Costume Ideas

Candy/Popcorn Vendor costume idea for any circus party or for the character of Morgan Meyers in our Trouble Under the Big Top Children's Mystery

Find a partial cardboard box like the ones bulk canned vegetables and soups come in (Costco always has cut or partial boxes around the store and at the checkout and you don't have to be a member to get boxes). 

Cut a 4 inch by 4 feet strip of material.  Fold edge in 1 inch and iron on both sides, meeting in the middle. Fold in half again, iron and sew 1/8 inch away from the edge to form an inch thick strap.  You can also use an old belt or 1 inch thick ribbon.  Secure strap on both sides of the tray and around the back of the neck.

Now add empty candy boxes, wrappers and soda cans.  Secure these to the bottom of the box with a glue gun.  Make fake popcorn in popcorn boxes.  To make the boxes, print up the popcorn box template, cut around the edge, fold along the remaining black lines.  Put glue on the gray shaded areas and press together completely covering the gray.

Crumple up a 8 1/2 X 11 piece of paper and put in the bottom of the popcorn box.  Make fake popcorn by crumpling and shaping small squares of white and cream paper.  Glue the small "popcorn" pieces to the top of the crumpled paper.  Add your full popcorn boxes to the cardboard tray and you're done!

Soldiers, Russian Dancers and Mouse King costume suggestions, perfect for our Who Nabbed the Nutcracker? Children's Mystery.

Soldier:  To make a soldier costume you will need a turtleneck, six 1 inch or bigger gold buttons, masking tape, needle and thread, black poster board, two 1/2 inch gold buttons, gold chain or cording, hot glue gun, 12 inch length of 1/4 inch elastic, stapler and staples. 

Tape three 6 inch strips of masking tape one and a half to two inches apart to the middle front of the turtleneck.  Sew six big gold buttons to the turtleneck at the ends of the tape.  For the hat cut a 6 inch strip of poster board.  Glue (or sew) two small buttons and chain to the middle of the poster board an inch and a half or two inches away from the edge.  Chain or cording should be longer than the distance between the buttons so that it droops a bit.  Measure the wearer's head and staple the ends of the poster board together to fit snug.  Staple elastic to sides of the hat.

Russian Dancer:  To make a Russian Dancer costume you will need a large turtleneck, sash, black baggy pants, knee high length black socks, poster board, black felt or fleece, hot glue gun, 12 inch length of 1/4 inch elastic, stapler and staples.  Tie sash around waist and over turtleneck with knot at the side, tuck bottoms of pants into socks puffing pants at the knee.  Cut 4 inch strip of poster board the length of the wearer's head plus 2 or 3 inches.  Cut 5 inch strip of felt or fleece the length of the poster board.  Glue felt or fleece to poster board.  Measure the child's head and staple the ends of the poster board together to fit snug. Staple elastic to sides of hat.

Mouse: To make a Mouse costume you will need gray, black, brown or tan felt or fun foam, mouse ear pattern, plain headband, hot glue gun and gray, black, brown or tan sweat shirt and pants or tee shirt and pants.  Print up mouse ear pattern and cut out 2 ears.  Place the headband on the felt/ fun foam at the narrow edge that connects the 2 circles and glue ears to headband folding the ears to wrap around the headband. You can also add a tail and or face paint whiskers and nose if desired. If dressing as Mouse King/Queen, add a crown.