Buggy-Wuggy

I stayed up last night working on Josh's costume for today's "Beautiful Bug Ball" at school (while watching Vicky Christina Barcelona, I might add, so please don't feel that I was slaving away).

I didn't want to buy a costume that would just lie at the back of the closet after one use. I wanted something simple that we could just make ourselves and decided that a caterpillar would be easy. Off to the Web to scour for ideas and saw a cool one on Better Homes & Gardens, of all places. I didn't follow exactly their pattern, but got some great ideas from them.

Here's what we used:

8 small work gloves (for the caterpillar's legs)
2 pipe cleaners (for antennae)
Crumpled newspapers (for filling up the gloves to plump them up)
A hooded jacket / matching pants (You can also use a track suit)

1) The antennae. We used 2 pipe cleaners of different colors and twisted them together for a more interesting effect. I then sewed them onto the sides of the hood of the jacket. If you don't have a hooded jacket, you can also use a baseball cap.

2) The legs. I got the work gloves from a hardware store. They cost HK$2 a pair.

• Stuff six of the gloves. We used crumpled up newspapers as filling, although I'm sure that if you have cotton or fiberfill, these would make for a better effect.
  
• After we filled the six gloves, I sewed them four onto the pant legs (two on each side) and two on the jacket.
• Wear the other pair of gloves on the hands and ta da! You have your "legs"!
  

Easy-peasy!

I think I have calluses on my forefinger and thumb now from stitching the mitts on last night. It's worth the effort, though, I'd say! Josh was proud of his caterpillar costume :)