How to Make Your Own Costume Crafts
Parents and teachers alike know that imagination is important. Foster this creativity by always having some simple costume accessories available, so that the children are free to bring out their creative sides. Make costume elements yourself or the let the kids join in on the fun. Create small headgear, such as antenna or ears, for quick dress-up options, or larger costume crafts, such as sweatshirts decorated like animals.
Things You'll Need
- Plastic headbands
- Pipe cleaners
- Hot glue gun with glue
- Pencil
- Small pom-poms
- Thick fabric-covered headbands
- Felt pieces
- Scissors
- Alligator clips
- Sweatshirts and hoodie sweatshirts
- Fabric paint
- Fabric paintbrushes
- Needle and thread
- Feather boa or piece of faux fur
Instructions
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Antenna
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1
Place a plastic headband on a covered work surface.
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2
Wrap two pieces of pipe cleaner around the headband about one and half times, so that the pipe cleaners look like antenna. Position them about 1/3 of the way up each side of the headband from the bottom, or to your preferences.
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3
Glue each pipe cleaner to the headband with a squirt of hot glue. Set aside until the glue is dry.
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4
Arrange the pipe cleaner on the pencil in a decorative manner once the glue has set. For example, you can wrap a pipe cleaner around the pencil so that it looks like a corkscrew, or curve the ends to make them look like a traditional insect antennas. For a more robotic look bend and shape the pipe cleaners so that they look more like lightening bolts. Glue small pom-poms to the end to make the alien look more alien-like.
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5
Place the completed headband antenna on the child's head.
Ears
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6
Cut two pieces of felt so they look like large, slightly rounded triangles. Make the triangles slightly larger that you want them to be on the child's head. Stiff felt tends to work better than traditional felt because it is more durable.
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7
Fold up the bottom edge of the triangle felt piece so that it is slightly thinner than the width of one of the fabric-covered headbands.
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8
Glue the folded portion of the triangle to the fabric headband. Hold the fabric to the headband with alligator clips until the glue dries. This protects your fingers from getting burned by the hot glue.
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9
Place the completed headband ears on your child's head.
Animal Sweatshirts
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10
Paint sweatshirts with fabric paint and paintbrushes to create animal designs on sweatshirts. For example, paint brown giraffe-like on a yellow sweatshirt, or big black splotches on a white sweatshirt to look like cow.
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11
Sew one or more feather boas to the hood and down the arms of hoodie sweatshirts to look like a bird.
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12
Sew strips of faux fur to the hood and cuffs of a hoodie sweatshirt to look like a bear or wolf.
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1
Tips & Warnings
For a two-toned felt ears, cut out another set of different-colored felt pieces that are slightly smaller than the first triangles. Glue the smaller set in the center of the large triangles, and then attach the ears to the headband as directed.
