Happy Halloween everyone!

For all my fellow booklovers and Beauty and the Beast fans, here’s my Belle costume!

I happened to have this Medieval-style peasant dress I sewed years ago—that looked so much like Belle’s dress in the movie that I couldn’t resist dressing up as her. (And she IS one of my favorite princesses.) Adding the little details and making the necklace was pretty easy.

I love having costume pieces and fabrics around because that makes it pretty easy to pull together costumes. I didn’t have a fichu-style scarf like the one Belle wears around her neck, but I did have some scraps left over from another costume, so I was able to fashion them into a scarf. I didn’t have red paneling on the inside of my dress, but I did have a little red purse I sewed, so I added it to my dress like a stomacher of sorts! For the “apron” I tied a striped scarf around my waist with ribbon.

For Belle’s necklace, I found a bead that resembled the one she wears in the movie, then made the lariat-style necklace using embroidery floss. I just kind of fiddled until I got it to work.

Instead of the three little beads, I tied the tails of the lariat into two knots, then added another knot. I tied the loose tails together a few times, then tucked the tails back up through the bead, knotting them a final time above the bead.

There you go, the most slapdash necklace tutorial ever!

I styled my hair using this video for inspiration. I didn’t feel like wearing a wig, so Belle is blonde today.

I’m going to go watch a slightly spooky movie now! Hope you have a frightfully good Halloween!

What are you dressing up as today?