Thrifting for Cosplay: Cinderella

I basically wrote this entire post forever ago, but I didn’t save my progress and the computer froze. When I lost the whole post, I didn’t have the patience that evening to rewrite it all. I’m happy it all still applies now that I have my writing mojo back. This would have been a great throwback Thursday post since it has been so long, but I was knee deep in hand sewing Wednesday night for my Briar Rose shawl. Here we go anyway.

I do a lot of sewing for cosplay. It is my main form of creating costumes. I always enjoy exploring and learning other avenues of creating for cosplay such as armor building or thrifting. When it comes to Disney costumes, I really don’t have the time to create every single one by hand because I’d rather focus on bigger sewing projects. Cinderella’s rags seemed like a great place to try the thifting for cosplay avenue. Hopefully, this post will inspire you to go out and thrift some outfits as well.

Reference Image

I would argue that Cinderella in her rags plays a role in some of the most iconic Disney scenes ever made. If you don’t agree with me, that’s ok, but I really love most of the scenes associated with this outfit. My favorite is probably the bubbles scene, which I’m using for my reference image below.

Thrifting for Cosplay Process

The best part about this project was I didn’t have a set timeline to get it done, and I really didn’t have any expectations for myself. A friend of mine who does photography brought this idea to me as a possible collaboration, and since it was already on my list of dream costume it was an easy decision.

I decided to thrift this because it had minimal parts involved, and all were fairly simple. Plus, thrifting is a really good way to keep costs low. Realistically the parts of this costume include:

• Skirt
• Blue undershirt
• Brown take top
• Apron
• Black shoes
• Wig
• Bandana (only in certain scenes)

The pieces that I planned to thrift for this were the skirt, the blue undershirt, and the brown tank top. I found the pieces in a mixture of thrift stores including Goodwill and Miracle Hill. 

I quite honestly couldn’t believe that I was able to find a skirt that was the same color that I needed. The only problem was that it was a 3XL, but that was simple enough to fix. I seam ripped the waistband off, and added pleats to the back of it until it was the right size. Then the only thing to do was slim down the elastic, and reapply the waist band. This allowed the skirt to fit without removing the fullness. I was slightly surprised, but also really happy with the way this turned out. This skirt was $7.

After finding the skirt, I was more optimistic about the shirt because I knew to be open to modifying the piece slightly. It made searching much easier because I could just look for the right color. All I had to do was cut the neckline down to fit under the neckline of the tank top. The blue undershirt was $3.25 I feel a little guilty because I ended up buying the tank top from Amazon because I was never able to find something I was happy with, but it was still under $10.

I already had a wig for this from my ball gown Cinderella, but in order to use it for this I would have to cut it. I love this wig because I’ve never been able to find this color anywhere, so I opted to buy a separate wig in order to trim for this cosplay. After a lot of searching, I figured out that the wig April Gloria used for her Cindy was this wig, and that is what I went with for this. It should work for several dream cosplays once it is trimmed, so it was worth the investment. I haven’t trimmed it yet, but I was excited about the color.

The shoes were my retired black work flats, and I had planned to use the apron from my Belle village dress as pictured in this post. I have since given that costume to Dani Bee, so I eventually will be making myself a simple white apron out of some fabric I already have to re-complete this. I’m really happy with the way this turned out!

All in all, I spent about $18.25 on the actual costume, but $63.25 if you include the wig. We’ve been waiting for the stars to align, but Two Acorns and I plan on shooting this costume this year. I cannot wait! What costumes have you thrifted? What are your best cosplays you have found from thrifting? Leave a comment below, and don’t forget to subscribe via email or Bloglovin’ to never miss a post!