Yes You Can Costumes

Making the Extraordinary from the Ordinary

Family Wizard of Oz Costumes – Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers


While I didn’t actually make Eliza’s costume, I still found a DIY improvement I could make.


First, I needed to find some ruby slippers.


However, there were no ruby slippers to be found at my favorite thrift store haunts. Dropping a house on a Wicked Witch to obtain a pair was also “out”. So, I visited my favorite, thrift store/garage sale/flea market joint. AND it’s open 24-hours every day: eBay. That’s where I found this darling pair.

(This scrunchy face is a classic “Eliza look”.)

You can, too. Just type “red sparkle shoes“, “red glitter shoes“, “ruby slippers“, or even “Dorothy shoes” into the eBay search bar. Then, you can narrow your search by selecting the proper category and you can also organize your search result by factors such as price.


These shoes fit Eliza perfectly! However, some of the glitter began to wear off, a bit, after she wore them a few times.


So, I bought this pack of glitter glue from the Dollar Tree. It comes with silver, gold, and red glitter glue.


This was a fun little project that Emma and Elliott could do along with me!


They blobbed a bit of glitter glue on the worn spots and spread it around with a toothpick.


We had to go back and do a second coat in a few places.


This is by no means the most durable fix. However, it was fast, fun, and super cheap!


Hallmark Itty Bittys Dorothy Doll.

Family Wizard of Oz Costumes – DIY Glinda Crown


Once Emma’s Glinda dress was well under way, I turned my attention to the Glinda crown. This was going to be easy! After all, I had a pattern, right? Well…


This is when I discovered that the pattern made a four-pointed crown. This was disappointing for a couple of reasons:

1. The crown Glinda wears in the movie has more than four points, so this design looks, well, dumb.

2. The human eye is attracted to arrangements of odd numbers, so four points looks awkward.


I decided to add more points to the crown. I taped the pattern paper to the window. (Yes, I had to work around the “art installment” that was already up there.)


Then, I modified my own point shape (I had to make them a little skinnier than the originals in order to fit.) and created a new pattern over the existing shape. (My new pattern was designed “on the fold” so I only had to trace three and a half new points!)


I traced around the edge of a small, plastic lid to “grade” the new curves between my new points.

I am planning on making my pattern available to you as a PDF in the near future.

I bought the stiffest sew-in interfacing I could find at JoAnn. It was pretty much like very sturdy felt. If I could go back in time, I would have ironed the interfacing before I used it. It still had a bend in it from being wrapped around the bolt. However, I was pressed for time (you’re going to hear me say that a lot), so I skipped that step. I thought that I could get away with it because the crown was going to be curved, anyway. Not quite. The result was a slightly misshaped crown. I will experiment with re-shaping it and write about that experience in a future blog post.


I cut two crown shapes; one out of interfacing and one out of the thrifted, pink, sparkle fabric leftover from making the sleeves for the Glinda dress. Then, I applied Fray Check to the edges of the fabric layer to prevent it from, well, fraying. Fray Check is an amazing product! It is a quick-drying, glue-like substance with a thin consistency. It bonds to fabric and seals raw edges of material. You have to be careful with it, though! It is permanent and can spoil your project, carpet, or clothes if you drip it on the wrong places! You will also want to avoid applying it to part of a costume that could chafe against the skin, as the product hardens the edge of the material.


I turned to Pinterest for images that would guide me in embellishing the Glinda crown. I noted the silver, glittering lines radiating from the jeweled center and the curved lines fanning downward from each crown point. I drew these designs on my paper pattern by folding the crown pattern in half. I opened the pattern from its fold drew the line designs on one half. Then, I folded the pattern again and pressed it against a window. The light shining through helped me to trace the design from one side to the other side of the pattern. Then, I traced those lines one more time so that they would appear on the front side of the pattern as a mirror image to the first lines I drew. I hope that this makes sense! Sorry I don’t have pictures for this part.


I opened the pattern again. I lay the pattern on our coffee table. Then, I cut open a clear, plastic bag. I lay that over the paper pattern and then lay the fabric cut-out of the crown on top. The clear plastic acted as a protective barrier between my paper pattern and my fabric (not to mention protecting the table top). Then, I glued silver, holographic sequin trim to the bottom edge of the crown. Then, I carefully traced glitter fabric paint onto the fabric, using the lines I drew on the paper pattern as my guide. It was easy to see the design through the clear plastic bag and the sheer fabric.


