We put together this Popeye and Olive Oyl costume for a Halloween event at a local wine bar. We didn’t win the costume contest, however, we did receive A LOT of compliments. The contest was an intense competition! A Mr. and Mrs. Santa Clause won the contest, and I must say they looked perfect. We chatted with the couple and found out they were newlyweds. They showed us a few pictures of their wedding and since they were an older couple, they gave us some advice on living life. They sure were fun!
As you can see this costume was easy to make and you may already have a lot of the pieces!
Olive Oyl Costume:
For Olive Oyl, you may already have a long sleeve red shirt and black skirt in your closet. At the time, I did not, but I was able to find the long sleeve red shirt at Walmart for under $5 and I bought my skirt from Amazon for under $12 (the price has gone up since I’ve bought it). Both of these items are truly investments for your wardrobe as basics for future outfits. For the shoes, you may also already have brown boots; I opted to wear black ones for my costume.
Olive Oyl has a white shirt collar, white cuffs, and a yellow trim on the skirt. I normally would use a regular felt sheet and hot glue the pieces onto the shirt and skirt. However, I did not want to ruin the shirt and skirt since I wanted to use them for other outfits. Instead of regular white and yellow felt sheets, I bought felt sheet with a sticky side. Regular felt sheets are about 40 cents; felt sheets with a sticky side on it already are about 70 cents (always keep an eye out for 50% off coupons).
Before cutting out the pattern for the collar and sleeve cuffs, make sure to draw out the pattern on the white sticky side with a pen or marker. Once you have the pattern cut out, it should be easy to put the pieces down on the shirt. Be sure to press down for a few seconds to ensure it is fully stuck onto the shirt. I originally cut out yellow sticky felt sheet to make the yellow trim on the skirt but since my skirt was flowy it kept coming off. If you don’t mind, you can hot glue the yellow trim to the skirt.
Olive Oyl has a low short ponytail. I had very long hair at the time so I twisted it into a low bun and let the ends stick out.
Popeye Costume:
The Popeye costume was very easy to put together. Mike already had a black collar shirt, and how perfect was it that it just so happened to have a sailor logo on it. Pair the black shirt with jeans and you have the foundation for the outfit! We used remaining sections from the yellow sticky felt paper I had bought to cut out yellow buttons onto Mike’s shirt. Mike already had a red bandana but incase you don’t, check out
Wal-Mart, Michaels Craft Store, or Target for one. We bought the sailor hat (under $7) and pipe (under $9) from Amazon; both pieces can be used for a future costume, as well.
We grabbed a canned item from the pantry and taped on green construction paper and wrote Spinach on it since that is what Popeye eats and swears by!
This was a fun and inexpensive couples costume to put together. Let me know if you decide to go as Popeye the Sailor and Olive Oyl, I would love to see how your costumes look.
