Fantasy Fun Archives - Yes You Can Costumes

Marzipan Reed Flutes – Homemade Nutcracker

February 7, 2021

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My little woodland elves and I finished making their mitts and pins! It was time to dress up and celebrate outside, at the height of autumn. I will also take this opportunity to introduce you to some of our most beloved trees; both living and deceased. R.I.P.

Our birch tree is always lovely, but it is positively stunning in the fall!

The Japanese maple in our front planter makes a natural shelter that our kids duck inside and fondly call their “house”.

I made it even more homey with an arch made of a thrifted, silk sunflower garland and a beaded garland I found on Facebook Marketplace. I wound them onto two shepherd’s crooks and secured them with baggie ties.

Various pumpkins and squash from our own garden and some from family and friends decorated the bases of the arches. (I stole them from our own front porch display!)

Not everyone was a huge fan of the marzipan cookies we made for this homage to The Nutcracker Suite. Emma and Annika compensated by trying to eat all of them!

Oliver ran off from the group photo session and jumped on the swing. Sometimes, photographing small children is more like being a wildlife photographer than an artist. You have to just work with whatever the creatures ae doing in their natural habitat!

Our three, little, lady elves model their handmade mitts.

Considering our family’s large, musical instrument menagerie, it is rather surprising that we don’t own any flutes! Jeff’s clarinet is a reed instrument, but it didn’t suit the vibe I was going for. So, I chose a recorder as our token woodwind instrument for this photo shoot. (After all, the alternate name for the “Marzipan” piece in The Nutcracker is “Dance of the Reed Flutes”.

Everybody, grab on! I was going for an age-order lineup, but I decided to be happy that they were in a line, at all.

I’m pretty sure that Annika was plotting mischief in this photo.

After a bit, I took our operation to the backyard. This is what the back garden looks like in November! It’s a bit mouldery and spooky.

One, lonely pumpkin and skeletal, sunflower “scarecrows”.

However, there is always beauty to be found, if I look for it hard enough! We moved my little sunflower and squash arrangement by some wild grass.

Green is Emma’s favorite color. It suits her, don’t you agree?

Our munchkins with their “reed flute” and marzipan.

Annika took full advantage of this opportunity to eat as many cookies as she could!

This rainbow assortment of hand-made hats are all hand-me-downs from friends or the thrift store (Eliza’s).

Little Ollie Elf!

Action shots seemed like the way to go with our busy, little guy!

Elliott, the Elf Prince. He was perched on the remains of our giant fir tree that fell over on New Year’s Day, 2020. (We probably should have taken that as an omen.)

Remains of pokeweed in the foreground. It’s pretty, but obnoxious. I need to deal with it, this year, and I’m not looking forward to it!

Eliza was the Miss Congeniality winner of this event. She is a funny mixture of sweetness and seriousness, but she morphs into a goofball whenever I turn on the camera.

She is definitely our whimsical, fairy child.

It was fun to include the pumpkins that she and Oliver painted at preschool. This purple one, decorated by Oliver, just happened to match the color palette I chose for this project!

Mitt models . . .

At some point, we will need to remove this enormous log. In the meanwhile, the kids enjoy climbing on it.

Those large, silvery-sage green rosette plants are Great Mulleins that I transplanted from family property at Lake Chelan. Their frosty, fuzzy leaves looked enchanted next to my green girl!

The layers and textures of the costume pieces we put together turned out just as I had hoped.

Autumn always makes me think of cozy colors, layers, and textures. Perhaps like the layers of the colorful, falling leaves.

And . . . JUMP!!!

Our dogwood trees are also well beloved by our children. They are gorgeous in any season: Flowering in spring, apple green leaves in summer, red leaves and berries in the fall, and shapely, bare branches in winter.

That’s what I like about them, anyway. If you ask the kids, they will tell you that the dogwoods are special because they are perfect climbing trees! We have one with white blooms in the backyard, and one with pink flowers in the front yard.

Annika was not about to be left behind! She managed to scramble to the first fork in the tree.

