Busy Geemaw: DIY Alligator and Butterfly Costumes

My grandkids went on a shopping trip to Target to get their Halloween costumes for this year. Instead of purchasing complete costumes, my grandson left with an alligator head, and my granddaughter with butterfly wings and antennas. Meemaw was tasked with making the rest of the costume.

For the butterfly costume, the task was easy. I bought a pair of black leggings, a black long sleeved t-shirt and a black cloth hat. Target had the leggings and t-shirt, and Hobby Lobby had the hat. Unfortunately the hat only came in baby sizes, so I had to improvise. I bought wide black elastic and a bottle of white puffy fabric paint.

I laid the leggings and shirt out on my kitchen island, and with the fabric paint I put white dots of various sizes all over the items. Then after letting them dry for 5 or so hours, I flipped them and did the dotting on the opposite sides. That was all that I needed to do for the clothing.

The hat needed to be expanded, so I cut the stitching of the seam on one side of the hat, the outer layer and the lining layer. Then I cut strips of the wide elastic, tucked them in between the layers and sewed them into place. I could have made a hat with black fabric, or found a hat in the right size, but I was in a time crunch and this was the easiest solution for me.

The alligator costume was much more difficult. The first thing I attempted to purchase for the alligator costume was a pair of sweat pants, and a sweat shirt in the same olive green color found in the alligator head. After 5 or 6 stores and online shopping I could not find them anywhere. My last stop was Walmart. I found an olive green pair of pants in the Toddler Department, but no shirt. I went to the Boys Department and found an olive green t-shirt, but they were all short sleeves. I bought one small shirt, and two extra large shirts to use for the fabric.

With one of the extra large shirts I made long sleeves for the small shirt and attached them under the short sleeves. Next, I cut the second extra large shirt along one side and around the sleeves to make a long piece of fabric. I folded it up from the bottom hem, inside out, about 7 inches. With a Sharpie I drew spikes for the tail. I sewed along the marks, cut off the excess fabric, turned the spikes right side out, stuffed the spikes and sewed them shut. Then I split the seam on the butt of the pants, inserted the end of the tail and sewed the tail in place.

Now for the hard part. I had to paint the green costume to look like the head mask. I took a paper plate and filled one spot with brown paint and added black paint to make it a very dark brown. Then I filled a spot on the plate with an olive yellow paint, and lastly a spot on the plate with black paint. Then using a very small pored sponge I first dabbed the yellow paint in spots all over the front of the pants and shirt. Next, I added the brown paint, going over some of the yellow spots, and out side of the yellow. Lastly, I added the black to parts of the yellow and brown spots and beyond. I also rubbed the black sponge all over the non-painted green sections to darken them up. Once the fronts of the shirt and pants were dry, I painted the backs and the tail.