How to make a binbag dress

by Emily Osborn-Vasquez

With Halloween coming up, everyone is looking for (cheap) original costumes. A binbag dress has an enticing aura of punk promise, it's more tacky than all the eighties put together and it's almost free!

Materials

• A bin bag (big plastic bin liner)
• Scissors
• Glue (if required)
• A scarf/belt to cinch in the waist

Instructions:

First, turn your bin bag inside out if it has writing on the outside of it.

Now find the big opening at the bottom. On the other closed end, find the middle and bunch it up as show in picture 1.

Cut across that bunched-up bit. The thicker your neck or the more lowcut you want your dress to be, the lower down you'll cut the bunched-up bit. If in doubt, cut less at first - you can always cut more if you need to.

You now have your neck hole. Stick the bin bag on so you can work out where the armholes will be, and repeat the process above (it's just easier this way, and will make a more perfect circle).

You now have a perfectly wearable dress! However, if you want something slightly more fancy, read on.

Fold over the bottom edges of your dress and glue down the entire circumference of that bottom edge. You can do this in several places if required.

When you put on your dress this time it should stick out at the end, a little like a puffball dress, and you should (ideally) look like a tramp in a shapeless sack. This is where the scarf/belt comes in - use it to cinch in at your waist. Scarves are nice because you can tie them in a bow for extra detailing.

Ta-dah! You now possess an extremely cheap, easy and fun Halloween costume which will suit any zombie/undead/vampire creation perfectly. Accessorize with red food colouring and/or wings!

Halloween links on Mookychick

• Halloween costume: Make your own binbag dress
• Halloween costumes: Make your own goth/burlesque outfits
• Get your teeth into the pagan Halloween (Samhain)
• Make your own ouija board
• Spooky competition: Win DVDs and books from master-mentalist Derren Brown
• Vampire magazine: Bite Me

More Crafting tips

• More: Indie arts and crafts

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Mookychick believes that climbing trees and riding giant turtles is more fun and girly than worrying about make-up. But if you want to worry about make-up instead of turtles? Fine by us. Be you feminist, kitten, punk, emo, indie, goth, witch, vegan, horror junky, intellectual, christian goth, corset queen, geek, unicorn, sea monkey... be you into alternative style, alternative health, spirituality, comics, manga, j-pop, harajuku or jock culture... we will always love you.