I *should* have let the paint dry before moving to the next step, but I didn’t have the luxury of time! I had to move right ahead and glue on rhinestones and sequins, even though the fabric paint was still wet. This resulted in my accidentally dipping parts of my hands into wet paint, from time to time. Fortunately, I was able to fix the smudges.


Wet paint notwithstanding, it was so much fun to create the sparkly design in the center of the crown.
I left this decorated fabric overlay of the crown to dry overnight. It was super satisfying to peel it from the clear plastic bag, the next morning!


I applied glue around the edge of the interfacing cut-out for the crown. Then, I placed the decorated fabric over-lay on top and pressed it onto the glue. At this point, I also traced around the top edge of the crown points with the glitter fabric paint. Glitter puff paint takes a while to dry, due to its thick consistency. We were a few hours away from trick-or-treating, at this point, so I used a blow-dryer on the “cool” setting to help speed up the drying process!


Once the paint dried, I had Emma model the crown for me so I could mark where I needed to fasten it in the back. If I could do things over, I would have changed two things about what I did:

1. I thought I made the crown fit her snugly, but I should have made it even tighter. The crown ended up being slightly too large, so it tended to creep back on her head throughout the evening. (It’s slipping back a little in the photo, above.)

2. I should have sewn the back edges of the crown together to make it easier to adjust its size in the future. However, I was short on time, so I chose to hot glue where I overlapped the back edges of the crown. I could probably still peel them apart for re-sizing if I need to…And I might need to, because I found this amazing, pink prom dress at Goodwill. It was brand new with the tags still attached! The dress is more of a nude-blush than pink, which is actually closer to the color of the Glinda movie costume.


*Something* tells me that I need to turn this dress into a grown-up-sized Glinda costume. What do you think?

Glinda Crown Supply List

Complete the Look

Family Wizard of Oz Costumes – DIY Glinda Dress

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
Waiting for sequins and glue to dry! [Read more…]

Family Wizard of Oz Costumes


We usually take our cue for Halloween costumes from whatever movie our kids are into. They were totally obsessed with the Wizard of Oz, this summer.


My in-laws gave the kids this beautiful Wizard of Oz storybook when they all came to the hospital to meet our newest baby, Annika. That pretty much sealed the deal on what our family costume theme would be.


The Wizard of Oz has additional sentimental value for me: My paternal grandmother was a Kansas farm girl. Like the Dorothy in the movie, she grew up in the wide open space of Western Kansas during the Great Depression. Here she is, in 1951, holding a Kansas sunflower. I grew up near Seattle, the “Emerald City”, and it was there that my grandmother introduced the Wizard of Oz movie to me.


Also, The Wizard of Oz was the first musical in which I was ever cast. I was thirteen, and I was completely stage-struck after that! I am the blonde girl on the left, wearing a black and yellow Jitterbug costume. My hand is resting on the shoulder of my youngest brother. My other brother was the Mayor of the Munchkin City. He is the boy in front, wearing the blue hat. My little sister was the tiniest Munchkin and she is being held by the Scarecrow.


Here we were, backstage with Toto. Fun fact: The boxes behind us were full of fortune cookies. (The backstage area was adjoined to an Asian food warehouse.)

Trick or treat!

Anyway, back to the present! As usual, it took a village to pull off costuming the entire family. My mother-in-law, Karen, has also been a costumer for years. Whenever I need something extra special, I know who to ask for help! I call Karen the “Accessories Queen”. She always has the best pieces that really complete a look and make a character extra recognizable, like the witch’s broom and black cape that she loaned me for my Wicked Witch of the West costume.


Karen provided hats for Jeff and me


and Emma’s wand.


She surprised us with the darling Toto basket for Eliza


and the funnel hat and ax for Elliott’s Tin Man costume.


Basically, the moral of the story is this: Even if you are already a costumer, be sure to befriend other costumers in your area and treat them like gold! Build community with them and share costume pieces! You will make friends and save money in the process. Just be sure to be a courteous borrower and return things promptly and in good, clean condition!


Also, in case you are wondering, this is how you pack lots of costumed kids into a Suburban.


