Rainbow Halloween Costume for Three

For Halloween, our family of three dressed as a rainbow. 

 

Even though I am completely incompetent with the sewing machine, this costume was easy enough that it only took me a few hours to make. I made some mistakes along the way, so you get to benefit by learning from my errors.

The biggest error? That image above is a lie. I digitally flipped it to get the colors in ROYGBIV order. The actual photo has us in VIBGYOR order. Even though I actually thought about how to get the colors with red at the left and purple at the right, I still messed it up. Sigh. Affiliate links below. 

Rainbow Halloween Costume for Three

Materials:

• 6 identical t-shirts (one each of ROYGBIV), one size larger than you wear
• Clover wonder clips (SO much better than pins)
• fabric scissors  (I use the left-handed version!)
• chipboard
• 2 paper plates
• Folk Art paint
• 2 extra jumbo craft sticks
• silver thread
• glow pony beads

Steps:

Fold each t-shirt in half as precisely as you are able. Mark the center with clips or pins, then carefully cut the each shirt in half. 

After all the shirts are cut, pair them together red-orange, yellow-green, and blue-purple. Here's where I went wrong. I chose the wrong half of each shirt. I should have red and yellow on the left sides, and orange and green on the right sides.  

I strongly recommend you lay out all the shirts in order to make sure you are using the correct sides. You might luck out and get a t-shirt brand where the front and back are symmetrical, but ours had a dip in the front with a very high back that would have been weird to wear backwards. 

When you are sure you have the correct order, it's time to sew. Carefully match the fronts of the shirts together and clip one of the sides in place. 

Sew that seam, being sure to backstitch at the hem and the neck to secure the seam. Clip the second seam together. Sew that seam, then turn the shirt right-side out. Repeat the process for the other two shirts. 

To make the rain cloud, cut a cloud shape from chipboard and paint it grey. Glue it to a jumbo craft stick. Tie glow beads onto pieces of silver thread and tape them to the back of the cloud so that they dangle like raindrops. 

To make the sun, cut 8 triangles of chipboard to make the sun's rays. Paint them and the backs of two paper plates yellow. Glue one plate to the craft stick, then glue the rays to the front of that plate. Glue the second plate on top to sandwich the rays between the two plates. 

Then you just have to make sure you stand next to each other in the correct order through the entire costumed celebration! 

This was a fun costume and so easy. Half of each shirt is leftover, so in theory I could either sew up the correct rainbow, mix-and-match the colors to make random two-tone shirts (opposites on the color wheel?), or come up with other way to use the fabric. I'm open to suggestions!

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween!

Cardboard Tube Reindeer Gift Packaging

When you're a craft blogger, literally everything is a potential craft supply. Even the cut-off sleeves from a reindeer costume. In this case, those sleeves became gift wrap that looks like a reindeer and hides fun surprises inside. Affiliate links below.

Cardboard Tube Reindeer Gift Packaging

Materials:

• sleeve from an XL brown t-shirt
• cardboard tube
• scissors
• washi tape, candy, and other small gifts or toys
• brown pipe cleaners
• googly eyes
• red pom pom
• Supertite glue

Steps:

Cut the sleeve into two pieces. Set the piece without the seam aside and cut the seamed piece into half. 

Gather holiday washi tapes, candies, and other small gifts. Test that everything fits into the cardboard tube. 

Wrap the non-seam piece tightly around the cardboard tube. Stuff the excess material into the tube on both ends. This will secure the fabric in place. No glue needed!

Wad the two extra piece of sleeve material into the two ends of the tube. This prevents the items from falling out. Cut roughly 1/3 off each pipe cleaner. Take that cut piece and twist it around the larger piece to form 3-pronged antlers. Slide the antlers into the tube. Still no glue needed. The material will hold it in place. 

Stand the reindeer upright. Use the Supertite to glue googly eyes and a pom pom nose to the reindeer. Now nestle the reindeer among the other gifts under the tree.

Quick and easy, and so super cute!

Pez Dispenser Halloween Costume

This year, Trevor dressed as a Pez dispenser for Halloween. 

Specifically, he was this reindeer Pez dispenser. 

A perfect resemblance, no?

I made 95% of the costume during the power outage. No glue gun, sewing machine, or artificial light for me! Given the choice, I recommend electricity. Affiliate links below. 

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Pez Dispenser Halloween Costume

Materials:

• XL brown t-shirt
• Pez font
• black Sharpie
• light box
• styrofoam
• foam cutter
• silver duct tape
• red felt
• Beacon FabriTac
• reindeer antlers
• green grosgrain ribbon
• snaps
• two gold bells
• reindeer Pez dispenser, for inspiration
• face paint

Steps: 

Remove the sleeves from the t-shirt. Print out PEZ and put it under the t-shirt on the light table. Carefully trace the letters onto the shirt. (Yea, electricity!)

Cut the styrofoam so that it has the same proportions as a package of Pez. Ideally, you should use a foam cutter. I used a steak knife, which is really messy. (As an added bonus, you can't vacuum without electricity and trying to sweep up staticky bits is impossible. I shouldn't have done this indoors, but hindsight is 20-20.) 

Wrap the ends with duct tape. 

Wrap the felt around the middle of the Pez package, leaving the silver edges exposed. Glue it in place with the FabriTac. Print out PEZ in blue, cut out the letters, then glue them to the fabric. Use the Sharpie to write the other information onto the Pez package. I wrote exactly what was on the actual Pez container, except I changed the net weight to the weight of the styrofoam prop.

Measure a piece of ribbon to fit around your neck, add an extra inch, then cut. Sew the snaps onto the ends, then sew the bells to the front center.

After you're dressed, add a red reindeer nose using face paint. (Fun fact: This is the very first time Trevor has worn face paint. All his life, he has refused face paint, temporary tattoos, and anything similar. I only put the tiniest amount on to give him a red nose. He hated it, but was cooperative for the pictures.)

Due to the insanity that was our life last week, Trevor tried on his costume for the first time about 30 minutes before his friends showed up to trick-or-treat. If he'd tried it on sooner, I would have made some changes. I would have altered the shirt to make it narrower to more closely mimic the shape of the Pez dispenser, plus added a rigid piece to define the rectangular shape. Brown sweatpants would have helped the look too. But even without those improvements, both Trevor and I were happy with how it turned out. And we all had an awesome Halloween.