What do a white t-shirt, tole paint, tape and marker have in common? The makings of a great Halloween costume of course!

If I’m being honest, I don’t have the best history with the 31st of October. For most of my life I absolutely loathed the holiday. In fact, my mom has an entire photo series showing me in tears over the years. Each Halloween, without fail, she would get me all dressed up and I would sit on the couch and cry. And it wasn’t her fault. She would find the BEST costumes, and she always let me pick what I wanted to be. So what was the problem? Simply put: I lacked self-confidence.

When you live your life as the “chubby” kid, you already feel like all eyes are on you. You already feel like a spectacle. Add a costume, mask, wig, or makeup to the mix, and it became too much for me to deal with. This led to me kind of hating Halloween. Throughout most of high school and college, I didn’t dress up much. I can think of a handful of times when I did participate, and they were super generic costumes.

Fast forward in my life, and I’m still chubby. But I’m also in a much better place mentally. Over time I’ve done a lot of soul searching, and refocusing my thoughts to get to a place where I’m comfortable with my body. That means I’ve actually participated in Halloween the last few years. I’ve had fun going to parties with friends, and I’ve even dressed up for a contest each year at work. There is a problem though; finding costumes for a plus-size body is the worst! That just means I have to get creative.

This year I wanted to channel my inner Pugsley Addams. I can’t even tell you how I came up with the idea. It just popped into my head when I was hanging out with friends one day.

It’s a pretty simple ensemble: black and white striped t-shirt, black shorts, black socks, and black shoes. I already had the last three items in my closet, but the shirt turned out to be a pain! I found plenty of options that would work, but they all ended at size XL. And that wasn’t gonna work.

Time for a backup plan!! I ended up buying a cheap white t-shirt at Walmart and transformed it with black paint and fabric marker. I started by pinning the shirt onto some cardboard to keep it stable, then applied some duct tape to mark the lines. Next up: paint! I ended up doing each side of the shirt separately, and letting it dry in between. Then I touched up the space where the lines meet on each side. I also used fabric marker on the neckline so it wouldn’t be as stiff. It didn’t turn out as dark as the paint, but in the dark it all looked close enough anyway.

And I totally ran out of time, so the stripes on the sleeves are just made with black tape. Oops! All in all, I’d say it turned out, though.

(I totally spaced snapping pics of the process. I promise to be better in the future.

So my point is – don’t let your body prevent you from having fun. Get out there and enjoy life!! There are already too many obstacles. Don’t let your own self-doubt turn into another one. With a little creativity and hard work, there are always options.