Check Out Ada's Amazing "Pretty Pink Princess" Halloween Costume

Check Out Ada's Amazing "Pretty Pink Princess" Halloween Costume

Back in September I asked the girls what they wanted to be for Halloween as I wasn’t sure how long it would take to create whatever they pictured or even if they’d need time to decide. Ada quickly told me that she wanted to be a Pink Princess for Halloween and since then hasn’t changed her mind once. When I got her to define what a Pink Princess entails she replied that it included a pink dress and then listed three items she already owned including her flower crown headband, a pink necklace, and her sparkly running shoes. Over time some things were altered from her original vision but I’d like to think it turned out pretty awesome.

Pinterest-geared image with three photos, my blog's title, and my main URL. The main image shows Ada from the neck down wearing her costume. The top two images shows the final masks and a variety of possible pink headband crowns.

At first, once Ada told me her choice, Zoey immediately said she wanted to be a rainbow princess to match her, but over time that changed to Princess Skateboarder. Between Zoey’s costume and the fact that I have no desire to make a sparkly, tulled, and/or flouncy costume I decided to hop online to look for store-bought options for Ada’s pink princess dress. This way it would be simpler for me and make Ada feel spoiled. I had originally hoped to find something through Costco as we absolutely loved our previous costumes from there including a fire fighter costume (that generated a matching homemade firetruck), Ada’s Wonder Woman costume last year, and a rainbow unicorn dress up costume. At first I was excited by Costco offers as they had several pink fairy costumes which would’ve been perfect as Ada wanted to include her flower headband in her costume as a crown and so a new flowered crown would’ve been perfect to go with the dress. That said I like to buy my costumes a bit big so they can be enjoyed as a whole or in parts after Halloween and Ada had just about sized out of their selection. As such, I debated making her dress myself for a hot second and then found the perfect dress on Target’s website that Ada absolutely loved for $32. And with that the dress was decided, ordered, tried on, and hung up for Halloween.

Image is a screenshot taken of the Target website showing the "little adventures girls' royal pink princess dress" with a main photo and littler thumbnails to the left.
We ended up going with this dress for $32 from Target. Ada approved the photo, we ordered it, tried it on, and then hung it up so it would stay clean for Halloween. It wasn’t as flouncy as I had pictured but it was also machine washable and looks more comfortable to wear so it’s perfect!

I wanted to add something to her outfit so I went to the Dollar Tree but couldn’t find anything that would work in the required pink color. That said at Michael’s I found a long wired chenille strand that I bought in case Ada wanted to craft something to go with her costume. I next went through the girls’ room and dress-up drawer and found several pink headbands, a sequined pink sash saying Birthday Princess, and a pink and silver wand. Ada absolutely loved the wand and kept it with her costume although we may have forgotten it on Halloween night. We then considered altering the sash to say “Pink Princess” but then, over time, decided to just leave it off. If Ada had wanted to I did offer to cut the center of the sash off and glue/tie it to the wand so there would be glittery strands hanging down… she declined. As to the headbands we kept them on hand which was perfect when Ada lost the flowered headband right before she needed it. Overall this was a super simple costume to assemble and Ada loved it.

Image shows the dress laid out on the kitchen table with the headbands, pink chenille strand, wand, and birthday sash laid out over and around it.
At this point we had the perfect dress! I then went through the girls’ room and found a “birthday princess” sash, several pink headbands, and a wand that I set aside in case we needed them later. I also bought a long pink pipe cleaner that was on clearance at Michael’s in case Ada wanted to craft something to go with the costume. She didn’t but it’s now wrapped around her guardrail on her bed.
Image shows found pink headbands laid out on the floor.
I attempted to keep Ada’s flowered headband with the other pink ones but she loved it and wanted to keep wearing it. As such Ada ended up switching to the other flowered headbands closer to Halloween when she lost the first.

As Halloween approached we realized we needed to submit a photo to her school for a virtual parade slideshow. As such I was able to get Ada to agree to wear the entire costume for some photos. She looked amazing as a pink princess!

Image shows Ada standing in pink rubber boots wearing the pink glittery dress. One hand is holding the skirt up while the other holds the wand and the tulle overskirt.
Image shows Ada standing in pink rubber boots wearing the pink glittery dress. One hand is holding the skirt high showing her pink hearted pants while the other holds the wand.

