How To: Rhythm Nation Halloween Costume

I hope everyone had a great Halloween weekend! One of my favorite holidays, I started planning early to out-do my BB Homemaker costume from last year. I wanted to keep my theme of black, iconic female musicians going so I couldn’t pass up the chance to dress up as Ms. Jackson!

What you need:

• Black Turtleneck Long Sleeve Top
• Black Highwaisted Pants
• Black Combat Boots
• Black Gloves (short or long)
• 1 Silver Square Cake Board
• 4 Silver Buttons
• Black Ribbon
• 1 Silver Hoop Earring
• Silver Chain
• 2 Large Safety Pins
• Needle & Thread
• Pencil & Paper
• Scissors
• Hot Glue Gun

So let’s start with the basics —hopefully every girl has a pair of black pants, a simple black belt and some (combat) boots in their closet.  This keeps the costume relatively inexpensive.

To recreate the jacket-look, I decided to get the Capezio Women’s Turtleneck Long Sleeve Top on amazon.com for $20. (Because I would be sewing on the buttons and pinning the accessories, I did not want to use a shirt or jacket I planned to wear again — any black turtleneck crop top will do. I went with the reviewer comments and got the top a size bigger — it was a perfect fit and great quality.)

A trip to Walmart should cover all the materials for the accessories. In looking for a durable silver material to cut out the pendants, I came across a 4-pack of silver wedding cake boards ($4) and decided to give them a try. (I would suggest something more durable, but it served its purpose.)

I created stencils by drawing the accessory designs on paper and then transferring the design onto the cake board before cutting it out. I did this for the shirt pendant, the key on her earring, the “1814” earring and the pendant on her hat.

For the “1814” earring I attached the cake-board cut-out to a Cousin silver fish hook earwire (36-pack for $2) with silver sewing thread.  For the key accessory, I made sure to poke a hole and strung it through my hoop earring.

With the right chest pendant (in the photo of Janet), I was able to take a short piece of the Cousin 50-in Chain ($3) and simply connect it to the bottom of the pendant. For the left chest pendant I found a Cousin Design By Me silver and red heart that would do the trick. Though it was meant to be used as a necklace, I was able to attach it to a rectangle cut-out of the cake board with black string.

From here, I would suggest doing something a bit differently than what I did — I had last minute glue gun problems! Glue a safety pin to the back of boths pendants (in the center). Cut 4 pieces of ribbon that you can use to connect the chest pendants to the shirt. Glue two pieces of ribbon on either side of the back of the pendant, and glue the other ends to the shoulder blade of the shirt (for both pendants) — that way the pendants will be held on by the safety pin, but also by the ribbons.

You can also use a glue gun to fasten the pendant/silver cut-out on the black hat (I got my black twill hat from amazon.com for $5.95.)

Last step —sew on four silver buttons to complete the top!