How to Make a Snow White Costume for the Disney Princess Half Marathon

So after reading my Disney Princess Race Recap yesterday, you decided you might someday want to make a Snow White costume for a race?!  Oh, no, you don't?  Please come back tomorrow then.  But if you do, that's excellent news!  Please read on, and learn how to make this and all its glory:

First of all, I take absolutely NO credit whatsoever for this costume.  This Mama Makes Stuff is amazing and I pretty much used her tutorial (with some tweaks) for this Snow White costume so she deserves all the credit.  She is amazing and has fabulous ideas!

THANK YOU THIS MAMA MAKES STUFF!

This Mama Makes Stuff's Costume

Second, again I take NO credit whatsoever for the actual construction of the costume, as I owe a big, huge, humongous THANK YOU to Lisa, who pretty much designed, created, and made my costume.  She is amazing and I am so lucky to have a friend like her.  I wish she could have come run the Princess Half too, only then her costume would have been 5 times more amazing than my own!
THANK YOU LISA!

Okay, so here's what you need if you ever want to recreate my Snow White costume:

• A Yellow Tutu.  I already taught you everything I know about tutu-making.  That's how I got this one.

• A blue tank top.  I searched everywhere (okay, not really, just Target and Old Navy, but I really hoped Target would have something I liked and wanted) and got this cheapo tank top at Old Navy for about $6.  I was not in love with it and hoped I'd find something better fitting, more flattering, and made of dri-fit material, but no luck.  Target never had my size and their "blue" was more "violet" in my eyes, which doesn't make me happy in the least.

Before all the "Extras"!

• White material for the collar.  I was really worried about this part, because I couldn't figure out how it was going "stand up" on its own.  Lisa is a genius and figured out that this stuff called 'interface' exists, which is what they use for the collars in men's dress shirts.  So cut it in the shape you want and voila!  So easy.
• Elastic for the arm bands.  Measure the circumference of your arm and cut that amount of elastic twice (maybe a little less so it's tight).  Sew together, preferably with a sewing machine but we quickly broke Lisa's machine and didn't know how to fix it (have I mentioned I'm the least domesticated person ever?) so we hand-sewed everything.  I was nervous my costume would fall off me while I was running, but I dodged a bullet this time.  I also used my little common sense and wore something underneath so I wasn't left naked.  

• More elastic to attach to the tank top.  Then cut another two short pieces of elastic that you'll use to attach the sleeves to the tank top.  Or you could just sew directly to the tank top but since we were hand sewing this was easier. 
• Tulle for the sleeves.  This Mama Makes Stuff used ribbon, and I brought ribbon intending to do that, but then Lisa had the stupendous idea of using tulle instead and I think it looks SO much better than ribbon.  So much puffier and princess-like!  Highly highly HIGHLY recommend this route. Simply cut it in the length you want it, bunch it together, and sew it to your shorter piece of elastic.  Then sew it to your circle arm band piece of elastic.  I did 4 pieces, 2 each of red and 2 each of blue for each arm.  I think you could go 5-6 and it would look even better! 

• Red material for the cape.  I actually already had a cape from doing the Hell Run, so we just sewed it in half to a) cover the huge Hell Run logo, and b) to make it the right length.  It came with a string tie so we just used that or else you would sew the material to your tank top.  

• Make your bow!  I just sewed hot-glued sparkly ribbon to a piece of elastic (sewing is obviously preferable but haven't I mentioned already I'm not too domesticated?).  It might be a bit big?!

   

• Put it all together!  I already had all the ribbon cut for the sleeves so I made some bracelets out of it.  I also bought yellow socks and yellow ribbon to add some "extras". 

And voilà!  You're done!  You are officially princess-ified.

How is your week going?  What race is coming up for you next?  Ever dress in costume for a race?

Disney Princess Half Marathon Race Recap

My 10th half marathon is in the books!

The Disney Princess Half Marathon was possibly the most fun race I have ever participated in.  I had a complete BLAST.  This also reiterated my newfound love for dressing in costume for races.  I had never worn a costume for a race before until the last three races I've done, but I am totally and completely sold on the idea now!

I rarely have "plans" for races, I just do whatever I feel (yeah yeah, this is bad).  But for once, there was a plan going into this race.  The plan:  Leandrea is running a half marathon in Atlanta in a month and is dying to sub 2.  So we decided to have fun, stop and take pictures, and not worry about the time, but to try to stay "on pace" for a sub 2 (about a 9:00/mile pace) any time we were actually running.  Despite discussing the plan and even discussing how this time we were NOT going to go out too fast like last time our first two miles are still a bit fast.  Next time we will finally get it!

We ended up only stopping to take 3 pictures because at least for me, I just did not feel like stopping.  I knew if I stopped it would be rough to get back going, especially after about mile 10.  Poor Mulan was at mile 12 and had NO ONE stopping to visit her, I'm sure for this reason.  Plus some of the lines were ridiculous, I can only imagine they took about 20 minutes or so to get through to the main princesses.

