Recently I had to make a queen costume for an event. Here’s what I did.

First I went to the fabric store and looked at patterns. Boy, were they expensive. Fourteen dollars for some! Also the patterns were way more elaborate than I needed. While there, I looked at fabrics. The fancy ones, suitable for royalty, weren’t cheap. Even the remnants were costly.

So I went to Goodwill, bought an old prom dress for under $4; an adorable, fuzzy, stuffed rabbit for $1, a metal candlestick for $2.50, some artificial flowers for another $2.50, and a straw visor for another dollar or two. Altogether, the total came to a little more than $11.

Julie Wildera models the regal attire.
Photo Debbie Bulger

When I got home, I cut off the skirt of the dress, made a vertical cut in the front to turn it into a cape, and used part of the bodice to make a pocket for a drawstring. The next part was hard. I took the cute, fuzzy bunny rabbit (may the god of stuffed animals forgive me) and skinned the little fella. After removing and saving the stuffing for other projects (very nice polyester), I cut the pelt into strips which I sewed on the bottom edge of cape.

I then covered the visor with the remainder of the dress material to fashion a stand-up ruff such as Queen Elizabeth I might have worn. When I tried this ruff on with the cape, however, they interfered with each other, so I ended up taking off the fabric and re-donating the visor back to Goodwill. Some ideas just don’t work out.

The candlestick became a scepter after I unscrewed the base and my husband reduced the diameter of a piece of old broomstick on his lathe so it fit tightly into the top. We finished it off with a disk-shaped piece of metal Richard had in his metal junk collection and spray painted it gold.

The crown was fashioned from a piece of cardboard also sprayed gold and adorned with brass grommets, leftover “jewels” from the prom dress, and old buttons glued in place.

I was quite pleased with myself. The costume was done, I had saved money, and best of all, I had creatively reused all sorts of items. And reuse, as you will recall is one of the three Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

I discovered thrift stores are a wonderful source of fabrics and raw materials if you plan to make something. There are all kinds of things just waiting to be reused or converted into clothing and accoutrements fit for a queen.

—Debbie Bulger

[ top of page ]