Style Lush

DIY Costumes

By Beth

Look, I know this is two days late, but I am so stinking proud of my Halloween costume innovations this year that I have to post them in the vainglorious belief that they are good enough for all you nice people to remember for next year.

Also, I should point out that my son wore a fully store-bought costume at every opportunity this Halloween season.  I'm not crafty at all by nature, which likely explains why I feel the burning need to toot my own horn ever time I pull off something remotely homemade.

Ok, first costume.  We went to a Halloween event with a heavy Star Wars theme (ah, don't you love how geeks celebrate holidays, you should see what we do for Thanksgiving) and the children looked like this:

Han Solo there came from Amazon and a generous aunt, but Leia was all mama ingenuity.  The hair is all her own, with help from a pair of socks that I rolled up one on each side then clamped the ends together with a hair tie and pulled the hair around to cover.  The gown is my old white bathrobe worn backwards that I hemmed to fit in ten minutes and then bleached, washed and dried in the 30 minutes before we left the house when I discovered some huge nasty stain from years in the closet on the back.

Next up, and you will only get this if you have seen the most recent movie version of Narnia and which I relied heavily in Google image to design, is the White Witch:

Also known as one yard of fake fur cut down the middle for half of its length plus six plastic Christmas icicle ormanents hot glued onto a piece of floral foam.  Still, I was proud of it.

Ok ok yes, I am inordinately impressed with myself.  Now would you please make my day and link me to your own homemade costumes?  I'm feeling inspired to inflict my non-craftiness on both children next year and it is never to soon for inspiration.

(Photo credit: me)

 

Chox Temporary Hair Chalk

By Leah

Olympics schmolympics, I was a hero in my own home the day I brought forth from my bulging Target shopping bag a single Chox stick.

This is a cheapo version of the temporary hair coloring chalk all the younguns are crazy about, and if you give it to any kid in your life, your coolness factor will increase by at least 10 points, guaranteed. What I loved most about these is that the color comes out completely and nearly effortlessly...especially if you, uh, don't follow the directions. (Apparently you're supposed to wet this stuff before applying, but we just rubbed it on dry, and the color came out all by itself overnight, no shampooing required. Score.)  

I also didn't read the packaging close enough to realize that the chalk part is on the top, not the bottom. I bought the one pictured below thinking I was getting blue, not red orange. Oh well. The three-year-old is none the wiser.

Amazon is selling these in sets or for around $9 a pop, but I got a single color at Target for $2.99. (I can't find them listed on Target.com, but the next time you're in the store, look in the toy section; they were on an aisle endcap near the Barbies.) If you search Amazon for "hair chalk" you'll find other versions as well; scroll down to the designer Kevin Murphy Color Bugs, look at the $25/per price, and have a good laugh.)

I love these as party favors, sleepover accoutrements, Halloween enhancements, care package treats, or just a fun way to get the last summer ya-yas out before school starts again. My kid loves putting a few colored streaks in his hair, and I love letting him put a few in mine as well, knowing it will wash out the next day, so I don't have to go negotiate a mortgage refi looking like an over-the-hill punk rocker. Rad.

Warm Halloween Costumes

By Beth

Yes, I know it is still early August and that Halloween is still far, far away, but I wanted to throw this out there now for any advance planners out there (or anyone else who is just about done with 100 degrees and 96% humidity and wants to think cool, crisp, autumn thoughts for a while).  So, here's what drives me crazy about Halloween.  Where I live, Halloween is cold.  Winter coat cold.  And Halloween costumes are made of flimsy nylon, which requires me to actually try to get them on over said winter coats.  (No, we cannot wear the coats over the costumes, Mom, that would be ridiculous.)

But last year, I found something that made me very happy - a warm Halloween costume for my son.  He wore this Batman Coverall from Toys R Us:

It is similar to thick sweatshirt material and also comes in Superman and Spiderman.  My little guy went out happily in this plus a couple of reasonable layers underneath and had a good giggle at everyone with their puffy coats crammed under their Little Mermaid costumes.  Also, at $12.98 online, the price is right.  Unfortunately these only come in toddler sizes and my guy is too big for them this year, but I am definitely on the hunt for something similar.

(Photo from: toysrus.com)

Santacon Houston

By Jessica

This past weekend was my first annual Santacon Houston. Not familiar with Santacon? It's a pub crawl, that takes place all over the world, wherein all the participants dress up like Santas or various other Christmas themed things/people. (Our particular Santacon was also a toy drive for kids, I'm not sure if other versions do that as well or not.) It was a total blast and I'm so glad we were able to make it this year. You know that I am always down for any costumed opportunity but up until the last moment, it didn't look like I was going to be attending and when I found out I was, it left me scrambling for ideas. In my 11th hour (ie the day before) I came up with the following costume ideas and at the first bar a guy told me that I should put it on Pinterest. That's right. And at the last bar a random girl told me the same thing so, shout out to those Santacon participants, your wish is my command!