Unfortunately our other picture with characters (and most of my other pictures while running) turned out horribly blurry.  Apparently a crappy camera + darkness + taking pictures while running is a bad combination for high quality photography.  Who knew?

We were doing great on the plan besides some stopping in mile 6 for pictures until Leandrea unfortunately started feeling poorly (you can read Leandrea's race recap here).  I felt so bad for her, she looked like her stomach was in major pain.  So we lost a bunch of time in Mile 10 at the port-a-potty and I could tell she was suffering majorly for the rest.  She is such a trooper though and I know in Atlanta (barring more stomach issues!) she is going to CRUSH that sub-2.  

We ran together until almost mile 12, when Leandrea convinced me to go on.  I was hesitant as I wanted to run the whole thing with her, but by then I was suffering pretty good myself and I just wanted the suffering to end ASAP.  So I took off.  And actually, running much faster made me feel much better!  It was GREAT to just go as hard as I could for the last 1.4 miles or so.  Although I paid for it later in nauseousness for a few hours, and my quads are already a bit sore.  This might also be because this was the flattest course I have ever run, there were two mini "inclines" going up onto the overpasses that you could barely call hills, and that's it.

Splits: 1   8:46 Started a little bit fast 2   8:39 3   8:54 On perfect pace! 4   8:56 5   8:46 6   9:31 Pictures at the Castle & with characters 7   9:07 More perfect pace! 8   8:59 9   9:45 Poor Leandrea! 10 12:35 11  9:30 12  8:59 Took off in here 13  7:18 I felt the burn!

Total Time: 2:03:29   Garmin Distance: 13.34   
Average Pace (per Garmin): 9:16

The Negatives:
The start was a little ridiculous, complete with a 3:15am wake-up call (yes you read that right!).  They were basically threatening us with closed roads at 4:00am and closed corrals at 5:00am, and the race started at 5:45am, so this basically left us shivering in the cold for a few hours before the race.  If I'd had more room in my suitcase (or more brains in my head) I would have brought or gotten a throw-away sweatshirt.  But, alas, I have neither.  I went with capris over shorts at the last minute and although it was nice for the wait, I was regretting it only 10 minutes after we started running.  My arm warmers went down right away and it was plenty warm.  Also, this was definitely the most expensive race I've ever done.  Not all Disney's fault, I mean it was an expensive race regardless, but I usually register early and / or with sales / discount codes and due to my procrastination this time I was at the most expensive price.

The Good:
Although it was expensive, Disney knows how to put on a race.  The overall organization, from the corrals, self-treat area after, the character areas - it was all done AMAZINGLY.  They even had fireworks for the start of EVERY corral.  Little congestion on the course, tons and tons of volunteers doing everything including being there to take our pictures, plenty of Gu, water, and Powerade, Luna bars and even these little boxes of snacks at the finish, etc.  Very well done Disney.  But space blankets next time please.  Surprisingly also, my Snow White costume didn't chafe!  I did wear Body Glide but I was still expecting it to bother me.  The tutu kept getting caught between my legs and that was definitely annoying and less than graceful though!

See, fireworks!  I wasn't lying. 

Fireworks AND delicious snacks and cute snack boxes!

The Great:
Running through Magic Kingdom!  This was pretty much the best 20 minutes of my life and I wish the whole entire race could have been through here!  I also want to run every half marathon with Leandrea (sadly we just have run two together, one in 2010 and this one), it is a blast.  I loved seeing all the costumes, characters, cheerers, running through the parks, it was all so fun and made the miles go by so fast.

Running through the castle was pretty much the best thing EVER. 

Did you make it this far?  Longest post ever.  Don't worry, that's The End!  And they lived happily ever after.

Like my costume?  If so, tune in tomorrow for a how-to!  
Have you ever or will you ever do a Disney race?  I highly recommend it.

Happy Tuesday!  Have a great day!  

Weekly "Rap-Up": DJ Jazzy Jeff

This week's "rap-up" brought to you by DJ Jazzy Jeff.  Remember "Summertime"?  

Yeah you remember it.  Don't lie.  Poor Jazzy Jeff often gets forgotten as the more popular Will Smith's sidekick, but he deserves some love too!  

Anyway, I think we're all 100% aware by now that I ran the Princess Half yesterday in Orlando with Leandrea.  So this week has been full of all kinds of crazy shenanigans including a horribly long flight from Seattle to Florida that took up my whole day on Friday (that's what I get for waiting until the last minute to book my flight), a Saturday filled with Epcot fun, and a Sunday of hugging strangers dressed like Disney characters.  More to come about all that this week!  But for now, here's the weekly "rap-up"!

