Angel- Fun for Christmas plays, or any occasion! Start with an adult's crew neck white T-shirt, long enough to reach the floor. Using regular school glue and silver or gold glitter, add glitter to bottom of sleeves, around neck and along bottom of shirt. Allow to dry overnight. A length of sparkly Christmas garland that matches the glitter can be tied together and worn on the head for a halo. Purchase wings that slip over the arms to the back or make your own. See instructions for making wings.
Beauty Pageant Winner- Start with a beautiful dress, maybe a flower girl dress, a bridesmaid dress or a beautiful flowing nightgown. Add a touch of makeup and sparkle, a tiara, dress gloves and a sash made from 2 lengths of fabric pinned or sewn together. Write on the sash with marker, paint pen or glitter. "Miss America", "Miss Texas", "Miss USA" (great for 4th of July!) and "Birthday Beauty" are some ideas. Or why not have an Esther's Beauty Pageant with a few little girls for Purim?
Bug, butterfly or spider- This is good for a boy or a girl, depending on how you dress it up. Have child wear footie pajamas, a solid color sweatsuit, or leotards and tights for the body. Black or brown or red are good for bugs and spiders, and any color will work for butterflies. To make legs, fill knee-high stockings (or long socks or cuts from pantihose) with soft material and tie on the end. Sew or pin to child's sides. Attach elastic thread, yarn or some other string to each leg and make a loop to go around child's wrist, so when he moves, the extra legs will also move. You can tie a piece of yarn around the middle of the extra set of legs to look jointed. Your child's arms and legs are the other legs. For a spider, just make two sets of legs, attaching them together with string.
For the head, hot glue or stitch some felt in the color that you want, or use a stocking cap, to make a hat, if desired. You could braid some chenille sticks together or use the flattened chenille sticks to form spider fangs. Tape with colored duct tape to the hat. Glue on a few pom-poms for spider eyes. Spiders have eight eyes: two rows of four.
For a spider, you might want to make a large black or brown circle to wear on the back instead of wings. A black spider might also want to wear a red hour-glass shaped piece of felt on the belly.
Bunny- This is an oldie but a goodie. Start with a footie sleeper or a sweatsuit, and add a pom-pom tail with a safety pin or a few stitches. Use a purchased bunny headband, add a pink nose for girl and a black or brown nose for boy, add whiskers with eyebrow pencil. Remove tail to reuse pajamas.
Black eyed "P"- Fun for grownups, simply paint a large letter "P" on a t-shirt, and blacken one eye with makeup. Voila! Black eyed P! Save your "P" shirt for next year, for the salt and pepper shaker costumes.
Cat- Just like the bunny, only clip the ears shorter and pointed, add a ribbon instead of a pom-pom for the tail.
Cloud - Dress your child in a white sweatsuit (boy or girl), or a long white T-shirt with white tights (girl), lightly stitch on white fiber-fil in patches all over. Put some white cold cream on face, and pat with baby powder, or paint face with white clown makeup. Add a white knitted hat with fiberfil. You can add a bit of black permanant marker ink all over, for a dark rain cloud, if you like. Or use a little blue paint here and there, and/or blue or white glitter for sparkle, if you like. Simply remove stitches and you can still use the clothes. Please note: This is not for babies! Babies could pull off fiberfil, put in their mouths and choke, and baby powder can cause a type of pneumonia in very young babies.
Clown- Explore your parents' closet for some funky clothes. Mom might have a ruffly shirt, or big floppy dress. Dad might have oversized pants, suspenders, overalls or a big crazy tie. Tie your hair with a bunch of little rubber band pony tails, and spray with colored hair spray, or dust with baby powder. Lipstick red nose and mouth and eyeliner crosses over your eyes make it complete.
Dalmation Puppy- Use a black marker to draw spots on a white sweatsuit. Use clown makeup (or cold cream mixed with baby powder) for a white face, and an eyebrow pencil to draw spots and a nose and whiskers on the face. If your child has long hair, you can make side ponytails for ears. Or tape pieces of white felt, spotted with black marker, onto a plastic headband for ears. You can also "forget" about ears and the costume is still good.
