from Scooby Doo
You know who Velma is:
I've always had a bit of a connection to Velma because I, too, cannot see without my glasses. She's also pretty short and nerdy like me!
I was trying to figure out what I wanted to be for Halloween 2015, when I realized that Velma would be an easy costume - especially now that I had shorter hair that looked much more like hers. (I still don't have the bangs, but that's ok.)
I already had tall orange socks from my fencing days; I just need to find the rest of her outfit!
I found some actual red Mary Jane's that were perfect for Velma on Amazon for a good price, but by the time I decided to actually buy them they weren't available anymore :/
I ended up getting these because at the time they were the most reasonably-priced shoe that looked the most like what I wanted.
I searched for a long time for the perfect skirt, but couldn't find any pleated red skirts that I liked that were in my size. Eventually I decided to just make my skirt.
I found a pleated skirt pattern at Joann Fabrics and followed that - additionally adding zipper pockets on the sides, a stretchy waistband, and a little extra fabric in the back of the skirt so the skirt would actually fit me.
The pockets were pretty easy to do because there was already a seam on the sides. I made the pockets as big as the skirt would allow - they are actually a little bit too big because you can sometimes see the bottom of the inner pocket sticking out if they're weighed down enough by items. I probably should more-firmly attach the bottom of the pocket to the bottom of the skirt at some point - right now it's attached with safety pins.
The waistband didn't turn out so well. I had never made a waistband before and didn't bunch up the fabric enough, so it doesn't really stretch at all. At least I can slip the skirt on and off without stretching the waistband because the skirt itself fits me fairly well.
The most frustrating part about this skirt was doing each of the individual pleats. It took a lot of time to fold them, iron them, and sew them all, making sure they were evenly-sized and straight. And now that I've worn the skirt a bunch of times, the crispness of the pleats has gone away and it definitely needs some re-ironing (along with some touch-ups on the pleat-sewing to catch loose threads before they unravel).
I bought a bunch of orange sweaters and sweatshirts from Amazon with free returns to determine which one looked the most like Velma on me. I was looking for something that had a turtleneck (preferably not one too tight for comfort's sake), baggy long sleeves, and didn't have any obvious patterns on it. I ended up getting this one! I didn't love that the green lining didn't really go with the costume, but the sweater otherwise looks very much like Velma's, it looks good on me, and it's something that I like wearing outside of the Velma costume (as long as it's cold enough - it's a very warm sweater!). Velma's sweater also doesn't have pockets, but I figured that if Velma found a sweater with pockets she'd probably get it because pockets are awesome - especially the ones on this sweater:
The best part about this sweater is that the pockets are big enough to fit books!
When I did this costume back in 2015, I had hoped to get some actual prescription glasses for the costume, but then realized how long it takes to get prescription glasses (and I didn't have that amount of time). I got some fake glasses on Amazon but ultimately didn't even use them and ended up returning them because 1) I didn't like how they looked on my face and 2) I wouldn't have been able to do the whole "I can't see without my glasses" thing.
This year, I ordered prescription glasses way ahead of time. I found a pair of thick rectangular frames on Zenni Optical, and got them with the thickest lenses (lowest index) the order would allow for those frames. Since my eyesight is pretty bad, they are considerably thick lenses, but still not nearly "coke-bottle" glasses because the thickest Zenni would allow for those frames was only a medium index. Ended up spending considerably less on these glasses than on any of the others I bought because of the low index :)
This year I decided to do #CasualCosplayFriday every week in October, wearing one costume every Friday that could conceivably pass as a non-costume outfit! I plan on posting about each of them when I can.
I could get away with wearing this as a normal outfit... if it weren't for those meddling kids' shows! Not only does this outfit look like something I'd wear, but I actually do wear many of the pieces of this outfit separately with other outfits. But Velma is such a clearly recognizable character that when I put them all together, I am immediately recognizable as Velma.
Effort: medium low
Accuracy: high
Non-costume-passing: low
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