Thing 2 goes to camp!

She's off to camp! A whole week of fun with her friends! I'll miss my sister, of course, but it's so much fun to see her so excited!

Every year her camp has a theme. To go along with that theme one evening there's a costume contest and dance. Well, this year's theme was Dr. Seuss and my sister needed the perfect costume. She and a friend decided to dress up together as Thing 1 and Thing 2. Of course, as my sister's personal seamstress, this meant I needed to sew two cute red dresses. Thankfully, I had a torn red sateen sheet in my stash with just enough usable fabric for two identical size 12 dresses. 

I used an 80's pattern from my stash, McCall's 5122. I thought the dropped waist and double ruffled skirt just fit the bounciness of both the characters and the girls perfectly!

Now, unsurprisingly, more than just red clothing was required to make these costumes work. Thing 1 and Thing 2 needed big, round, white nametags on their fronts. Those were easy enough to make. A couple circles of white twill and a black fabric marker, no problem! The name tags are just pinned to the front of the dresses so that they can be easily removed and the dresses worn again for other things. 

Next, shoes. Things 1 and 2 have red feet so red shoes were a must. Thankfully Walmart had the perfect red shoes in stock.

 Finally, the hair. That was the challenge. Things 1 and 2 have blue hair. Unfortunately, it's July, not October. Spray on hair color or colored wigs are not easy to find this time of year. We had to improvise. My mom and sister picked up a couple pair of blue spandex leggings, cut each leg into three strips, and braided it. The waistband holds the braids on the girls' heads. I found this idea in an American Girl backyard theater book that I had when I was my sister's age. It may not look exactly like hair, but it gives the right effect to finish off the Thing 1 and Thing 2 costumes. 

We finished the costumes the night before my sister left. Into a backpack they went to await inspection from Thing 1 at camp the next day. Thankfully, Thing 1 was just as excited as my sister about the costumes. Hopefully the girls have lots of fun this week! (and I really hope someone at camp takes lots of pictures so that I can see these costumes in action and all the fun that my sister gets to have!)