Monday - President's Day!  I love holidays.  In honor of the President's I didn't do much of anything.  Rode my bike a sad 1 mile around the neighborhood (and realized it was way too rainy / cold for a bike ride) and some weights stuff.

Tuesday - 8.25 miles in 1:19

Wednesday - 40 minutes on the elliptical

Thursday - 43 minutes on the bike trainer / 1.5 mile walk with Cooper
                 3 mile crappy run

Friday - I flew all. freaking. day.  JMan was a saint for driving me to the airport at 4:30am.  I walked around the San Francisco airport as much as I could.

Saturday - Walked everywhere at Epcot!

Sunday - Survived the 13.1 miles of the Disney Half Marathon in 2:03:xx!  Full recap to come as soon as I have internet and some time to write it all down!

Total Weekly Miles: 24.35

Have a great week!  I'm in Florida until Wednesday so I know I'll be having a GREAT time (I think we're headed to the beach today!)!

How was your weekend?  What did you do?

We did it!

Success! Princess Half completed! Lots more details and pictures to come!

Off to Run the Disney Princess Half!

The race starts at freaking 5:45am, definitely my earliest race ever!  That's 2:45am Seattle-time!

Wish me luck!

Seriously.

Yep.

What are YOU doing on this lovely Sunday?  

You Want Thingamabobs? I've got 20!

First of all, remember when I mentioned before how I like compliments?  Well thank you very much Dailymile, I appreciate that you thought my training was EPIC last week even though I thought it sucked.  That was a nice little boost in my inbox on Monday.  Appreciate it!

And now, for the moment you've been waiting for!  We finally made it to my #1 favorite Disney movie of all time!  Thanks for sticking with it, it sounded like a great idea when I was at #5 but I definitely lost some speed over time.  In case you missed them, here's #5, #4, #3, and #2.  Way to hang in there!  Hopefully I won't talk about Disney or princesses again for the rest of the year (too big of a promise?)!

When I was little and this movie came out I was obsessed.  I must have watched it hundreds if not thousands of times.  I could sing every single song and still can, that's how long it has stuck with me!  In fact, I watched it so many times that I couldn't watch it for about 10 years because I was LITTLE MERMAID-ED OUT!  But regardless, this movie is awesome.  If you ever want anyone to serenade you with "Part of Your World", I'm  your gal.

As we speak I'm off on a plane to ORLANDO!  I cannot wait to get there!  Sun, Leandrea, Epcot, running, my Mom, what more could you want?!?!  

HAPPY WEEKEND!  What fun plans do you have?  And now the biggest question of all... what's your #1 most favorite Disney movie OF ALL TIME?!?!  Which princess "are you"?



1 day!  It's HERE!

I Just Can't Wait to be King / Run a Half Marathon!

Last night I did my last run before the Princess Half on Sunday!  Both Lisa and Jordanne bailed so I was sadly left running-partner-less.  I did 3 crappy miles on my own.  My shin is squawking and making me extremely mad and nervous for the half.  Cross-your-fingers it is just race nerves or something and I can actually run 13.1 miles on Sunday!

In travel news, I'M OFF TO ORLANDO!  The consequences for my major procrastination in deciding to do this race are that I leave at 6:15am today and it's far from non-stop to Orlando.  But I did snag an aisle seat at the last minute, before that I was facing a middle in the very back of the plane.  Too bad Florida's forecast is calling for a lousy high of 64 on Saturday.  BUT I STILL CAN'T WAIT!

Now on to the countdown!  You've seen #5, #4, and #3, but choosing which Disney movie was going to be #1 and which was going to be #2 was extremely extremely difficult.  I adore both of these movies.  I kind of want to watch both of them right now!  But there can't be two #1's, so here it is: THE LION KING!

In other news, remember when I started James Dashner's series and hated Mazerunner but still went on and read Scorch Trials, which I liked a lot more?  Well after finishing Scorch Trials I immediately read the 3rd and final book, The Death Cure (good name, right?  Sounds very cheerful).

Like Scorch Trials, I listened, and hoped to have some amazing revelations about why all of this nonsense needed to happen.  Nope, no luck there.  I found myself liking the main character Thomas less and less throughout this book, hating how he was treating the other main character Theresa.  I hated how their relationship was this entire book, hated how we didn't learn anything, and just in general didn't like this book.  On par with the first one, Mazerunner.  So, do I recommend it?  It passed the commuting time, I guess, especially since I didn't have any other books from the library I wanted to read.  And obviously you might like it more than I!

Now I have LOTS of books from the library to read though, including The Marriage Plot, The Kitchen House, and our next book club book, The Girl Who Chased the Moon.  Which one should I read next?

   

  

Have you read any of these books?  Which one should I read next?  What are you reading right now?  What's your 2nd favorite Disney movie of all time?

This seems a lot more accurate.  Poor little guy.

2 days!