Making a costume

My daughter's friend loves ketchup, so much so she wanted to BE ketchup for Halloween. When she was over helping my daughter make a piñata for their ROTC Halloween party she asked my daughter if she could be French Fries for Halloween. My daughter says, "I don't know.... mom can we make a French Fry costume for Halloween?" I said, "Sure." As I always think I can do something even before I try to do it. Why not. One doesn't know until you try. I have to say I don't think I've tried to do anything that hasn't turned out. Sometimes it's WAY harder than I thought and I'll never do it again. BUT a Halloween costume was right up my alley. I've made many.



I knew we wouldn't have a lot of time to spend making this costume. I knew we needed to make the traditional McDonald's fries for this costume to be truly recognizable and cute. I bought 4 sheet of red poster paper and one sheet of yellow. What was a bit annoying and I know the company must do this to be frugal, but the poster board is one color on one side and another on the other. The red was red on one side and green on the other. The yellow was yellow on one side and blue on the other.



First thing I did was find out how big my daughter wanted the costume. She said the width of the poster paper would be long enough. So, I cut it wide enough for here body. I then used the piece I cut as a template to cut the matching back piece and the piece I needed to line the back piece. Since it was green on the back I needed to cover the back with red, because it would show. I could use the pieces I cut off of the front and back to use for the side panels.



Then I cut a semi circle off the top edge of the front panel. I taped it to the back panel. This made it look like the McDonald's French Fry container. I used clear packing tape to tape the panels together and the half circle pieces.



At this point I had my daughter put it on and we decided where to cut the arm holes. Once they were cut I made straps for her shoulders using the clear packing tape. I stuck on piece to the front and back with sticky side up. Daughter being careful to keep her hair out of the way. I then stuck a similar length piece of tape sticky side down on top making a perfect strap. I did the same thing to the other shoulder. This way she wouldn't have to hold the box up all night.



We pre cut the French Fry strips. Folding them in half to cover up the blue color on the reverse side. We used hot glue to keep these permanently folded. Again my daughter put on the costume, so I could glue on the French Fries. She didn't want to put on the costume for this. TEENAGERS! But I made it clear she didn't want any fries sticking up in her face and annoying her all night. With it on we could put the fries on in a way that made it comfortable. With hot glued I added the fries.



We had pre cut the "M" out of the yellow before the fries. This worried me a bit. I didn't think we'd have enough yellow poster paper for the fries. We had just enough. Not a scrap was left. The fries didn't have to be too big. Just enough to peek out the top.



The "M" was all my daughter. She free handed the drawing of the "M." I hot glued it on the front. Then my daughter did the shading and trademark logo. This I feel really made the costume in the words of fashion designers "pop." It suddenly took on a cuteness all it's own.



What was great about this costume being put together with packing tape was it was very strong and flexible. The costume folded flat to be tucked away when one got too hot or wanted a break from the costume.

"Receiving an award for costume that is folded up in background. She needed arms to operate the piñata she had made. "

It held together great. I thought she'd lose French Fries, but she didn't. The only danger was at lunch at school on Friday she was chased around with teenagers wanting to bite her costume and one friend actually did.