Here is a picture of my husband and me at the third bar of the night.

My husband in his "Griswold" Santa hat, Goodwill sweater and tangled up in a set of Christmas lights, but what exactly do I have going on? Let's see if there are any better pictures to work with, it was super hard to photograph properly.

Here we are at our house before we left for the evening. You can see my husband in his fuller "Griswold" glory, work gloves, dazed expression and covered in lights. His hat came from Hobby Lobby during one of their 50% off weeks, so it cost $1.50 and then I added the letters with glitter paint.

On me, you can see I am wearing a skirt that is lit from beneath and is sorta bell shaped? It also has black fringe and I am sporting fishnet stockings. I happen to be "a major award" from A Christmas Story or this

My costume started with a $60 Lauren Conrad dress that I found on clearance for $6 on account of a busted zipper (they were already 60% off, the zipper just added the rest) which I chopped into a skirt before adding the black fringe. I picked the dress because it was a linen material (like a lamp shade could be) and had trim detail in four places which reminded me of the panels of the lamp. I didn't want to add any wire to make the skirt stick out like an actual lamp on account of how crowded the bars would be, but I chose to hot glue the fringe which made the skirt stiffen at the bottom and stick out.

For the lights, we purchased two battery operated strands of LED lights (they are snowflake shaped). I ripped a hole in the bottom of one of the pockets and fed the lights through before sewing it back closed and then sewing the light strand to the bottom of the skirt. I kept the skirt lit pretty much the entire night and after almost 8 hours, it was still going strong!

(blown out iPhone photo to show the fringe)

Plus, I was told that I could just take the lights out and just wear it as is because it makes a super cute skirt, so if you have a clearance skirt you want to gussy up a bit, just slap on some fringe!

Have you ever attended Santacon?

Viva La Vida Fest

By Jessica

Saturday night, as I was driving 3 Lush writers to The Blathering dinner at Z'Tejas, I noticed a person with Day of The Dead make-up. Then I noticed another, and another. There were women (some in dresses and corsets, some in regular clothing), men with their entire heads painted and even a giant papier mache skull tetering precariously a top some dude's head as he was walking across the crosswalk. If I didn't already have a commitment to that dinner? I so would've pulled my car immediately over, figured out what was going on and joined. I wanted some of that face paint SO BAD. Contain your shock, if you can.

So what was going on? It was The 28th Annual Vival La Vida Fest which is put on by the Mexic Arte Museum and in addition to all the Day of the Dead things themed things that were happening, they were even looking to have 100 free-tailed bat costumes for the parade. Seriously, so cool! (Do you know about the bats under the Congress St bridge?)

Next year, I will definitely be there and have my face painted. I may even pop into Tesoro's to grab one of their Day of The Dead themed items or maybe I'll make my own sugar skulls!

{Photo via Pinterest}

Make a Batman Cape

By Beth

Hey, did you know that you can make a Batman cape, all your ownself, in about 20 minutes while you are watching bad reality tv in your living room?  I promise you can.  I did it, and if I can do it, anybody can do it.

You need:

• black felt
• yellow felt
• a googled Batman logo
• sharp scissors (do not use your kitchen shears, trust me on that one)
• double-sided iron-on bonding paper
• pins
• stick-on velcro
• a small bowl
• a cape you already have lying around (this is the most important part)

So first, you dig a cape you already have out of the costume box, then you pin it to the black felt and cut it out.  Next, use a small bowl to trace a scallop pattern onto the bottom of the cape and cut that out.  Stick the bonding paper to the back of your yellow felt and a scrap of black felt from the cape.  Use the Batman logo you googled up for yourself to cut an oval out of the yellow felt, and then cut the bat shape out of the black felt.  Remember to peel the backing off the other side of the bonding fabric and iron the oval and bat onto your cape.  Then stick your stick-on velcro onto opposite sides of the neck end and hand your masterpiece over to the nearest superhero freak.

As a bonus, this is a great way to score yourself a Halloween costume for about $3.00.

(Photo credit: me)

Handmade Robot Costume

By Sara

My three year old son has his heart set on being a "crazy robot" for Halloween and his father is insisting we make his costume this year. Now I'm usually of the "buy it and be done with it" camp but I'm willing to entertain the idea of creating the costume from scratch now that I've found this super simple tutorial from Parents.com.

