LADYBUG/BUTTERFLY

You need:

• • • Fabric paint: For butterfly: in orange. For ladybug, in black
    • Nylon stockings: For butterfly: in sheer black. For ladybug, in red
    • Tulle, in red or orange, at least three yards
    • Ribbon for waistband and shoulder straps, at least two yards, at least two or three inches thick.
    • Bodysuit in black

This is one of the prettiest costumes I’ve ever seen, and it’s basically the easy version of something I saw in Saratoga Springs when my kids were little.

I’ve been trying to sell them on wearing it since then, but they want to be scary each year — so they just use it from the dress-up trunk.

You can get as fancy as you like with this, but I’ll give you the bare bones of the project.

The skirt, again, is the star. You’ll need a slip, because the tulle is itchy, but besides that, you can’t beat it — it’s cheap as anything, and puffy and glamorous.

1. Buy three yards at least to wrap around, and then fold it a few times to make a really puffy skirt. Trim the hem — you won’t have to sew it.
2. Then, at the waist, sew the nicest, fattest ribbon you can find onto the folded end. This will be not only a gorgeous waistband, but a decorative bow at the back — and it saves sewing elastic, measuring, etc. It kills SO many birds with this one stone. If you’ve made the skirt wide enough, you’ll be able to wrap it around your youngster, and you won’t even have to sew a back seam.
3. A bodysuit serves as the rest of the dress — so no sewing involved there. And depending on what your shopping situation is, you can go with black, red, orange or striped tights.
4. The wings are the toughest challenge, but even they aren’t too bad.
5. Go to your local craft store and find the heaviest-guage beading wire you can find. It will be in the jewelry-making section. You may need to double it, but once you have the double-thickness, you can work it into any shape you want.
6. Cover that shape with nylons. Cut them apart and simply slip them over the shape you’ve built. For the ladybug, use red tights. For the monarch butterfly, use sheer black stockings. Tie them off tightly at the corners. Hide the knot as best you can, but leave a little bit leftover to tie to the ribbon you have leftover from the waistband.
7. With fabric paint, stamp dots onto the ladybug wings. Draw the loop designs with orange fabric paint onto the sheer black nylons.
8. Using the leftover ribbon from the waistband, tie it together with the end of the knot and fashion the shoulder straps.
9. You’re done. You have beautiful butterflies and ladybugs.