DIY Rainbow Halloween Costume

You guys know how much I love making costumes and this year's projects were no different. Emma is in love with this crazy getup. Let's dive right in to her rainbow costume. 

Here was our mock-up: a  white cloud skirt topped by a separate rainbow tunic and a sun crown. Pink tights and a white leotard complete the costume. 

She fell off the stool directly after this photo was taken. No harm done though - this kid is tough!

You'll notice that she has two crowns: her fancy, formal glittery burning sun crown and the soft, yet comfortable everyday crown. The formal one is a bit to unreliable for trick or treating so we made a second version that will likely stay attached to her noggin. 

 Ahem. Problem illustrated.

Materials 

Rainbow Tunic & Cloud Skirt

Felt: 1 yard for tunic (red, in this case), 

Felt:1/2 yard each of rainbow colors (Sometime fabric stores sell individual sheets, which can be pieced together)

Felt:1/2 yard white for clouds

Velcro (for closing sides)
Tissue paper (optional) for tracing the rainbow pattern
Hot Glue Gun

Elastic for Skirt

White Tulle (3+ yards)
Sewing machine

Crown Materials

Fire Crown: Stiff glitter cardstock, plastic headband, hot glue, wire or wood supports

Comfy Crown*: Thick gold fabric, hot glue, wire

*Find the firmest, thickest material you can. Mine was from the clearance section and was similar to a vinyl tablecloth material with a felt backing. Even so, it required wire (glued between two layers) to keep the prongs upright. 

Using an existing shirt, trace a pattern onto the felt tunic. Because felt doesn't stretch, make it a generous measurement. Fold felt in two and cut out, leaving you with front and back tunics. Use a strip of extra felt as a side and glue together, leaving one side open (to be velcroed at a later stage). Sew tops of shoulders together. 

Trace your pattern onto the tissue paper. After laying the paper down on the felt, trace only the outside of the pattern, so that each color is a solid half circle, instead of a thin curved band. 

Assemble your felt in the correct order to make sure you have enough. Cut out the pattern and glue each layer together. Trim excess. 

Note: You'll see that my light pink is too short. Fortunately, plan on big fluffy white clouds to cover any gaps in your felt. I ended up trimming the whole bottom by a few inches because Emma thought the rainbow was too tall. 

Draw a cloud onto the white felt. For added stability, glue two layers together to stiffen. I only had extra red felt so our clouds have a red backing. Sew velcro onto the tunic to secure the sides. 

CLOUD SKIRT

Measure your child's waist and buy a generous amount of elastic. Joann's fabric sells a Dritz metallic elastic that I used on this project. Any extra can be used to make wrist cuffs. 

Pleats are tricky and I don't have a great way to go about explaining them - I'd recommend heading over to this site for a quick tutorial. Additionally, you could skip the elastic and sewing altogether and go with this tutu version. 

Because she'll always wear this skirt over a leotard, I didn't bother to line the waistband. You'd definitely want to do this if your child was going to wear it against his/her skin. Additionally, I used two thicknesses of tulle/netting, but no liner. Again, you'd want to do this if your child was going to wear it without tights/leggings/leotard. 

CROWNS

Here is the template for the first crown: I made it out of stiff glittery cardstock with a heavy dose of hot glue and chopsticks(!) on the back to give it structure. It's glued to a plastic headband. I blew up the template and printed it across two sheets of paper. From there trace onto the glitter cardstock and cut out with scissors or an xacto knife. 

A few notes: The back of my crown looks rough. I used wooden skewers to give it strength and it looks messy. In the end, I got tired of fiddling with it, sprayed the entire thing silver with spray paint, and called it good enough. A thicker paper (or multiple sheets) might solve the tendency of the prongs to curl. 

The comfy crown template can be found here. I traced mine onto gold fabric, adding a few extra crown prongs. I found that it worked to cut out two of the exact same crown shape and then glue together to provide a version that was able to stay upright. 

Once the templates are cut, add wire for strength and then glue the whole thing together in a gold fabric sandwich. My backing wasn't a perfect match - it's smaller than the front so that you can't really see the backing when the crown is on the head. 

Projects: Lego Table and Auction Basket

Here's a recent project. Ben's school had an auction last month and our class decided to put together a Lego Gift Basket - classroom parents  generously donated building sets. I was in charge of making the seat/pouf and Lego table. 

I picked up the table at our local thrift store for $5. It was looking forlorn and in desperate need of some TLC. 

I sanded it down, gave it a nice paint job, and then glued down these Lego baseplates in the form of an island surrounded by water. 

 Ready for pirate play! Or a beach vacation! Or a shipwreck! So many imaginative possibilities.

The pouf took a bit more time. The pattern I used is roughly based on this one, with small modifications to the height to make sure that little knees could properly fit under the table.

Basically, sew a cylinder, do some math (pi!) to make a circle that will fit the top, sew that on, stuff it, and then put a sturdy base on the bottom. This last step is optional; most poufs have fabric tops and bottoms, but I needed mine to function as a sturdy chair so a floppy pouf was undesirable.

I used 1/4" plywood for the bottom disc.

A quick note about gear: recently I've really enjoyed using a very light pair of rubber gardening gloves when doing any project that requires tool use or wood handling. They certainly won't protect from saw cuts but I find that I've cut down on my splinter count and general wear and tear on my palms.  

Once the pouf is sewn and the base cut, the next step is to stuff it. Most folks use beanbag pellets or cotton batting but I found that something with less give was necessary to provide a firmer seating experience. I used an old (clean!) duvet covered by an outer layer of cotton. 

Foam around the outside of the wood provided additional cushion. 

Afterwards I simply hammered the fabric to the wood using upholstery nails and added furniture feet. Project completed. 

Ben made me swear that I'd win our own basket at the auction but I was promptly outbid by a parent that clearly loves their child far more than I. :) Sorry kid. 

More Fireplace Work

So, it's time we gave our fireplace tile a bit of a facelift. It's looking a bit chipped and grubby. And, I'll be honest, I don't love the mottled brown.

Before we talk facelift specifics, however, you should have a good idea of the house floor plan as the living room is intricately tied to our dining room (and, by extension, our kitchen).

In case the words of the plot plan are too tiny, here is a visual representation:

The walls of the living room (and fireplace) are currently painted a very light lavender. It's almost white, but not quite.

Eventually, they'll be painted the same color as the kitchen and dining room, which is Light Pewter by Benjamin Moore. It's a very light grey with a hint of beige.

It can be seen here:

And here:

Our kitchen cabinets are an unfortunately-named "Greige" color, and we have a white trim (Behr's Polar Bear).

Which leads us back to the fireplace. I don't have it in me to removed the tiles completely as they're solidly cemented to both the wall and floor. I like the design but not the color, which makes me think that I should just paint the whole thing.

I'm having a hard time coming to grips with the different colors on my monitor since the Light Pewter looks much greyer in person, but here it is in our mockup.


Option #1
Walls: Light Pewter
Tile: Greige

Option #2
Walls: Light Pewter
Tile: Polar Bear White

I like Option #2 much better, but frankly I'm still torn. I'm hesitant to paint the tiles white, especially since many of them are floor tiles, meaning that every piece of dog hair and dirt is going to make a beeline for them. 

I might paint a few pieces of paper and hang them on the fireplace to see how the colors do in our light conditions. 

We'll keep you posted. 

xo, 

Sonja