My daughters had found some smiley face material at the store. They were trying to figure out how to make a party costume out of this adorable material when they realized they had a pair of flip flops with smiley faces on them. Thus the idea was born. My girls then found a flip flop on this site so we used some of these ideas to duplicate the shoe but changed some of the aspects of the design. This ended up being a great costume. The girls won three Halloween costumes this year in the nearby towns.
Here is what we did. First we measured the girls on a large piece of cardboard. We placed their backside towards the bottom of the cardboard so they would still be able to walk. We then drew a shoe around each girl making sure we had a left and a right shoe. Next we cut out the cardboard and then traced a second shoe for the back of the shoe. I had each girl lay down on the cutout and marked up around their heads and made marks where their arms would go through the sides.
Next I used four pieces of Styrofoam for stability at the bottom. (We got these out of two computer printer boxes.) We hot glued them at the bottom of the back of the cardboard. (Make sure the Styrofoam is wider than your child so they can slide into the costume easily). We then bent cardboard in the U shape and hot glued it around the top of the cardboard. We then used the hot glue and fastened the front of the shoe to the Styrofoam and cardboard.
Next I glued a lime green material around the sides and top of the flip flop. I left 12 inches of material at the bottom of both sides. I had also cut out the front of the happy face material and the back out of black material. I also left a foot of material at the bottom of both of these. Next I fastened pipe wrap from the hardware store together with electrical tape. I then cut a hole and slid in the pipes to make the toe and then made two smaller holes about half way down and hot glued the pipe wrap into these holes.
I then slid on the costume and cut an X for the arms to slide through. I cut the bottom material in the shape of a shoe to cover their legs. I added four small cardboard strips inside with hot glue and attached a pair of suspenders to hold the shoe steady. I added a flower with a wire and the costume was complete.
This party costume was great and the girls were a hit everywhere they went.
Total Spent: $20
Party costume by Sherry B., Lincoln Park, MI
I got this idea for a party costume from all of the flip flops my daughter owns. First thing I did was make a pattern out of cardboard. I had my daughter lay on it outside so I could adjust the size and width and shape. I then took some old pieces of foam about six inches thick and cut and shaped them along the top and sides creating the side of the sole leaving a hole for her arms to come through.
I doubled the foam where it would sit on her head cutting it out like a helmet so it balanced better. We then went to the fabric store and found vinyl table cloth material and used this for the front and back or the top and bottom of the sole as you can see. We used a solid bright color.
For the sides of the sole we used a bright colored fun fruit pattern. I then hot glued the fruit material on to the foam, wrapping it over the edge of the foam. I covered over the holes for her arms and later cut it out and hot glued the pieces down. this helped cover the foam in the arm holes. Using my cardboard pattern I cut out the top and bottom of the sole (two pieces of the blue).
Before I started gluing the blue material down I double checked to make sure it fit perfectly. it works better if you tack it down around the whole edge so it does not move once you have it positioned. Then go back and put a bead of glue along the whole edge. For the foot thong part I took an old swim noodle and spilt it 3/4 of the way.
At the very top of the flip flop I cut a hole in the foam, inserted the top of the noodle and hot glued it in. I then took a section of the split and did the same thing for each side of the strap. I had my daughter put on the costume to figure out where to cut the hole for her face to stick through. We took some artificial flowers and glued them to the top of the noodle or thong part. Last but not least we painted my daughters face blue to match the rest of the thong she was a big hit.
The most expensive part of this party costume was all of the hot glue I ended up using. The more creative and colorful the material is, the better the costume is. The hardest part was finding a swim noodle in October. The color of the noodle determined the color of the material used.
Total Spent: $20
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