Alice in Wonderland Mushroom Costume

Tanna created this costume and is wearing it for 2015. It's something that you might find in Alice in Wonderland. I came up with the idea last year in trying to think of something big, bright, and shiny. I was inspired by the scenery in the Alice in Wonderland movie. This costume required an umbrella, battery-operated LEDs, elastic, styrofoam balls, hot glue, and lots and lots of fabric. I would say overall it cost between $60 and $90 to make. It would depend if you already had items on hand such as thread, a sewing machine, hot glue and a glue gun, batteries, led's, elastic, etc. The umbrella is a clear Totes umbrella from Target that cost $17. Tule is relatively cheap but I probably used 3 yards of each color. Fabric is expensive but you can easily find coupons fore craft stores using your smart phone apps. I made this costume in the garage because hot glue can be very messy. First I picked out an iridescent purple and orange fabric to use as the mushroom cap. I sewed a double layer of orange & purple fabric to a white iridescent fabric for brighter color. Otherwise the top of the mushroom would have been too see-through. I measured the fabric according to the circumference of the largest part of the umbrella. I then gathered one long side of the fabrics around one tiny piece of elastic with a sewing machine. I placed the mushroom skirt on the top of the umbrella, and then glued the hanging fabric underneath the umbrella with a hot glue gun. I then took a much large piece of elastic and sewed it in a circle so that it's circumference would be about the size of the stem, and large enough to stand in the center of. I took another piece of shiny white iridescent fabric and sewed it to the elastic circle. I then hot-glued the edges of the shiny white fabric to the underneath of the umbrella. Next, I hot glued a shiny purple iridescent fabric to the elastic to serve as the stem. The length of the stem was about 4 to 5 feet. The stem was too see-through and people could see a human through it so I added 4 more layers of purple tule underneath. This does make it difficult to see out of, but it is not too bad and you could always poke holes if necessary. Next I started hot gluing colorful tule underneath the mushroom cap. I cut in strips and doubled up on it to make the color really bright. Next I got some styrofoam balls (some were already halved, others I had to cut in half) in 3 different sizes. I covered them in iridescent fabric and sparkly tule by using a hot glue gun. Once they were covered in fabric, I glued them onto the top of the mushroom. To cover up the top of the umbrella, I took a large styrofoam ball and cut about 1/4 of it off. I then drill a hole in it with a screwdriver and hot glued it to the pointy tip of the umbrella. It took a lot of time to make! LED's can be strung throughout the umbrella and the battery pack can just be taped onto the umbrella stem with masking tape or a rubber band. Warning, this costume can get heavy if you are holding it all night (it is still an umbrella that requires holding), so plan on having only 1 hand free at any given time. Thanks for checking it out!