The cold was finally getting to us. See her pink, little nose?

We went inside to get warm right after these pictures were taken. I hope that these cozy, cheery colors, and woolen accessories warmed your heart as well!

In an upcoming post, I’ll show you how I put together the entire outfits for our Woodland Marzipan Elves. Almost every article of clothing was already in the kids’ wardrobes!

DIY Upcycled Wool Mitts and Pins

December 30, 2020

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Stop!!! Don’t throw away those nifty wool socks! So, maybe they have a few holes…BUT, that doesn’t mean that your comfy, cozy life with them has to be over.

Anyway, that’s what I told myself when my favorite Costco socks (a Christmas present from my aunt), started to wear through. Of course, I am capable of justifying the saving of anything that has crafting potential. Holey socks are no exception!

Pretty wool mitts with lots of trims and texture seemed like the perfect accessories for my little marzipan elves. These socks also presented the perfect material and the perfect project for teaching my little elves to sew!

Supplies *Includes Affiliate Links*

Old socks
Buttons
Trim
Feathers
Fabric scraps
Needle and thread
Scissors
Pin backs
Craft glue
Glue gun (optional)
Sewing machine (optional)

“And sew“, as my maternal grandmother would say… (Get it? “Sew” = “So”…Sorry, I’ll stop.) We began by cutting the legs of the socks apart from the insteps/soles of the socks; just above their heels. Emma (9) and I tried on the newly-made mitts. So far, so good!

Now, for the fun part! I have a large stash of thrifted lace, and I also got these bags of trims and feathers through the local “Buy Nothing” group on Facebook. I set aside the package of feathers for pin-making. (More on that, soon!)

Emma selected a pleated, gold ribbon to trim the edge of the mitts nearest her fingers, and a pretty, cream-colored lace for trimming the cuffs. She sat on my lap at the sewing machine. I let her operate the foot pedal, while I helped her to guide the material.

This is where things got really exciting! Emma and I cut rounded “patches” from the leftover heels and insteps of the various socks. Then, she got to rummage through my vintage button collection and hand-sew them into place. It was so fun to see her independent creativity and design sense emerge.

While Emma stitched, I got Elliott (8) in on the action. He selected the socks with the feather motif. We made a few stitches about a three-quarter inch away from the inside edge of the top of each mitt. This created a hole for the thumb. (The addition of a thumb-hole ensures that the mitts will stay in place, over the hands, when worn.)

Elliott approached button sewing with skepticism. I told him that learning a new skill is like experiencing a new food: You don’t know what it’s like until you try it! And, what do you know…Before long, he was hooked!

Is it a good idea to have mounds of flammable crafting materials right next to a candle? Probably not. Ignore that. Instead, observe the artful cutting of rounded shapes from unused sock bits, and the charming button collage patches. Emma made an extra butterfly patch for fun, and then she began to make the patches for her younger siblings’ mitts.

Even Eliza (5) learned to sew on buttons! She has a lot of patience and attention for detail, so she was a natural! As the kids completed their button patches, I sewed them onto the mitts. I used contrasting thread and a combination of straight and star-shaped clusters of stiches to add to the earthy, whimsy of the finished products.

And, that’s it! Look at how far these mitts came: From humble, holey socks, to beautiful, wearable pieces of art! The only “oops” I think I made was in not stretching Emma’s mitts enough as we machine-sewed the gold trim to the top edges. This made the edges of the socks lose their stretch, as the machine stitches locked the knit material in place. The trimmed edges became too rigid and tight to stretch over Emma’s hands far enough to be worn with thumb-holes. So, hers are the only ones without. However, her mitts are still completely wearable as-is!

Next, we turned our attention to making coordinating pins. My plan (and I think we succeeded) was to tie these costume looks together with head-to-toe texture! I had some scraps of tapestry material that seemed like the perfect base material for the pins. The fabric was sturdy, and I liked how its edges raveled a bit. (I don’t like hard edges when I’m going for a natural look.) First, we traced oval shapes with my favorite Dritz Dual Purpose Marking Pen.