Ada was excited to dress-up as a pink princess at school the Friday before Halloween even though she couldn’t bring her wand along with the costume. As the girls wear masks to school I decided to make Ada a new Iris Luckhaus mask to go with her costume but I didn’t have any pink woven fabric. Rather than buying fabric for just a simple mask I decided to go through my fabric stash with Ada to see what she’d want. Ada absolutely adored the two glittery pink tulles I had, remnants from Joann’s years ago, and chose that over decorating a mask herself. As there were two different pink tulles we first decided to make her two masks using a white woven layer as the outer layer with the pink tulle overtop so the mask would be as safe as the other ones I’ve  previously made.

Image shows all four fabrics, the mask pattern, my rotary blade, and my quilting rulers.
I started laying out the princess flannel for the inner layer, white woven fabric for the outer layer, and the two pink tulles to be an overlay.
Image shows the pink flowered tulle laid out on a quilting mat with a quilting ruler laid overtop.
Since I was laying the transparent tulle over the white fabric I decided to cut it a bit larger than needed and center it once I was ready.

Once I decided to go all in with Zoey’s face masks I decided Ada also needed a mom-drawn mask as well. At this point I had already taken the school photos of their costumes and so I took Ada’s favorite photo and printed it off so I could trace it onto her mask using fabric markers. After setting myself up with the fabric pinned to the paper and light box, so I could trace, and the photo laid out to refer to it was time to get started. I grabbed a bright pink fine-tipped fabric marker and drew out the dress’s outline and details along with her headband, boots, and the center of her wand. I then switched from lines to shading and did Ada’s skin, hair, wand, and then removed the fabric to add the extra details and background. I kept Ada’s pink theme and other than her silhouette itself I only used pink markers for her mask. Once I was happy with how the pieces looked I used my iron to set the ink to the fabric.

Image shows my phone displaying the image of Ada next to my light box with the paper and fabric pinned under magnets so they don't shift.
I started out by tracing the outline and details of the dress before going onto the other colors. When I wasn’t sure what I was seeing below the fabric I referred to the photo on my phone.
Image shows the square of fabric with Ada's silhouette drawn on. There are four small rectangles to the side. Both are shaded in light pink while two of them have dark pink flowers to match Ada's boots and dress outline.
Once I had her silhouette drawn I added the idea of a flower surrounding her and then decorated the four small pieces of fabric so both the masks would be completely pink. I had chosen to use fabric rather than tulle for the masks’ edge so it wouldn’t be scratchy against her face.

With the one mask decorated with fabric marker it was time to decide what to do with the two pieces of tulle I had cut out earlier. I debated laying one over Ada’s silhouette but there was no point hiding it after drawing it out so I decided instead to layer both of the tulles over each other to make a single mask.

Image shows the glittery circled tulle laid out overlapping on the flowered tulle. Both are overlapping with the Ada silhouette letting me see how it would look over the image and/or the white fabric beside it.
I checked how the tulle would look against the white fabric before determining if it looked better with the circled tulle in front (shown above) or the flowered tulle in front (shown below). I easily decided the latter.

With the fabrics figured out and the drawings made it was time to finish the masks. I absolutely love how they turned out and love that Ada chose to use my hand-drawn one to school over the sparkly one.

Image shows two finished masks side by side. The one with the silhouette and flowered edges is to the left and the sparkly tulle one with the pink edges is to the right.
I love how both the pink masks turned out!

I can’t tell you how the tulle one worked as Ada still hasn’t worn it. That said I did try to use plain woven on the sides in the hope that the mask isn’t itchy since the tulle is just on the outer layer and not against her face. Also since the tulle is hole-y I didn’t count it as a layer until they were laid overtop of a plain white square of woven fabric. This way the mask has extra layers instead of replacing a tighter fabric with a looser one. I’m also kind of curious how long the glitter will hold up in the laundry and whether it will still look good as a pink mask without the glitter once it all comes off.


I love how the combination of store-bought, already owned, and homemade items came together to make Ada the perfect Halloween costume. I loved seeing Ada get excited for her costume and can’t wait to see how often she wears the masks and the dress in the future.

I hope this post helps you come up with your own costume. If so I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Hope you’re having a great week.


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