another costume thread- help me!!

[alicia622]

DS has requested to be a palm tree for halloween.

I am kind of stuck on the best way to make the leaves. Any ideas? Some of my thoughts are to use a hat or make a wire wreath to attach the leaves to and I will probably need to tie it under his chin to keep it on. I thought of using green fabric and starch or fusing fabric together with interfacing to stiffen or somehow putting wire inside so I can bend them to shape. Or maybe just paper- but we will have 3 or 4 events to go to so it needs to be somewhat durable.

My intial plan for the tree itself was to put him in brown pants and top but afterlooking at palm tree pics I'm thinking maybe I should attach strips of fabric to look like the bark pulling back.

I will add coconuts too- probably brown styrofoam balls painted brown.

Thanks so much!!!

[Noelle C.]

Take a piece of cardboard and cut it into a piece that will go around his head. Use posterboard in green for the leaves. Cut them into big football-like shapes since some palm trees are like this and it will make for studier leaves. Attach those to the inside of the head piece, letting them overlap. Cross-cross strips of paperboard inside the hat to go over his head and keep it from going too far down. Also cover the outside, but with a gold or yellow paper. When it's all dry, pinch small holes for strings to go under his chin.

Don't worry about the brown branches. Put him in a golden brown, slightly fitted sweat suit. That will be fine.

If your local grocery store has coconuts in right now, have him carry a couple REAL coconuts.

[Mama2Bug]

Cut out leaves from some kind of spongy foam. It would be light-weight enough to wear on his head without being cumbersome and soft enough that it wouldn't hurt anyone he might bump into. It would be stiff enough to stick up without wires too- especially if you doubled it by gluing two cut-outs together. (Spray adhesive would be good for that.)

I'm thinking you'd be able to get something like that at a craft store, but a moving supply place might have it too. I think your chances of finding it in green are pretty good, but it should also spray-paint fine if you give it a few days to dry.

You might even be able to find some of that egg-crate sponge that people put on top of their mattresses and use to sound-proof rooms.