Pippi Longstocking Costume

Items needed for pippi longstocking costume:

Red Wig (long), wire hanger, wire cutter, brown eye liner, red & whit striped shirt, overalls, stockings, black boots, plush monkey

Items needed for hot air balloon:

Large cardboard box, 4 wooden poles, two 6ft pipe insulator, sharpie, 20 multi colored helium filled balloons with ribbon, 4 burlap bags, burlap ribbon, wire, pillow stuffing, brown spray paint, light brown acrylic paint, pencil, ruler, hot glue gun with glue sticks, ribbon, scissors, foam paint brush, multi color flag banner, scissors, gorilla glue

To make the hot air balloon, first cut the boxes top and bottom covers off. Cut 4 of the 8 covers with an arch. Discard the 4 covers not used. Hot glue the wooden poles to connect the top covers and large box. Spray paint the entire box and let dry. Once dry, on one side of the box, start from the bottom right hand corner measuring 4in by 4in squares using a ruler and pencil. Make sure between every square on all sides measure out a 1/2in gap. Once all squares have been drawn out, draw rope like circles on the bottom of all 4 sides of the large bottom box using a pencil. Then draw rope like circles on the bottom of the top arches. Now using the light brown acrylic paint, paint in between the squares and rope like circles. Once dry, using a sharpie, draw rope like circles on the bottom of all 4 sides of the large box and bottom of the top arches. Measure the pipe insulators for each side of the box so they connect when assembled. Cut the insulators and spray paint. Once dry, gorilla glue to the top of the bottom box. Note: Do not use hot glue, it will cause the pipe insulators to melt. Next, draped the multi coloref flag banner around the box and hot glue right index the pipe insulators. Now, add the pillow stuffing to the burlap bags and tie off the top with wire. Tie burlap ribbon over the wire then write sand on each bag with sharpie. Hot glue the ends of the burlap ribbon of each bag on the inside of each corner of the box. Now cut two pieces of ribbon about 24 in long and get inside the box. Hot glue each piece of ribbon on the inside of the box towards the top and 6in away from each side. Now turn the box around and put the ribbon straps over your shoulder. Once at desired height, glue the ribbon like previously and cut additional ribbon from ends. Now get dressed and hop into the box and tie the balloons to either your overalls or the top right hand corner of the arch.

I originally saw a hot air balloon costume on Pinterest and decided thats what i wanted to do. But then i decided i have to do two costumes in one. I looked up movies with hot air balloons an came across Pippi Longstocking and knew I had to be her. This was a great decision because all genres could relate to memories of watching her on tv. This costume took me 2 days to complet mostly because of having to complete after work. The best part of making this costume was the completion and seeing the final product. And the worst part of making this costume was finding out that hot glue melts right through the pipe insulators and having to go purchase more, recut and spray paint them.

I made this costume for my company's costume contest and everyone fell in love with it. I had so many compliments and people asking to take a picture with me. I even won 1st place for best costume! Good luck!