Saturday, May 30, 2015

A Kimono Costume from a Plastic Tablecloth


The teens had an Asian themed "How to Host a Murder Party" to go to for the last night of youth group.  Their leader encouraged them to come in costume, if at all possible.  T (age 17) found a cap at the party supply store, and was good to go...


...but the only other Asian themed items we could find in the store, besides paper fans, were napkins, and plastic tablecloths.


Since there was nothing else, we grabbed a couple of the fans, and two of the tablecloths, and headed home to see what we could do with them.  They were rectangular, and white in the middle, with red and gold strips running down each side.

We folded them in half, short sides together, as shown.


Then, we cut a round neck hold in the center of the folded part, so they could slip on over the girls' heads.


Starting at the short ends, we cut the strips away from the white center...


...stopping about four inches from the girls' arm pits.


If we'd had an extra tablecloth, we probably would have left the arm streamers really long, but we needed some of the red for belts, bows, and trim, so we shortened the arms by about half.


We stapled the bottom...


...and inside edges of the arm streamers closed.


G taped some of the red stripping onto the bottom edges of the white, for trim.  A left hers plain.


We taped together some of the pieces to make belts, folding in the raw edges...


...and stapling, rather than tying them, at the back (that made them a one time wear, but that was all we needed).


We added a little piece of tape to the front to hold the belt in place...


...and stapled bows (pieces pinched and stapled in the middle) to the back for a finishing touch to the robes.


They weren't authentic by any stretch of the imagination, but with fans in hand, and chopsticks in hair, they didn't look too bad...


...for a couple of plastic tablecloths.


6 comments:

Cristy said...

Brilliant! I love how you made this work.

Ticia said...

Oh my goodness, do you realize how brilliant this idea is? BRILLIANT!

Dawn said...

You are amazing and resourceful!
Blessings, Dawn

claireshomeeducation said...

I'm almost hyperventilating at your brilliance!! Oh my, you are all so clever. I am so stealing this when we do Japan with the little ones! Seriously, I think this might be your cleverest idea yet!

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

This is simply amazing! I am amused, however, that your store in Montana had the perfect tablecloth for it!

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Natalie - Ya, any tablecloth with a plain center would have worked - but the Chinese pattern was nice. When it comes to stores in Montana, you take what you can find - and make the most of it :)