Help me out...an under the sea fancy dress idea....

[Squirdle]

..by next Sunday. Preferably fairly simple, have thought octopus, jellyfish, fish etc, but don't have much of an idea of how to go about making one.

Am turning puter off now, but will reply tomorrow.

Thankyou in advance x

Well, I shall pretend to be Califrau for 2 minutes and suggest you make a treasure chest out of a cardboard box....

mermaid, fish, starfish, hook

Great ideas but how do I make them???? Treasure chest sounds interesting. Don't th ink DS2 will want to be a mermaid! And a hook??!!? How do you turn a child into a hook??

Shark!!

I have a shark mask - got it from a local 'party' shop. Make a shark fin - fin shape from cardboard, cover in silver glitter/paint, punch 2 sets holes in straight edge of fin, get some silver elastic from a haberdasher's, thread elastic through holes and make each end into a loop to go over your arms. Silver/grey t-shirt/leggings, tights, whatever you have.

Lots of cool make-up underneath with loads of eyeliner, as you won't wear the mask for long...

Octopus. Clothing all in same colour and then 4 pairs of tights stuffed with something attached (ie the 8 legs)

You could just mock up an instant fish costume with something like this from fabricland

Erm, erm dunno - Califrau is the expert at cardboard box costumes.

I guess you basically wear teh cardboard box a bit like a sandwich board. You can decorate the box in anyway you see fit - in this instance a treasure chest.....or even a wrecked ship .

But califrau - you hav't suggested a 'proper' cardboard box costume.....are you slipping?

Neptune

Spongebob Squarepants lends itself to the cardboard box genre....

But I thought that you were expert at practically putting children in cardboard boxes for fancy dress (I recall a suggestion of box of popcorn when the theme was fils/cinema).

Sticking a cardboard fish either side of the child is not the same as putting the child in the carboard box .

My ds (8) was in a drama production recently on a fishy theme where he insisted he wanted to be a puffa fish. He devised a costume with some yellow material made into a tunic (folded in half and cut neck hole), then some cone shapes made into spikes and sewn on, with sticks that he could push into them to make them stick out. Dh helped with the sewing (what a star!) as I couldn't really understand what he meant when he described it, & it did look very effective & an impressive construction for an 8-year-old.

Well I wouldn't have thought that cinema/films was very boxy but you still produced a boxy idea

califrau - just in case you ever need some cardboard box inspiration - I thought this was fab.

You lot are good!

Liking the shark idea, seems the most simple. The fisherman does too, but it's an under the sea theme so unless it's a drowned fisherman....

We have a 'party' shop so I will go and have a look tomorrow.

Thankyou x

seaweed? Dress in green, sew 'weedy' green strips to top. Spray hair green. Paint face green etc etc etc

oh, girl or boy BTW?

one of those clear dome-shaped umbrellas attach long strips of bubblewrap, cellophane, foil, silvery fabrics to edge hold over head open and close gently

jellyfish