Belle Running Costume Attempt #1

I guess last night’s teaser for my Princess Half Marathon costume wasn’t much of teaser because everyone guessed correctly. I’m going to be Belle! 🙂

Or, you know, try to be Belle.

Fun fact: when I was in first grade (and Beauty and the Beast had just hit theaters) I asked my mom to change my name to Belle for school. She said no. 🙁

I actually prefer Belle in her blue and white dress (I was never a fan of the glitz and glamour look as a kid), but a quick trip to JoAnns made me realize that the yellow ‘princess-y’ look would be easier to recreate. Go figure.

I actually went in not sure what I was getting myself into. I thought I would find some fabrics that matched the color I was after, wrap the fabric around my body, and be done with it. Unrealistic much? But then this mannequin’s tutu caught my attention.

Once I saw it and examined it, I knew the look could be recreated it at home.

So I bought a yard and a half of yellow tulle, a yard and a half of yellow fabric with sparkles, and hoped for the best.   

The rest of my supplies included: a tiara, puffy paint, fabric tape, fabric glue, elastic cord, a white tank top, a yellow tank top, and a red flower.

First, I started with the elastic. I measured it freely around my waist and used the back of a chair as an impromptu mannequin for the assembly of the tutu.

I secured the elastic cord with a safety pin, but ended up having to make it an inch or two smaller when I was finished. If you’re going to the less adjustable approach (like permanently securing the elastic cord together) then I would suggest measuring one to two inches tighter than you think you’ll need because it will stretch out a bit.

Then I cut the tulle into strips.

The strips were about 1.5 inches thick and I ended up using all of 1.5 yards of fabric for the tutu.

To assemble the tutu, I folded the strips in half and draped the folded end over the elastic.

Then I pulled the two ends through the loop of the folded end

and pulled tight

until it was secure on the elastic and there weren’t any gaps in the looped knot.

I just repeated the process until I ran out of tulle

The full tutu – from start to finish – took about an hour to complete.

Or one episode of Pretty Little Liars. 😉

The tutu skirt is nothing fancy, but it was easy to create and I got the look I was going for.

I’m still not sure what to do for the top part. I wrapped the yellow sparkle fabric around my mid-section and pinned it in place. I figured that if all else fails, this method could technically get the job done on race day. I’m not looking to break any records here, just have fun and play dress-up at Disney with my running buddies.

Kinda? Sorta? Maybe?

We’ll see. I still have time to work on it. At least I have a yellow tutu – that’s a start. 😉

Any running costume tips you want to share? Please do!

I had a meeting at Whole Foods this afternoon that ended up going well past my normal dinner time. Lucky for me, a meeting at Whole Foods meant an easy dinner at home.

Soup to go!

I reheated the Sweet Potato and Kale soup on the stove top when I got home.

The soup was rather bland. I tried to spice it up with salt, pepper, chili powder, and garlic, but I couldn’t get it right.

I also had a corn and cashew cake that was also ‘just ok.’ I wasn’t very impressed with my Whole Foods quick-grab dinner this evening.

Peach + almond for an afternoon snack.

Valentine’s Day Godiva chocolate for dessert.

I think Scooby is starting to feel at home here.

What do you think? 😉

Good Night!