Studio Ghibli Costumes: Sen from Spirited Away

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. I will make a small amount of money if you shop through these links, however it will not cost you any extra.

A few days ago I shared a DIY for making Soot Sprites from Studio Ghibli's Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro. Today I'm back with another Studio Ghibli inspired post, and this time it's an easy last minute costume for Sen, the main character from Spirited Away.

If you're not familiar with the movie Spirited Away, it's about a young girl called Chihiro who gets lost while moving home with her family. She finds herself in a sprawling bathhouse complex in the world of spirits, where she is put to work and given the name Sen. In the boiler room of the bath house she meets Kumaji and the Soot Sprites that help him keep the fires burning. Throughout the movie Sen is helped by various different characters (both human and spirits) to help her save her parents, who were turned into pigs, and return to the human world. It's a great movie and one that my kids will watch to ask over and over. 

For this costume we went with Sen's uniform at the bath house. It's a pretty simple outfit made up of a tunic top, shorts with ribbons tying it all together.  

What you'll need:

Salmon colored dress or tunic

Salmon colored shorts or pant

2" wide white satin ribbon

1" wide red satin ribbon

We used a pair of joggers and a short sleeved dress for Lola's Sen costume. To shorten them I simply tucked the bottom of the dress into the waist band of the joggers and shaped it to sit evenly. I then scrunched the joggers up above Lola's knees and let them blouse over a little to look like knickerbockers. Isn't that a fun word? Shorts or leggings would work just fine for this outfit too. 

I then took a length of red ribbon and tied it around Lola's waist.

The white ribbon was wrapped around Lola's shoulders and across her back in an X shape. I then tied a big bow on the back. I used 8 feet of ribbon (which was the entire roll I bought) to wrap around Lola. 

For the finishing touch I tied Lola's hair into a pony tail and tucked the ends under the hair band to make her pony tail both shorter and fuller looking. For a more authentic look you could go with a wig, but I wanted to keep this as simple, and affordable, as possible. 

We then added a few of the Soot Sprites that we'd made earlier as a fun accessory. 

And you're done! 

What I love about costumes like this is that the components can be used over and over again. You may recognize the dress that Lola is wearing here from her recent birthday party pics. I love that there's no waste. 

I'll have a few more Studio Ghibli inspired last minute costumes coming soon so stay tuned!