Elliott doubted his ability to cut a good oval, but he prevailed!

I wanted each pin to have a flourish to it, so we cut little triangle bits from the sock scraps. We pinned them to overlap, a bit, then ran a gathering stitch along the bottom edge. Next, we pinned this “cockscomb” to the tapestry oval and tightened the gathering thread, a bit. This puckered the points, giving them extra dimension. Then, we stitched them into place.

On the girls’ pins, we gathered scraps of lace and stitched them down before adding the fabric “cockscombs”, buttons, and feathers. I began stitching pin backs onto finished pins.

It was sweet to see the kids find favorite buttons. They were really excited to include them on their personal accessories. Elliott had his heart set on this faux, wooden button. Of course, Annika also got into the sensory fun of playing with buttons!

Once the buttons were stitched, we played with tucking feathers between the layers of fabric and buttons until we liked the final arrangement. Then, we added craft glue to anchor them in place.

This extra large pin was destined to sit on Elliott’s shoulder, like an epaulette.

Some of the pins needed a little extra support, so we cut felt backs for them and glued them, after adding the feathers.

These pins are simple to make, but sewing all of the buttons proved to be time-consuming. I cheated and made a few, last-minute pins with hot glue. We could have made all of them, this way, but the kids wouldn’t have been able to be as hands-on. (Hot glue burns, yo!) Besides, I really wanted this to be an opportunity for them to learn to sew.

Here you can see some of the backs of the finished pins. The larger ones got two pin backs so they wouldn’t flop around, when worn. Some of the last-minute ones were hot glued. I paid extra attention so I wouldn’t accidentally gum up the hinges and clasps with globs of glue. The hand-stitched pin backs were also treating with a bit of craft glue, for durability.

And, here is the gorgeous array of our finished pins! They are studded with woodland button “jewels”, and enhanced with fabric and lace cockades and feathers.

The larger pins were worn on hats, shoulders, and chests. The smaller ones clasped the ends of scarves on less conspicuous areas of the costumes. See how they coordinate with the mitts?

This a sneak-peek of the accessories in action! They were such a fun way to add a distinctive look to the kids’ layers of their own clothes. It just goes to show that you can transform ordinary garments into extraordinary costumes with thoughtful styling and a few, special pieces.

Speaking of styling, my next blog post will show you how I assembled these individual garments into cohesive, costumed looks!

Marzipan Cookies – Homemade Nutcracker

December 25, 2020

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If you’re like me, you’ve heard of marzipan but had no idea what it was. It sounds like something fanciful and tricky that only a pastry chef would use. To my surprise, I learned that it is an easy-to-make, almond “playdough”. It can be eaten as-is or incorporated into other recipes.

Woodland Marzipan Elves with marzipan cookies.

In fact, during my research into the treats represented in the Nutcracker, I learned that many old-fashioned European, Middle-Eastern and Asian sweets incorporate almonds. This makes sense. Almonds would have been commonplace in the Middle-East and Asia and a real treat in Europe.

It takes inspiration to try something new, like making marzipan. What a better place to find it than a book? Our days begin and end with cuddles, and the kids love it when I read to them from The Story Orchestra: The Nutcracker. Here, you can see Emma’s enthusiasm for the project. Making yummy, nutty cookies sounded like a good idea on a crisp, autumn day.

Eliza added the rose water to the food processor.

I found a promising recipe on Pinterest: BEST Marzipan and Almond Paste Recipe. In keeping with many other old recipes, marzipan calls for rose water. I made my own, this summer, and froze portions in muffin tins. (I’ll go into that in depth when we tackle the Waltz of the Flowers.)

Emma learned to separate egg whites from the yolks like a champ!

We kept some of the marzipan out for the cookie recipe. Then, we formed the rest into a log, wrapped it in plastic, and stuck it in the fridge. This German Mandelhörnchen recipe came from the same site as the marzipan one did. It sounds very legit and Nutcracker-y, doesn’t it?

Annika loves playdough, so she got right into the marzipan cookie action! The cute aprons were from Ikea.

