A Coat of Many Colors

Do you remember a few months back when we participated in the Comcast Day of Service at Welby Elementary? Well, after we were finished with several hours of cleaning and we were sitting in the gym eating pizza with the rest of the group, the kids noticed some bright colors spilling from the garbage can. Drama Queen and Bossy couldn't wait to pull it out and see what it was.

At first we thought it was a parachute and we were excited to see that it appeared to be in good shape. Scouts was my first thought (of course), but on closer inspection, it became apparent that we were looking at a nylon hot air-type balloon.

It was smallish and the tag said 60". It also had a large vinyl logo in the middle of the yellow strip. I'm not sure who first suggested that it would make an amazing Halloween costume, but it wasn't long before the Dog Walker decided it could definitely become a coat of many colors just like in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. That is one of his favorite musicals and he knows all the words to every song which is really saying something if you know the show.

No Mickey though...

For the past couple of weeks he has reminded me several times a day how close we are getting to Halloween, so today when Bossy came over we sorted out my fabric pile so I could get ready to sew. As it turned out, I really had to do very little sewing; it was mostly cutting.

After I took off the bottom panel and slit the yellow to get rid of the large logo, I took 18 inches off the bottom so that it would be the right length. Then I had the Dog Walker try it on. In typical fashion, all he could worry about were the non-existent sleeves.

With very little fabric left, I took those curved 18-inch strips from the bottom and fashioned some short sleeves. He doesn't love them, but unless I try to salvage some of the yellow logo stuff, I just don't have any more of that nylon fabric.

Still, for an absolutely free costume and just a couple of hours of work, I think it turned out pretty good.

What do you think?