Coolest Mushroom Costume

This year, my daughter was inspired by our recent mushroom foray. She wanted to be a mushroom, but could not decide which one. We scoured some mushroom books of the Pacific Northwest and came up with a few of the more interesting ones. Together we sewed these various types of mushrooms which included Amainta, Morel, Pig’s Ear (inspired by the poster for our local mushroom festival), Lion’s Mane, Oyster, Honey Cap, Orange Peel, Bolete, Turkey Tail, Beech, Shaggy Mane and Yellow Swamp Russula. Once they were sewn and stuffed, we used the books to help us paint the mushrooms, a couple of them are bio-luminescent.

The Bolete hat- Since Boletes have a spongy underside, we used a piece of high density foam and stacked more foam on top, trimming and creating the shape. We then cut out a hole for her head in the base foam. I attached a piece of faux leather material to the top and stitched it to the bottom piece of high density foam. We then colored the foam using watered down craft paint. And we have a Bolete hat!

The staff- She wanted the top mushroom to be bold, so we decided to use the Fly Amanita as the focal point. We used a bright red rain jacket fabric for the top. The mushroom was created with a hole in the bottom that we used to put the top of the staff in and secured it with hot glue. The staff is a large piece of bamboo that we had lying around. We then began to place the various mushrooms we had sewn, securing them all with hot glue. We collected moss and lichen from our yard and let it dry for a few days. We used this moss and lichen to cover up the spots where you could see the hot glue. We also collected a few different leaves from our yard and used them as templates to make some fabric leaves. We made one green, one yellow and one brown, to reflect the beautiful colors that we are seeing in Oregon at this time of year.

The Turkey Tail belt- I took a few squares of wool that I had lying around and cut them into spirals to give it that rippled look. I then sewed the spirals together into strips resembling the multicolored layers of the Turkey Tail.

Accessories- We used a piece of green mossy looking fabric, cut into a large square with a hole in the middle, and used that as the mossy base. My daughter then crocheted, using a multicolored brown bulky yarn, an over-layer shawl of moss to give it depth. The bunch of beech mushrooms was attached to a string and used as a necklace.

The costume was so much fun to create. The problem is that I can’t stop making mushrooms now!

This costume has a few names- Pacific Northwest Bounty, Forest Floor, and for simplicity, Mushroom Girl.