![4 elements of nature costume 4 elements of nature costume](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/15/a3/34/15a334454b6a4754398546939f3fe2a5.jpg)
![4 elements of nature costume 4 elements of nature costume](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/bxF0pGvYFd8/maxresdefault.jpg)
Unfortunately for my children, these costumes never take function and comfort into consideration, so the headpiece turned out a bit heavy. I included glittered branches on top, glitter leaves around the wreath, and some flowing, glittered stems (LOVE me some glitter!) and feathers down the back, and topped it off with an ornament bird taken from my Christmas ornament box. I made additional trips to various craft and decorating stores, and found these artificial mossy stems to use for the wreath. In my mind, this Mother Nature would be queen-like, so a “crown” of some sort was needed. The next item to tackle was the headpiece. I assembled a bouquet of flowers that ultimately came to rest on her hip and down the skirting, but could not come up with a feasible way to attach this to the dress-it was heavy! ( we ultimately rigged this portion with a concealed belt as I didn’t want to ruin the dress with excess pins, sewing/tacking, etc).
#4 elements of nature costume full#
Once the dress was in hand, I made a trip to Michael’s and purchased a cart full of “what if’s”-flowers, foliage, natural elements, etc. It took 12 weeks from the date of my first inquiry until the date in which I finally received the custom dress! Not having the dress delayed the whole vision and production of the costume as I simply couldn’t get a feel for what I would be working with. While the product from this seller turned out wonderful, I was regularly stressed that it was never going to come to fruition. I customized the sizing (considering these are made for women, not 9 year old girls), the colors, and had a separate bodice made as corsets were also not available for 9 year olds. For this particular costume, I happened upon a maker/seller of medieval renaissance dresses and the base for the costume was born. I am not a seamstress, so I prefer to have someone custom make something for me that I can build off of. I began my search for the “bones” of the costume on Ebay and Etsy. Although my husband isn’t the most creative guy around, he is definitely my sounding board and was the chief tailor for many a tutus over the years!īack to the costume….I know that I gravitate toward nature’s colors and all things animals, so I knew that an earthy/fall color palette, flowers, and realistic animal additions were a must. I should probably note that I really do mean “we” and “our” in these sentences. I think we may have been reminiscing about our very first costume creation for her at 2 years old (a Woodland Fairy), and drew some inspiration from that 7 years later. Lucky for us, both of my girls are always open to our crazy ideas and simply trust that we will come up with something for them that is conversation worthy, but not embarrassing. This year, my daughter didn’t have any special requests, so we were on our own to find something unlike the many costumes before this.
![4 elements of nature costume 4 elements of nature costume](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/oktoberfest-dog-25702706.jpg)
The idea for a “Mother Nature” costume came along sometime mid-summer, although I don’t recall how or why. However, this year, we were WAY behind schedule and barely able to pull this one together by the first event held on 10/26 (in fact, my other daughter had to wear a previous year’s costume as I didn’t complete hers until Halloween eve!). We typically begin thinking about next year’s costumes as our girls are sorting through their candy on Halloween night, and generally have the idea/concept solidified by July and something in the making by August. Each year, my husband and I are faced with the challenge of topping last year’s costumes for our girls, and this year was no exception. Wow-this beautiful handmade mother (daughter) nature costume was an ever evolving concept.