Confessions of a Project-aholic: Strawberry Shortcake Costume (#41)

I know it's still July, but we are already talking about Halloween Costumes here. I know... we're such nerds. But it made me remember that I NEVER finished this post from last year!!! So, I decided it was time!

In September, when my daughter decided on her Halloween costume (yes, we decide early in this family- we are serious about our Halloween costumes!) she wanted to be Strawberry Shortcake, I was a little surprised. I wasn't sure she even knew who Strawberry Shortcake was. When I looked into buying the costume on-line, I was surprised to see costumes like the girl on the right. Not to age myself, but I thought she was supposed to look like the girl on the left.
A little research taught me that she started out that way, and has progressed to the girl you see on the right. Skinny, pink long-haired princess of Berry-land. While I wished she had remained true to her homely-looking roots with red hair and freckles, I was at least glad to see the return of the green and white striped tights.
What I realized after my short investigation, was that because she has taken on a few different looks, I had a lot of freedom in how we made the costume. Whew!
So, when I saw a red dress with pink polka dots [the current SS has pink dress with red polka dots] on clearance at Target for $8.00. I decided "close enough")

I borrowed a pattern for an apron, and added some applique strawberries on it.

The hat was a little bit of a challenge since I had no pattern to follow. I wasn't too happy with it, and was going to redo it, but ran out of time. And my daughter thought it was great- so hey, why bother?

The tights I messed up on by not soaking in water after I had put on the rubber bands to make the white rings. You should do this before putting it in the green dye to get more distinctive rings. But, it was close enough...

I was probably happiest with the treat bucket. I had found it on clearance for 25 cents because it was missing the handle. It wasn't a typical round pumpkin. It was a caldron, and smaller at the bottom, so I thought it was perfect- it was more strawberry shaped! I simply placed it in the middle of the fabric, pulled it up to make sure it covered the whole pail, then cut it in a circle and sewed a casing for elastic in it. Then I made the leaves and hand sewed them on. Oh, and I also made the handle.

Wow, that was a terrible description- good thing this is not a blog with tutorials! Ha ha!
Then, all I had to do was spray paint her hair pink, and rosy up her cheeks and add freckles.