I was looking for costume ideas and I came across a Gnome on a Toadstool. I thought to myself "I can do this". I drew out a quick little plan of what I thought I would need (That's really all the planning I did for this) and then it was off to Lens' Mills to get some supplies.
Okay, so first things first, I need to make the foam into a cone type shape. I basically tried pulling it into a cone type shape and then cut off the corners. a little more pulling and cutting and I got it into the correct shape. I cut a hole in the top so I can fit my body through and we are good.
To made the shape of the hat I used some left over foam and taped it together with more duct tape.
To hold it together I used my hot glue gun to glue it together and then I duct taped the seam. I've got the shape down and now I need to put the fabric on.... Hmmmm.... if I use the glue gun it will leave streaks... so how to I do it? They have to have some type of fabric spray? Off to Walmart! Walmart has fabric spray that needs to be ironed on, that wont work. Off to Michael's! I ask the lady as I come in the door and she's not sure but we walk over anyway and she starts looking at all these cans. There are two options for spray glue that will stick to fabric and foam. One costs $9.99 and the other costs $34.99. I bought the one for $9.99.
Back at home I moved the foam cone and material into the garage. I ended up cutting the red material in half and kind of wrapping it around but it didn't work the greatest because my material is now rectangles and the foam is a cone. I sprayed the foam and material and pressed it on as I went. I got it to work and with only two seams! The left over material was use to cover the foam hat I made earlier. I just sprayed it on and attached all the little pieces. It would have been nice if it was one large piece of material but I didn't really want to spend anymore on this.
This is what it looked like with the red material on.
With the red material all on I could start on the mushroom steam. I took the white material, wrapped it around me, marked it and then cut it off. My first thought was to wear it but I didn't want to do that. Next I tried to attach it to the underside of the foam with safety pins but that didn't work either (they kept pulling out). I finally thought to pin it to the red material on top. I was worried that people might be able to see the white material cutting out the top but it ended up all being covered by the upper part of my costume so it was all good.
With the remaining white material I cut out circles to put on the mushroom.
Here's what it looks like all together. Pretty good eh? But look at the back.... it's falling a little bit. I needed some support underneath it. I took one of my daughter's hula hoops and duct taped it under. It kind of held by in hind site (Got this idea from Steve at work) I should have cut out slits in the foam, taped them for support, tie-wrapped the hula hoop to the foam and then put the material over top. Oh well, live and learn.
With the mushroom finished it was time to make the body. I used old track pants from my son and old boots from my daughter then stuff in a $4 Walmart Pillow and the legs were done!
Here is a picture of the legs, the completed hat, a $10 blue long sleeve turtle neck shirt from Walmart, a Santa beard (I had this already) and an old stretchy belt.
Because I wanted it to be a secret, I was dropping some hints online to what my costume would be.
Hint number 1 was "You can find it in your Garden".
Hint number 2 was this picture.
Early this morning I got to work and got my costume into my office so no one could see it. At 8:30 I put everything together and couldn't get out of my office. I had to move some stuff to make room and then I was down the hallway to the cafeteria for the photos. Here is what the final product looked like:
I had really positive reactions from it so I took it on tour, up the elevator to the main floor, I walked the outer edges of the halls (because I couldn't fit down the aisles!) and greeted everyone with a "Happy Halloween". Up the elevator again to the top floor and some more of the same. The most common question people asked me was "How do you sit down?" my answer? "I dont!" I had to take it off each time I wanted to get back to work. I ended up putting it back on three more times, twice to show people and the last time to go into the cafeteria at lunch. It was a little weird but funny at the same time. We were having a free Spaghetti lunch, which started at 11:30, so I strolled in at 11:45 and it was packed. Pretty much everyone stopped eating (and talking) and looked over at me. But I guess they all really liked my costume because in the end........
I WON FIRST PRIZE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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