The Ingredients:

 

Large box (14"x14"x10")

Scissors

Aluminum venting (24")

Shoe-box lid

Plastic lids

Bottle caps

Pot scrubber

Duct tape

Office dot stickers

Straws

Glue

Small box (8" square)

Metallic chenille stem 

 

The Instructions:

Robot body:

1. Cut off one end of the large box (a 14"x10" side) for your child's body.

2. Cut a 7" circle in the opposite end for head.

3. Cut two 4-1/2" circles in the sides of the box for arms, about 1/2" down from top.

4. Place two 12" sections of venting in armholes.

5. Arrange shoe-box lid, tape, jar lids, pot scrubbers, stickers, and straws to your liking and glue to front of box.

Helmet:

1. Cut flaps off one end of smaller box. Glue the remaining flaps shut.

2. Cut an arched opening in an adjacent side of box for child to look through.

3. Bend a chenille stem to create a wave and glue to bendable straws. Glue ends of straws to top of box.

Originally published in the October 2009 issue of Parents magazine

 And ta-da! This is what you should end up with:

 

With less than 10 steps and instructions like "arrage to your liking", this is my kind of project. I'll check back in here with our finished product and my son's opinion of our handiwork. 

Do you turn crafty around this time of year and make your kid's costumes or do the yearly Halloween pop-up shops know you by name? 

Kids' Costumes: Fun All Year

By Rebecca

Do you have a child between the ages of 3 and 8? And would you like said child to occasionally play on his or her own for more than five minutes at a time? Well, I have your answer: costumes!

In a recent effort to organize my kids' closets, I took all their old Halloween costumes and tossed them in a box. (Yes, that IS my idea of organization, thank you very much). Getting into that box has become BY FAR the preferred entertain-yourself activity for both my kids. My 3 year old loves wearing her frog costume and princess dress, and my 6-year old has amassed quite a collection of Star Wars and superhero outfits.

I love hearing them invent crazy stories and get really creative about the character they are playing. It's also great when they branch out and mix and match. We have a brown blanket that they love incorporating into their costumes. "I'm Obi-Wan Kenobi!" my son says as he wraps himself in the blanket and brandishes a lightsaber.

You can always get kids' costumes relatively inexpensively at Amazon or Party City, but I'm planning ahead to stock up right after Halloween this year knowing how much fun they have. 

Extra points for the ones with muscles.

{Photo credit: amazon.com}

 

DIY Bowtie and Necktie

By Leah

Easter is next Sunday, and so is my wedding, and that means I have extra leeway to dress up my two-year-old like a springtime fancy lad. Think sweater vests, seersucker knickers, saddle shoes, wee suspenders, a tweed newsboy cap, and the pièce de résistance, a bowtie in an unapologetically cheery fabric. 

After last year's fruitless search for a bowtie pattern that didn't require advanced math involving protractors and Texas Instruments, last month I found this bowtie pattern (specially sized for toddlers) from Say Yes to Hoboken. The entire project took me ten minutes, even on the first try (my sewing ventures usually don't go so smoothly), and because you're only creating the bow--there's no strap that goes around the neck*--the pattern is endlessly adaptable for things like headbands and barrettes, belts, pillows, purses, even gift boxes and Easter baskets. If you have a 10x10 square of fabric or have been waiting for an excuse to raid the bin of fat quarters at the craft store, this is the craft for you. 

(Click for a closer view.)

*I was wary about attaching the tie to my toddler with a safety pin, so I took a clip off another tie and slipped it into the one I made. Here's a set of ten tie clips available through the Divine Domestication shop on Etsy, where you can also buy sweet bowties in the cutest fabrics if you're not up for making your own (yet). 

Bonus project: Here's a pattern from the Purl Bee (also via Say Yes to Hoboken) so you can make a matching necktie for the willing grown-up boy in your life. To die for!    

Costume Jammies! Two Birds, One Stone

By Beth

I hate buying pajamas for my kids.  They always seem so expensive for something they never wear out of the house, and they are supposed to be worn snug so I can't even buy up a size to get some extra use from them.  I have for years consoled myself with the knowledge that the kids spend twelve hours or more a day in their pajamas, so they are at least well-used even if I resent the purchase.  It also helps (and sometimes hurts) that my kids get very attached to their pajamas.  My daughter has a 2T nightgown that she now wears as a shirt and bursts into real tears should I suggest we pass it on to a smaller child.

But then, I found the best thing ever.  The kids love them, I love them, and I finally feel like I am getting my moneys worth on pajamas.  Are you ready for this?  My son got these for Christmas:

By night, they are his favorite jammies.  By day, ta-da!  He has a Sheriff Woody costume!  And then, I spotted these at Target and could not resist.

This comes complete with a cape, and my son has been "flying" around the house in his jammies, I mean Superman costume, ever since.  Love.

(Photo credit: disney.com and target.com)