These cookies only required a few other ingredients, aside from the marzipan. The final steps were rolling the dough into little logs, brushing them with egg whites, rolling them in sliced almonds, and bending them into “U” shapes on the baking sheets.

The other kids ditched us for this part, but Emma stuck with me. We baked the cookies and decided not to dip their ends in chocolate. Don’t get me wrong…We love chocolate! However, chocolate + costumes = BIG no-no! Maybe I’ll get around to adding the chocolate to the leftover ones, at some point.

And, here are our little Marzipan Elves enjoying our marzipan cookies! Well, Emma and Annika enjoyed them. Elliott, Eliza and Oliver weren’t into them.

Whatevs. More for those of us with good taste! Amiright? Speaking of taste, these cookies have a consistency between a sugar cookie and a shortbread, and are richly flavored with the heady, almost-floral taste of almonds!

Look as those lovely, wool mitts! Would you believe that they were made from old socks, scraps of trim, and vintage buttons? Well, be on the lookout for an upcoming post, and I’ll show you how the kids and I made them!

DIY Feather Fairy Wings

March 6, 2019

Do you find yourself asking how to take something “costumey” and make it luxe? I do. Every day! Doesn’t everyone?

Well, to illustrate my eternal quest, I’m going to show you how I transformed cheapo fairy wings into magical, downy, sparkly wings. At least, that’s what I was attempting for our Valentines Photo Shoot.

First, I ordered some cheap, white wings on Amazon. (Normally, I like to find second-hand costume pieces, but this doesn’t always work if I need multiple, identical items.) Each set of wings came with a tinsel halo on a headband, which I didn’t use for this project. *Disclaimer* I am an Amazon Associate. Any purchases made through my affiliate links gives me a small commission. I am careful to only promote products that I personally use and enjoy!

Next, I went hunting for feathers. I was out of time to buy them online, so I headed to the store with the largest selection in town: Hobby Lobby. Don’t be fooled by how small the packages look! It turns out that one package of these Fancy Feathers was enough for all three sets of wings! (Although, I did make each feathered center smaller for each girl.)

Now it was time to make the feathered accents for the fairy wings! I wanted to make something that could be taken on and off the wings. leaving them adaptable for future projects. Applying the feathers directly to the wings was not an option. Instead, I chose this spool of wired, gold mesh from my stash, to be the base material. It would be strong, light, and pretty looking if viewed from either the front or back of the translucent wings.

After cutting a strip of the wired mesh, I started “winging it” and hot gluing feathers in a butterfly shape. Sorry for the bad pun! As I went along, I realized that the piece of wire mesh was too long. I didn’t want to cut it or start over, so I just folded a tuck into it. This shortened it by about an inch. Then, I just kept gluing feathers and burning my fingers!

Do you want to hear the story behind how I got the star glitter confetti for the wings? Well, I’m going to tell it to you, anyway. It all started when a package of Dollar Tree star confetti exploded in the undercarriage basket of our double stroller, during a shopping trip at said establishment. Yes, this is a picture of the aftermath, plus the random stuff that the kids like to keep down there as part of their “collection”.

So, for the last few months, we’ve been leaving little sprinkles of confetti wherever we go. Anytime we pop open the double stroller, “Whoosh!” a little bit of whimsy and pixie dust is left behind. You’re welcome, Wenatchee. When it came time to apply some sparkle, I ran outside and grabbed a handful of confetti from our trunk.

Next, I wanted to come up with something glam to cover the white, elastic straps of the fairy wings. I found this glittery, wired ribbon and adhesive “pearls” at Walmart.

I hand-stitched the ribbon to the top of each elastic strap, leaving some extra at the top. Then, I left about a two-foot tail, so there would be plenty of length to tie the ribbon ends at the center back, when the wings were worn. I added bits of the gold mesh ribbon and more star confetti and pearls to finish decorating the ribbon strap covers. Here are Emma’s finished wings!

And Eliza’s.

Here are several different views of Emma and Eliza’s decorated wings. I don’t have photos to show it, but the feathered center piece is attached with snaps.