In upcoming blog posts I will show you how I made/assembled the pieces for each of our Wizard of Oz character costumes.

Glinda
Dorothy
Scarecrow
Tin Man
Cowardly Lion
Wicked Witch of the West
Flying Monkey

The Big Bolt of Yellow Fur and Other Stories of Failure

Talking about failure doesn’t seem like an inspirational way to start a creative costuming blog. However, I get lots of questions along the lines of “You have five kids! How do you do it all?” The truth is, I don’t! I have files and files of guilt in my brain over things I wish I could do or that I could do better. The sad thing is that I’ve even had guilt over not finishing costuming projects I’ve started. You guys, it’s a bummer when even your hobby can make you sad. However, that is sometimes my reality. Many, many times I have asked myself, “Why is this so hard?” or “Wasn’t this supposed to be fun?”.


I was on top of my game, this September. I was already working on our family’s themed Halloween costumes: The Wizard of Oz. And, by on top of my game, I mean that I was planning and sewing things six weeks before Halloween instead of the usual one week before Halloween. I was shopping in my favorite thrift store and came across something I’d seen there a few times before. It was a GIANT bolt of yellow, fake fur. It was 60 inches wide and there had to be at least 6 yards on that roll. This bolt had been living in clearance for a while, so it was going for $3.25. A screaming deal! It seemed to be calling to me, and I decided it would be really cute as part of Oliver’s “Cowardly Lion” costume. So, I balanced it awkwardly on top of our double stroller and bumbled my way to the checkout counter. I couldn’t fit through the door, so Emma and Elliott volunteered to shoulder the roll out to the car.

The kids had so much fun with the fur when we got home! They held it over their heads like strong men in a carnival show.


They rolled it on the floor. They sat on it. It turned into a goofy “photo shoot”.

I decided to triple-dog-dare myself by posting these pictures on Facebook. If I wrote about my project, that meant I had to deliver and finish it, right? In the subsequent weeks leading up to Halloween, I saw a couple, toddler-sized lion costumes at Goodwill, but I passed them up. I was determined to have a handmade Halloween. My preferred way to costume is to re-purpose existing garments or to make things from scratch. No cheating and buying pre-made things allowed! Well…The night before Halloween arrived and Jeff ran out to Target to perform a mission of mercy for me. He grabbed a “Cowardly Lion” hoodie and a “Dorothy” dress for Eliza. I was disappointed that I didn’t live up to my own expectations.

However, the kids had so much fun, the next day. As far as I could tell, it didn’t matter to them where their costumes came from, although they had enjoyed watching me create some of the pieces. They just lived in the moment and had a blast dressing like characters from one of their favorite movies. They had already had their fun with that ridiculous bolt of yellow, fur fabric. I’m pretty sure we got our money’s worth out of it.

Talking about failure doesn’t seem like a promising way to start a blog. However, I get lots of questions along the lines of “You have five kids! How do you do it all?” The truth is, I don’t! I have files and files of guilt in my brain over things I wish I could do or that I could do better. The sad thing is that I’ve even had guilt over not finishing costuming projects I’ve started. You guys, it’s a bummer when even your hobby can make you sad. However, that is sometimes my reality. Many, many times I have asked myself, “Why is this so hard?” or “Wasn’t this supposed to be fun?”.

(The “Cowardly Lion” wasn’t in the mood for pictures.)

I almost gave up on the idea of starting this blog, too. However, I realized that instead of having a host of unfinished costumes, what I really have is a bunch of half-finished costumes. (Is the glass half empty, or is it half full?) I still have the passion to create and write and I want to share that with you.

So, do you have an elephant in your sewing room? Is it a white elephant? Is it polka-dotted, or is it bright yellow and furry, like mine? Are there unfinished skeletons and ghosts in your costume closet that seem to reproach you every time you open that door? It’s okay! I get it. I really do. This blog exists to remind you and me to take a little bit of time to create, despite the odds. “Yes You Can!” is our rallying cry. Yes you can foster imaginative play with the children in your life through your handiwork. Yes you can find inspiration in the everyday and make truly remarkable things that bring joy to yourself and others. In the meanwhile, that bolt of yellow fur is still propped against a corner of the sewing room/guest room. Today, I choose to look at it as a cheery reminder that today is another day to make some magic.

P.S. Does anyone need a giant bolt of yellow fur?

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