Doctor, Nurse or EMT- This is for an older girl or boy. Start with borrowed or purchased scrubs, pants and top. You can cinch the pants pretty far in to fit. To adjust the pant length without ruining them, have child put pants on inside out and stand on a footstool or chair. Fold cuffs to fit and safety pin in place all the way around both pant legs. Take off and put on right side. Add some medical "stuff" to the pocket (you may need to put a few tissues in the pocket, so they can be seen. Add some band-aids, a tongue depresser (popsicle stick), a pair of rubber gloves. If you have some toy medical things, like a stethoscope, that really accents the outfit. Wear tennis shoes.
Men in Black- Got a black suit and sunglasses? You're ready to fight intergalactic crime. A "flashy thingy" can be made with a stick wrapped in black electric tape, with a square of aluminum foil at the top.
Nurse- for a girl. Start with a big white T-shirt (a man's crew neck shirt works well), or a white dress. Add white tights, white tennis shoes and add a few medical accessories, like a red cross made of felt pinned or sewn to the dress, a toy stethoscope, some bandages, rubber gloves, etc.
Prince or King- This is nice for Purim. Dress your little guy in a long shirt, with pants rolled, pinned (on the inside), or hemmed to mid-calf, with long white knee socks or knee-high stockings and his good dress shoes. If you have some clip-on sparkly earrings, you might clip one to each shoe. Put a belt around his middle, over the top of the long shirt (mom's belt might work better than his own for this), with aluminum foil wrapped around the buckle. Fold down the top of a small blanket or nice towel, and pin around his neck at the fold for a cape, with the folded part hanging down a bit at the top. Affix a brooch at the neck gathering, if he likes. Add a jeweled crown and a scepter. See instructions for crown and for scepter.
Princess or Queen- This is nice for Purim. Momma's nightgown makes a pretty long gown (you may have to add a few pins or loose stitches to adjust for fit, and she may need a slip if the gown is see through). Let her wear a fancy hairdo, pretty makeup and some lovely beads around her neck or wrapped around her wrist. If your queen would like a cape, fold down the top of a small blanket or nice towel, and pin around her neck at the fold for a cape, with the folded part hanging down a bit at the top. A tiara for your princess or a jeweled crown for your queen, and a scepter will complete the look. See instructions for crown and for scepter.
Quarter Back- So Dad doesn't want to dress up, eh? Maybe he'll go for this one: Tape a quarter to the middle of his back. That's it. Quarter-back.
Safari Guy (or Girl)- dress your child in khaki shorts and shirt, safari or cowboy hat. Pin a large rubber spider or other kind of bug to the shorts. Wrap a toy snake around the neck.
Salt and Pepper Shakers - This is fun for couples, for siblings, or best friends. You need an oversized white T-shirt or sweat shirt for the salt shaker, and an oversized black shirt for the pepper. Cut out a large S for salt and a large P for pepper, out of colored felt or scrap fabric, and pin, stitch or glue into place- or write the letters with permanent marker or fabric paint. For the shaker tops, cut a strip from a piece of poster board, and roll it into a short tube, open at both sides, the size to fit around your head as a hat. Tape into place with sturdy masking or duct tape. Make a round topper out of the poster board and tape over the top, slightly overlapping the round opening. Cover the cardboard hat with aluminum foil, and either draw dots at the top (for the shaker holes) or glue or tape on circles of black construction paper or felt. Save your "P" shirt for next year, and dress up as the black eyed P.
Thing 1 and Thing 2- A fun costume for couples, siblings or best friends. Start with a plain red sweatsuit. Add a circle of white felt to the front. Using a black marker, write "1" and "2" on the felt. Spike hair with hair gel and spray with blue hairspray paint.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN ACCESSORIES:
Antennae- For your bug or butterfly, you can make antennae really easily with a couple of chenille sticks and a lady's plastic headband. Just twist the chenille sticks around the top of the headband and stick up. Roll a little bit of each stick down at the ends. If you want to get fancy, twist together two different colored chenille sticks for each antenna, and top with balls of aluminum foil.
