The Making Of Thing 1 & Thing 2

I’ve never been one for store-bought costumes.  I wasn’t raised that way.  My mother (somehow) made all of our costumes herself – even when we had to be Rainbow Brite & Sprite, Yoda, Big Bird… anything.  It was completely expected at the time, but now that I’m working, at home with 2 toddlers, and project addicted, it’s completely amazing that she did this.

Last year, I didn’t technically buy costumes, but Chloe did wear a hand-me-down Dorothy of the Wizard of Oz costume so I only had to throw together Cora’s Toto costume with some DIY hair clip ears, a brown onsie & pants, and a faux fur vest.

This year I knew it was probably my last time to have any influence on their costumes.  I had to lobby a bit with Chloe, but in the end she loves that they are “matching” as Thing 1 & Thing 2 – although she did insist on being Thing 1.  They’ve had so much fun dressing up this year and I love how their costumes turned out.  Here’s how I made them myself in less than an hour!  The best part is the Thing 1 & Thing 2 circles are temporary so the girls can re-use these shirts.

Resources:

• Shirts: Gap
• Leggings: Gap
• Skirts: Ebay
• Shoes: Toms & Converse
• Stick-on Thing 1 & Thing 2 (Directions Below)
  • White self-adhesive felt
  • Fabric Marker
• Hair Bows (Directions Below)
  • Feather hair clip
  • Blue Ribbon

For the “Thing 1” & “Thing 2” circles, I found something circular that was the right proportion with the shirts.  Our bowls worked great.  I traced the bowl 6 times on 3 sheets of adhesive-backed felt from Hobby Lobby.  I made multiples in case they get ruined since the girls will be wearing these costumes a few times.

I cut them out, and here’s one sitting on one of the shirts so you can see the size.

Then, I colored the edge of each circle with a black fabric pen.  These are dye, so I set the circles on a piece of card stock so I wouldn’t damage the counter.  It doesn’t have to be clean & perfect because the originals are hand-drawn – it’s part o the character.

I looked online for images for reference, and wrote out the lettering in Dr. Seuss style.  I also added the little sketch marks from the book which really adds the Cat In The Hat charm.  I made 3 of each so if I need to wash their shirts, I can just remove these and replace it for the next wear.

So cute!  The white that you see around the border is actually the white adhesive backing which isn’t there when you stick them on so it won’t show later.

For the bows, I found pre-made feather hair clips ay Hobby Lobby.  It would have been easy enough to glue bright blue feathers or fuzz to hair clips, but I actually didn’t find the right color in anything but the pre-made hair clips.

I bought 2 chips for each girl so they could wear pigtails (although Cora opted for a different style in the photo above).  I cut 4 ribbons to size for the base of the ribbons.

Then I created the loop part of the bows by gluing on a loop of ribbon and then gluing it down in the center with a hot glue gun.  To avoid burning myself, I always press down with closed scissors.

It was a little bow assembly line.

Then, I flipped them over and glued on more ribbon to wrap around to finish the bow.  After wrapping them around, cut to size, and fold a bit over so it will have a clean edge.

And then fold it over and glue to secure.

4 happy little bows!

Next, I glued the bows onto the feather hair clips.

That is really it!  They were up to no good in no time at all.  What would mother say if she saw them this way?  Cute, cute, cute, that’s what she would say!

Thing 1’s favorite new pose is “Hook ‘Em Horns”.  Gotta love fall and all of the fun activities with the kiddos!