DIY Halloween 2020: Monarch Butterfly

 

Ok, let's me honest: this is my most favorite costume ever. To the point where I might simply buy costumes next year because nothing will ever top this one. I told Em she has to wear it every year from here on out. 

Our inspiration came from a shoe company, of all places:

And while I liked the orange-yellow of the traditional monarch butterfly, my little gal is firmly ensconced in the all-things-must-be-pink camp. Fair enough. Biologic accuracy be dammed. We're going with pink. 

Here is a little play-by-play of our creative process. We sketched out a few ideas:

We began with plain black fabric onto which I sewed a wire along the outside. You don't necessarily need to do it, but it gives the wings 'lift'. 

We then created a paper template and used chalk to make our markings onto the wings. 

In total, we did 7 wings. Here they are with chalk outlines, ready for paining. 

We painted directly onto the black fabric with acrylic paint. They required 3 coats, so be prepared with lots of paint. I painted them a light pink and added orange accents later. (Below: finished wings at the top (3 coats), a wing with one coat in the middle and at bottom a wing with two coats of paint). 

I then sewed the wings onto a black fabric belt to complete the skirt. The chest wing was pinned directly to Em's black leotard. She wore black tights underneath and rain boots (Seattle in October!). 

The headdress was made by wrapping store-bought butterflies from a giant craft store  around the headband. They came pink, but we painted on a few additional accents. It's by far the coolest part of the costume (although not terribly comfortable). 

And there you have it! DIY Pink Monarch Butterfly Costume!

Halloween 2020: DIY Roman Centurion Costume

Despite the fact that we told the kids that we wouldn't go trick or treating this year, somehow Halloween costumes became a very big deal. I used to be able to get away with picking cute outfits and stuffing my willing kids into their getups but those days are very long gone. The kids have firm costume opinions and they will not be swayed by any parental suggestions. 

Which is hard. Truth be told, I was not excited about the Roman Warrior idea. It shouldn't have been a surprise; Ben is absolutely gaga over Greek, Roman, and Nordic mythology, as evidenced by his character last year: Thor, God of Thunder. Soon I was receiving emails with all sorts of elaborate (and expensive) cosplay costumes for my inspection - darn the kid and his new email account. Drastic preventive action was required. I set about sketching some ideas before he could latch onto something too complicated for a mom in the midst of a pandemic. 

Here's what we came up with: Leather(ish) vest with attached cape, armored skirt, shield, helmet with fancy plume, and plastic sword. 

Leather Tunic

Astute readers will notice that his vest from last year suspiciously made it into this year's costume. No use reinventing the wheel if you have a perfectly good faux muscle shirt already made. Ben was content to use last year's model provided we added a few upgrades. Fair enough. 

 

Armored Apron
The gold lapels of his 'leather' vest are made from this weird thick gold pleather that has been insanely handy for costumes. Fortunately we had some left and Ben went about tracing and cutting some strips for his armored skirt.

I sewed the whole thing to a waistband and added velcro and a black felt backing on the fancy 'buckle'. 

Helmet

Supplies Needed
-Craft Foam (two thicknesses used here)
-Hot Glue (lots)
-Spray Paint (gold and red)

I began by using my thickest foam (black) to do a band around the head. Secure with hot glue. From there do a band that goes over the crown of the head and two supporting pieces, forming a cross at the top. 

I also glued supporting pieces (light grey) over the seams for extra strength. 

From there I drew templates on paper for the face shield, visor, and neck guard. Once we got the sizing lined up, we transferred it to foam and attached with hot glue. 

Small triangles were used to fit between the cross pieces to form the hat. And then it's time to get creative with the hot glue. This is also the stage in which Ben got a dime-sized burn on this thumb so be careful with the glue gun. It was a rough night and it's still a blistered, seeping mess. Poor kid. Anyway, use your creativity here.

Then we were ready for the gold spray paint. Paint the red plume separately and attach later.

The red plume consists of six pieces of thin foam that were painted red and feathered with scissors. Glue the whole mess to the helmet and you're done. The helmet is awesome, btw. Definitely the coolest headgear I've ever made. 

 

Shield

Supplies

Plastic serving tray
Spray paint
Full page sticker paper
Parachute Cord

Tools
Printer
Drill


Over the course of their military history, Romans employed a few different types of shields, the most common being the rectangular Scutum. We went with the earlier round shield, called a Clipeus.

The shield is a plastic serving tray from Goodwill that set us back $2.00. I sanded it down and spray painted it black.

To make the eagle: find an image online (or draw one). Print onto a sticker paper (like this). Cut out around the image. Remove the backing and stick onto the shield. 

Since I wanted our eagle to be black, I first painted the shield black, put the sticker down, and then sprayed red over it. After it dried, I peeled off the sticker. 

Next carefully drill four holes in the shield and attached braided parachute cord. 

You can also paint the exterior nubs of the parachute cord to match the colors of the shield. 

Voila! Practice your antient war cry and you'll be ready for your grand debut. 

Cost
This is tricky since we already had the sword, leather vest, and fabric for the armored apron. All supplies like hot glue, a quantity of foam sheets, sticker, and paint were also on hand. I spent $3 on the tray (shield), $2 for some extra foam, and $4 for a can of gold spray paint. 

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.