Clown wig- Start with a clean pair nylon pantihose, preferably ones that you were going to throw away anyway. Cut off the legs and sew leg openings closed. Sew on pieces of fiberfil all over, as much as you can fit on. Color fiberfil with dabs of poster paint or liquid food coloring. Add some touches of glitter glue, if you like. Allow to dry completely. This should last for a couple of wears, with child playing, but don't expect it to last for too long.
Crown- My favorite crown is the kind that they will give you at the fast food restaurant. You know the one that I mean.... the one with the king. They will almost always give you a few free paper crowns, if you ask. These can be adjusted for fit. Spray-paint the printed side with gold spray paint and let it dry completely. Add glitter, sequins, etc., and fit to child's head. Tape together, so it doesn't tear and fall off.
Elf or Hobbit or Vulcan Ears- Yes, I'm a "Ringer" (fan of The Lord of the Rings). To make simple pointed ears that a child might like, use an adhesive bandage, the larger square or rectangular kind that are used for scraped knees. Fold in half at padded area, kind of askew to make a point (play around with it until you get the look you want) and stick to tops of ears.
Hobbit Feet- Hobbits have hairy feet! Measure the width and length of the top of your foot. Spread a layer of ordinary school glue onto a sheet of waxed paper in the size that you need. Add hair clippings from a haircut or some doll hair, cut into short pieces (you can get doll hair at craft stores). Let dry completely (this might take a couple of days, depending on how thick you spread the glue and the humidity in your area). When completely dry, very carefully peel hair patches off of the waxed paper. Now you have the tops of the feet ready to affix with double-sided sticky tape. Wear neutral colored open-toed sandles or flip-flops, and cover the sandle straps as much as possible with the hairy patches that you made, to give the appearance of bare, hairy, feet. Hobbits wear no shoes.
Scepter or Wand- Start with a dowel rod or straight stick, and a length of satin ribbon in the color of your choice. Put some hot glue (you can use regular school glue, but it takes a bit longer and you must put aside to dry overnight if you do) at the top of the rod and wrap the ribbon over the top. Run a bead of glue down the length of the rod, and wrap ribbon, overlapping just a bit, down the rod until all is covered. Glue a styrofoam ball covered with glitter or fabric to the top. Tie or glue on skinny lengths of ribbon or Christmas tinsel at the top, for a magic wand. Please be careful and keep hot glue gun out of the reach of children. Thrifty Wand Variation- instead of satin ribbon, use aluminum foil to cover stick and add an aluminum foil ball or star at the top. Add curling ribbon at top and/or glitter, if desired.
Wings 1 -easy style- an easy and impressive way to make wings is to attach a piece of fabric (a pretty scarf usually works well for a child) to the length of each sleeve, and also attach it down the side of the shirt, so that when your child lifts her arms, the fabric unfolds and opens into wings. You can use loose whip stitches and thread, then snip the thread when you are done with it.
Wings 2- To make wings, draw a wing on a piece of newspaper, and cut out the size and shape that you like. Use as a template and trace around it onto poster board. Trace one wing, then flip around to trace the opposite wing, leaving a handwidth or more in between wings. Cut out, leaving a handwidth high across the two wings, leaving them connected. If the wings are too big to be made from one poster board, add a firmly attached (use duct tape on a piece of poster board) connecting piece between wings after cutting them out. Decorate with markers and glitter, or cover with nylon netting or aluminum foil. Punch a hole in the top and bottom of the connecting area on each side near the wings, and attach a length of ribbon or elastic, to go up around the shoulders and connect under the arms. Cover inside holes with a small piece of duct tape to keep from tearing. Or simply pin wings into place with diaper pins.
