Fully Homemade Mad Cheshire Cat Costume

This was my first year of doing a group costume theme. I always handmade my previous costumes, so this near would be no different !

Our group of four picked Alice in Wonderland (or maybe my best friend and I picked, and the husbands had to follow) heehee. Anyway, Alice in Wonderland is one of the most imaginative and creative stories you can make costumes for! There are no limits because that is the wonder of wonderland. We did want to stay close to movie character still.

The Cheshire Cat, in my opinion was the most fun to create and turned out the most unique.

“PLEASE WOULD YOU TELL ME” said Alice a little timidly… ” WHY YOUR CAT GRINS LIKE THAT?”

Some words to describe this costume may be feline, curious, eighties, color blocking, furry, cosmic, stripey, purple, pink, wonderful, unique, handmade, amazing.

So I started with finding the puuuurfect Fuex fur. I liked some costumes that used pink and purple and kept it classic, but wanted something different than the obvious and found it! It is purple and white striped but a very unique pattern of stripes. Next I needed BRIGHT pink and purple! I found some silk like fabric and loved the more dramatic and elegant feel of it. the fabrics staring back at me at this point were great, but I headed to the dance costume fabric isle and found a light purple and silver and pink BOMB of a fabric and fell in love!

Back at home, I first made a GIANT tail (attached to the wrist with ribbon and bracelet (didn’t want it dragging all over the floor to get stepped on). I made a full circle skirt out of the crazy dance fabric with pink elastic banding. I made a bodice (top) using color blocking of pink and purple, added some CURIOUS asymmetrics to it and pink trim, and a zipper in back.

The purple legging I had from a former Super Hero costume and we duct taped hot pink stripes to them. Next, add an amazing wig. And……

MAKEUP! (I know a mask, hat, etc, could be fun to make, but I love makeup!) I did the makeup on my friend. I found pink and black striped eyelashes super cheap at Wallmart. I used Halloween makeup crayons (the fluorescent ones had pink and purple). I used a bunch of purples and pinks. And mostly they came from a big eye shadow kit for $10 at Target.

The GRIN was tricky. I used white eyeliner and created the entire shape of the grin, used black eyeliner to line where the teeth would go, filled in the black around the teeth. And then retraced and added detail with black liquid liner. Also did liquid liner on the eyes to create a dramatic cat eye.

In conclusion, fully homemade/handmade Cheshire Cat costume. Hope you enjoy it!!

“WE’RE ALL MAD HERE. I’M MAD. YOU’RE MAD.”