Winning Best Out Of Waste

Our parish feast had a carnival over three days. We had various entertainment programs and contests. One of them was a ‘Best Out of Waste’ Fashion show for the kids. Needless to say, the daughter and I were super excited. The million dollar question was, what would we craft our outfit of?

Now, we knew paper would be a hot contender and picked by most, so we took the second best option, plastic. The look we went for was Mother Nature in 2050. Toiling till the last-minute, since I was also a part of the organizing committee, we came up with a stunner. And yes, the little lady bagged the first prize. Yay US!

So let me take you through the craft process of this costume.

Things you will need

Black Garbage Bags – Sizes Medium and Large (about 10 in each)
Plastic bags – Assorted colours
Silver Foil
Old Cord
Embellishments – We used butterfly stickers
Two Inch Broad Ribbon
Glue Gun & Scissors

And lots of patience 😀

1. Take your garbage bags and cut them into approximately 1 inch strips. Don’t cut it at the base, work the length. You will have two sizes of strips now, medium and large.

2. Cut your ribbon a tad bit more from the waist measurement. This, so that you can tie the skirt in a pretty bow. However, mark the ends of the waist with a pen, towards the inside.

3. Start at the marking on the ribbon to your left. Take your garbage bag strip.  Since it has not been cut at the base, you should have a loop on one end and two loose tails at the other.

4. Take the garbage bag strip behind the ribbon, just a few inches to form the loop. Pull the tail ends through the loop. Secure the knot gently. The thin plastic can tear if pulled too hard.

5. Repeat this method till you reach the other marked end of the ribbon. Remember to alternate between the medium and the large strips in sequence, to give the skirt a fuller look.

6. Once your skirt is done, you can stick a ribbon as per the waist measurement on the front side to hide the knots and give it a finished look.

7. Take any old T back/sling top that you are okay to use the glue gun on. We stuck to black to match the skirt.

8. We took regular plastic bags and just rolled them across our fingers. We pushed the tail end through the hole in the centre and voila, we had our plastic flowers. Small foil balls became the stamens to complete the look.

9. We took an old cord and wrapped it in silver foil to make it look like vines.

10. A green plastic bag was cut in the shape of leaves.

11. And now for the assembly. We stuck the silver foil vine across the top to fall like a branch. We then added the plastic flowers and the leaves. The butterfly stickers from her room gave it the added panache.

12. Bottle caps were glued together on old ear hooks to form a pair of earrings.

13. The headgear made of LED lights was borrowed from a friend, to complete the look.

And just like that, you are ready to rock the stage. Check out the video that won the hearts of the crowd and the judges alike. Good luck to making your costume. If you do, be sure to come and let me know how it turned out. I look forward.

Till then, reduce, reuse and recycle!

The Winners – From Left to Right – 2nd Place, 3rd Place and 1st Place 😀

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