Here’s the thing about Halloween with kids: dressing kids up is wildly fun, when you have control over the dress-up process. When you get to decide what they wear – which is to say, when you dress them up in whatever fashion amuses you – the whole exercise is awesome, and well worth the energy required (and you do need energy. Wrestling squirmy babies into chicken outfits is not for the faint of heart or weak of arm.)
Okay, so she was a duck, so, more fowl than poultry. Also, she was in pasties. Which is like fowl with garnish.
It’s most awesome when you can dress them up in ways that are borderline inappropriate, or would be if your neighbors had any familiarity with the works of Anthony Burgess and Stanley Kubrick (ours did not):
Dress your children in thuggery and bowler hats.
HOWEVER. You have a very, very small window of time in which to enjoy the game of Dress Your Children As Waterfowl And Dystopian Thugs, because once they get to a certain age – in Emilia’s case, four – they will demand to dress themselves, and that, my friends, is much, much less fun.
Well, sort of less fun. When your child’s interpretation of ‘costume’ is ‘Halloween Monster Robot With Stickers And Jewelry And Also Two Heads,’ you kind of have to give up and admit that your imagination is slightly more limited than hers:
I’ll let that just sink in.
This year, she wants to go as a strawberry.
‘You mean, as Strawberry Shortcake?’
‘No, as the fruit.’
Which defeats my powers of costuming. I purchased a Strawberry Shortcake hat for her, because it’s, like, a berry hat, which is something, but that really only gets us, in the process of fruitifying her, as far as her head. I thought about finding a red pillowcase and stuffing it, but I have no sewing skills – like, zero – and am not sure how I would seal it and fasten it to her.
And then there’s this: “and Mommy, I need to be a princess strawberry, who is also maybe a superhero.’
Um, okay. Like a princess in a strawberry dress?
“No, Mommy. A strawberry who’s a princess, and also a superhero. YOU’RE NOT LISTENING TO ME.”
So she’s got me. How do I make this costume, and how do I make it out of materials that I have at home? Or do I just try to convince her that Droogs are totally like fruity superheros with royal lineage? Or, you know, bust out the cardboard boxes – of which we have many - and tell her that she really needs to upgrade her 2009 Two Headed Monster Robot to the 2011 three-headed model?
HELP.
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Here is a strawberry costume that is also sort of a tutu…
http://kittyradio.com/soapbox/fashion/49330-making-strawberry-costume-dressing-up-any-kind-plant.html
A red pillowcase could work. If it has a pretty wide hem at the top opening. You could slit a hole in the outside layer of fabric there, run string through (around) and tie it as the neck hole for her. Is this too confusing? Sorry. I can see it in my head.
Glue pumpkin seeds to the red pillowcase referenced above. Recycling!
Strawberry shortcake hat plus a tiara. Red shirt, tutu, cape. Done. (Use a sharpie on the red shirt of you want seeds on the strawberry.)
I can’t help you – but you’ve just made me VERY happy that my kids are still content wearing something “off the rack” from the costume store. While I am a big proponent for creativity and imagination in this instance I am happy my kids just want to conform to the norm.
Good luck to you!
I meet your strawberry and raise you one Terry Fox costume. Complete with leg brace thankyouverymuch
This year he’s a priest. We don’t go to church. I didn’t even know what a priest looked like – I had to google it.
Two years previous, he was a yellow pick up truck.
My son is the king of impossible costumes.
Do you have any cotton batting? Use a red pillow case, draw on seeds. Cut two leg holes. Stuff with cotton batting. Not sure how you will secure it at the neck. You may have to go MacGyver on that one. Add a green hat. Voila.
I only wish my kids would come up with a challenge like this – they don’t even want me to make their costumes anymore…sniff.
I’m with the pillow case idea and the picture from the top link – there’s no princess costume you can’t make with enough tulle!
Cut the bottom of pillowcase open – cut “J” shapes – big enough for your daughter’s arms from the sides of the cuffed end of case. Thread ribbon through cuff so you can tie at shoulder. Cut red/pink tulle into strips, thread onto ribbon or elastic – like this:
http://www.onethousandtutus.com/makeatutu.asp
Put on top – glue on “seeds” from felt or whatever.
Good luck!!
Paint her entire face as a strawberry, get her a princess costume with a crown, and attach a cape?
You could attach red balloons to a red turtleneck and pants, maybe by pinning through the tied balloon end, in a strawberry like shape. Dot them all over with a black sharpie to look like strawberry seeds. Then add the strawberry hat with a princess tiara and some kickass superhero boots and a cape. Good luck!
Oh man. Pics or it didn’t happen.
Dress your children in dystopia and thuggery? You are seriously awesome.
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