanations and pictures. First step, a trip to our local JoAnn Fabrics with a list for thread, elastic and confetti dot fabric. We soon discovered that the online inventory is sadly not always accurate and our dreams of sewing that afternoon were quickly put on hold and instead, we ordered the royal blue fabric that would be Dory online. We waited. We waited. Finally - a mere two weeks later, we were rewarded for our patience and yards in hand, we began to analyze the tutorial I found and we sewed.
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| the sewing begins! |
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| the confetti dot fabric being cut into strips |
Well, my mom sewed and I played assistant, bringing her drinks and pinning when instructed, and so on. From start to finish, the first skirt took us an hour and a half. We didn't want to waste any fabric or make any mistakes and often re-read the directions to be on the safe side. Several skirts later, my mom can now whip these out within a half-hour.
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| attaching the elastic band to the skirt |
I cannot thank my mom enough for sewing our sparkle skirts and honestly, several more. Since the first skirt, we've collaborated to create several more in various colors. She made several for a local 5K for herself and some of her friends, which has led me to create a wish list for more colors of my own. For the Enchanted 10K, Veronica and I donned black shorts or capris under our sparkle skirts and a matching ensemble of blue wigs, yellow fins fashioned from tulle and elastic and a beautiful tech-shirt custom-embroidered (but more on that later). Our completed Dory costumes were quite original and stood apart from the hundreds of tutus and princess costumes that day. If I recall, we only encountered one other Dory during the race in a sea of 10,000 runners.
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| our homemade sparkle skirts a la Dory! |
I have worn my skirt again for other local races and even on some random training runs because hey, who doesn't love a little sparkle? Keep an eye out for another costuming re-cap involving the custom Mickey ears I created that were inspired by the Maryland flag!
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