A Growing Family Costume

We do family themed costumes each year. This year our littlest wanted to be a “wisher”. I had no idea what she was talking about. She said, “You know, those flowers that you pick and you blow and you make a wish!” .. OH!! A DANDELION! Great idea! Our youngest son said, “Well I can be a praying mantis!” Bingo! There’s a theme! I figured I could go as a gardener. But what could my husband be? I always try to find costumes that pick on him. A garden gnome? Hmmm.. lightbulb!! He’s going as a Dirtbag!! I mean, bag of dirt! Ooooh! And miracle gro to boot!

I started with the dandelion costume first. I used the inside of styrofoam part of a bicycle Helmet. I spray painted the non pointed ends of wood skewers brown. I shoved, poked and pushed with hot glue the sharp pointed ends of the skewers into the helmet. I was careful to space them out. If they were too close, it made the helmet heavy and you couldn’t see the details. I filled in the spots that looked sparse after. I trimmed the skewers shorter as they were very long. I used a feather trim from the fabric store for the “wishes”. The trim was the most expensive. Coupons helped tremendously! The feather trim already had ribbon on it. I cut very small sections. I hot glued each trimmed feather and ribbon piece to the end of each wood skewer. She wore a full green bodysuit. I spray painted shoes green. I used green felt to make large leaves and turn them into a shawl. Again, I used a hot glue gun. No sewing. I glued the ends of 4 really large leaves onto thick green ribbon. I tied it around her neck. It helped to keep her warm. I used a lighter green paint to add details to the leaves. The entire costume took a couple of hours.

The praying mantis- I started with the mask. He wanted to use this origami effect on it. So I purchased the origami pattern off of Etsy called TetraCreations. It took a few hours to make. But I focused an hour daily. And it was fairly simple. I painted the eyes. For his abdomen, I used a corner of a pop up tent that had material and bendable metal on it. I hot glued green material to it. I spray painted the underside a dark green. I used pool noodles for the legs. Getting these to stay was very difficult. I tried sewing and glue. I think it would have been easier with cardboard and paper towel tubes. I used material and cardboard for the arms. I did purchase a rubber mask on Amazon as a backup for the origami in case it poured. He wore the origami mask to school. The rubber mask was worn on Halloween as it was raining and he wanted to save the creation.

The dirtbag.. I mean.. bag of dirt! I bought a very large bag of miracle grow from our local tractor supply store. I emptied the dirt into our garden. I washed the bag out. I cut the bag front and back. I glued with fabric glue to a green shirt. This did not work. It peeled off. Hot glue made it stick!

The gardener- Simple. Garden hat, overalls, garden gloves, rain boots, a flannel shirt.

The dandelion was the biggest hit out of all of the costumes! She was able to freely move. While it did rain, I swore her feathers would be a soggy mess. They just looked and it did not change the integrity of the costume!