Rainbow Butterflies

I have wanted Miss A and Little J to be Thing 1 and Thing 2 for awhile, but until this year Little J just didn't quite have the hair. So this year I was excited that they could be Things 1 and 2. E was even going to dress up as the Cat in the Hat. But Miss A and Little J wanted nothing to do with that plan. They wanted to be princesses. We compromised on butterflies. Miss A wanted to be a rainbow butterfly, and Little J wanted to be a purple butterfly.

I really like to make Halloween costumes for the girls, but my crafting skills are a little more MacGyver than Martha. I can't sew, so I have to be creative when it comes to costume creation. Previous costumes include a cupcake, owl, peacock, octopus, witch and lion. For the butterflies I used this pin as inspiration, took the girls to JoAnn Fabrics to pick up supplies and started on some butterfly costumes. I made Miss A's costume first, and when Little J saw it, she decided to be a rainbow butterfly too. As I made the second costume I remembered to take a few photos along the way (until it got late and I got tired and forgetful).

I started with a big piece of black felt. I held it up against Little J to see how long it should be, then used white chalk to mark a line to cut. I made a big U shape to start, then used a t-shirt to measure a good size for the head/neck to go through. Next I started cutting out different shapes from other colored felt to make the butterfly design. I did one of each shape to start to make sure the whole rainbow would fit.

Luckily, I had a super cute helper throughout the process :)

After I had the design laid out on one wing, I cut out 3 more felt pieces of each color.

Here's where I stopped taking pictures. Oops! With all of the pieces ready to go, I laid out the design on the front of the costume then glued everything down with my hot glue gun. I went through a lot of glue sticks, but after our first outing everything seemed to hold pretty well. Once the glue dried, the girls tried on their costumes and loved them! They wore black leggings and long sleeved shirts under the costumes at a Halloween party we went to, then added big sweatshirts underneath at night. The costumes are easy for a variety of temperatures, perfect for Minnesota in October.

A super easy, super cute, Halloween costume!