Category Archives: costumes

Last Minute Nana to the Rescue!

Last Minute Nana to the Rescue!

10:00am, today, The phone rings. “Nana, I still need wings and a halo.”

“But you’re not going to the Squish Meet, you’re going to soccer.”

But after soccer, there’s a block party.”

Vivi and her bestie had planned to go to the local Squishmellow Swap Meet as a devil and an angel. Then their soccer coach invited them to play with the older girls’ team.

‘What time is the block party?”

“Three.”

I went right to work. We’d bought a white headband and iridescent pipe cleaners earlier in the week, so I started on the halo.

My little model was playing soccer, so I did the best I could with what I had.

Not great, but passable. On to the wings…

For the frame, I gathered 2 white wire clothes hangers, heavy duty wire cutters, and masking tape. I reshaped the hangers and cut the hooks off. I sacrificed another pipe cleaner to wire the two together. Then, I covered the connection with lots and lots of masking tape.

Vivi has a room set up in my “grandma house” where I also store fabric and yarn. I went in to look for some white chenille yarn. I found it AND a ruffled white satin pillow case that was once my mom’s. It was being used as a baby doll blanket in my old bassinet, filled with baby yarn.

I stuck the frame into the pillow sham and used another pipe cleaner and the white chenille yarn to gather and secure the middle.

I added more iridescent pipe cleaners to the middle of the wings, to match the halo and add sparkle.

Now, how to attach them? Vivi had finger crocheted several 3’ lengths of the chenille yarn to use as Squishmellow clip holders. I took two of them and added to the inside of the gather, attaching them in the middle, with good old pipe cleaners, so they could be used as underarm ties.

Then, I tried it on my poor old model.

I tied it on me with bow knots, wrapping the extra lengths of yarn around my back and waist for extra support.

I took the wings and halo off and grabbed the white fuzzy vest in the background, then headed for the block party!

2:40pm, I arrived at the block party, and there was just enough room in front of the barricades to pull over. I cut on my blinkers, and Vivi met me at the end of the street.

The best part was when I pulled the costume out of the car! “Are those my wings, Nana? They’re beautiful!”

I got her in her wings and halo out of harm’s way, just off the intersection. People went by and smiled. One guy rolled down his window and said, “Great costume!” 😄

Another day, well spent, and so am I!