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Monday, June 30, 2008

ABBA Costumes for the Costume Party

By Fred Tellier

Costumes are popular with all ages. Small kids like to go trick-or-treating dressed up as favorite characters and animals. Teens and adults often enjoy going to costume parties. For those who are going as a group, it can be quite fun to dress as members of a band. One of the best ideas for a group is to wear ABBA costumes. It is much easier to obtain Swedish band ABBA costumes than it may seem.

Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus are the male vocal half of ABBA if you plan to go to a party with another guy friend and you are a male. Agnetha Faltskog and Anni-Frid "Frida" Lyngstand are the rocking girl couple if you are not able to bring four people to the party.

Of course, there are always going to be specialty shops and seamstresses and tailors that will offer to sew the ABBA costumes. This is an option for those who have the money and do not have the time to make or prepare one.

If you know how to create and follow patterns and sew, then you just need some ABBA type patterns and the type of material they would have worn. You need to measure the people in your group to ensure the costumes will be a good fit and not be too tight or loose. If nobody in your group knows anything about dressmaking, you might want to check out some stores. Buying completely new items is usually not the best way to come up with your ABBA costume.

It is always a great idea to go thrift shopping at the Goodwill or any second hand store. This will save you money and time. These stores usually provide old style clothing that is perfect for ABBA costumes. You can find many different types of clothing at a thrift store. All you have to do is buy, wash, and wear. The clothes offered at thrift shops are usually very cheap, that way, if you need to make adjustments, you never feel bad about ruining a highly expensive piece of clothing. Cut away and make your ABBA costume your own.

It is quite simple to imitate plain clothes. You can make headbands and vests with relative ease. Shiny costumes are harder to do but you can often find disco clothing or 70s outfits in thrift stores. You need to look at other items, rather than just adult clothes. You might find something in the baby's or children's department which you can chop up to make wrist bands or headbands. You might also find the perfect color. If not, remember you can use a dye to dye all your items the same color.

If your hair does not match your costume, you can always buy a wig or you can save money and do your hair up and dye it with temporary dye that washes out. ABBA costumes are all natural hair colors, so finding a wig or dye to fit the costume is really easy. If you really want to make your ABBA costumes look authentic, get your hair styled that way that ABBA did. Keep your ABBA costume cheap and go to hair school or have a friend who knows how to do hair do it for you.

The hardest part of an ABBA costume is probably getting the correct platform shoes. Many months before the costumes are going to be worn, checking for the right style shoes needs to happen whenever out running errands or having fun. The most important thing to remember when creating ABBA costumes is to make the process fun! Now go out and disco tonight to "Waterloo", "Super Trooper" or "The Winner Takes It All"

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