WANT? Last year when Ronnie discovered there would be a fourth Gaskin Girl, she asked if she and her sisters could dress up as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the next Halloween. Well, it's "the next Halloween"! We want four cute turtle costumes.
COST? An average-looking ready-made costume runs around $20. Multiplied by 4, that's $80.
IS IT A PRIORITY? In the grand scheme of things, of course not. However, dressing up and trick-or-treating in the neighborhood is a yearly tradition we all look forward to. But I really don't want to buy ready-made costumes. Not just to save money, but because designing my own stuff can lend itself to more personality, ingenuity, and imagination - and for me, a major point of dress-up is the opportunity to extol these virtues in a very fun way.
DO I HAVE ANYTHING LAYING AROUND THAT CAN BE USED? Yes! I have a bag of clothes ready to donate, but I bet I can dig out a few things to cut up and repupose for Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Also, Ronnie has a whole yard of black felt that would work great for turtle shells...I'll ask her if I can use it.
CAN I MAKE IT DO? Yes! Ronnie had no problem with me using the felt (part of it is for HER costume, after all!), and I reclaimed green, blue, purple, red, and orange t-shirts to use for the project. I supplemented the rest with cheap finds from the thrift store and fabric store.
For Leonardo's top, I resized an old green T-shirt of Andy's to fit Alexa, using the same technique I used to make the T-shirt dresses from the last "Make It Do" article (minus the ruffled skirt). For the turtle belly, I sewed on gold-colored fleece I found in the clearance bin at the fabric store. The turtleshell on the back is an oval of black felt stuffed with the innards of an old pillow. The green pants are Alexa's own. The belt is from a bag of 6 brown cloth belts I found at the thrift store. Her hat is from the bottom of the green t-shirt I used to create her turtletop, and the attached mask is from a blue maternity shirt I wore so often I was completely sick of it, so I was happy to cut it up. I cut the same shirt into strips and tied on the fabric to create her wrist, elbow, and knee bands.
I was having a hard time finding something for Donatello that would be both functional and warm...until, out of curiosity, I perused the ready-made costumes at the thrift store and found a whole-body baby dragon costume that was exactly Evie's size and could easily be reworked into a turtle. I cut off the dragon's tail and sewed a black felt turtleshell over the back and, again, stuffed it with old pillow fluff. The front had a zipper, so I had to cut the turtle belly fleece in half before I sewed it on the front. Her belt is the smallest of the aforementioned six. The top of her hat is made from the bottom of an old lime-green t-shirt of Ronnie's, and the attached "mask" (I didn't think Evie would tolerate eye holes!), wrist, elbow, and knee bands are from a purple shirt I dug out of the giveaway bag.
Raphael's outfit is similar to Leonardo's except I bought green sweatpants and a green sweatshirt from the thrift store. The sweatshirt was way too big, so I took in the sides to fit Penny's tiny frame, but left it long. The green hat and red trim was made from more t-shirts from our giveaway bag.
The construction of Michelangelo's outfit was nearly identical to Raphael's except there's old orange t-shirt instead of red, and I didn't have to resize Ronnie's sweatshirt.
CONCLUSION: Leaving most of the edges raw, these costumes were super easy to piece together. The hardest part was hunting down the green sweatpants and sweatshirts! Over all, I spent $12 on extras (for the sweats, dragon costume, fleece & matching thread, and belts), but $3 per costume is fine with me, especially when the girls stayed warm while traipsing through the neighborhood in nearly freezing weather. The girls loved them and we had THE best time designing and making them together. Cowabunga!
