GW in the House!

We knew for quite some time that Hi-Hat was to dress up as George Washington for a classroom assignment.  We weren't completely clear on exactly what the assignment was, we just knew we needed a costume.  Hi-Hat decided he wanted to be creative and dress as a $1 bill.  Since I had experience turning him into a comic strip, I figured a dollar bill would be easy.  I got the green foam board, and there it sat in the dining room for what seemed like weeks.   The weekend before the costume was due, Hi-Hat scrounged up a tricorn hat from a neighbor.  Sunday night we were busy and didn't get the costume made, and with just a couple days before the costume was due, he decided it would be too embarrassing to go to school dressed as paper money.

Geof was out of town the day before the costume was due, and I knew it was going to be a busy evening, so I spent the day scrounging around the house and Target and the Internet for ideas and supplies.  By the time Hi-Hat got home, he had a costume ready and waiting for him (the costume was not the school project - that part was already done.  The costume was an accessory and had no part in his grade, so it was ok to be a family affair).

The first element to figure out was the wig.  I found instructions on how to make a GW wig out of a paper bag, glue and cotton balls.  The instructions said to use a full sized paper bag stuck all over with cotton balls, and the my first attempt was gigantic and looked like a cotton-covered box floating on my head.  It was absurd.  So then I found a small, white, lunch-sized bag and used my own design to apply the cotton.  This involved unrolling the cotton into long strips for the top of the wig and stretching the cotton into long tubes for the side and back curls.  I also used strips of unrolled cotton to make a little ponytail down the back.  The second wig fit perfectly and I think it turned out pretty well!  Hi-Hat was tickled.

Here's the completed costume, pretty much made from things found around the house: loafers, soccer socks, baseball pants, a white polo shirt, a cloth napkin, a borrowed navy blazer (with it's lapels tacked back for a cut-away look), home made wig and borrowed tricorn hat.

Turns out this costume was for the second grade wax museum, where the kids all dress as a famous person and gather in the cafe-gym-atorium.  They all sit like statues at tables with little coin jars in front of them, and when someone dropped a game chip into their jar, they come to life, stand up, and deliver a prepared speech about their assigned person.  It was really cute!

Here's our founding father at the school wax museum (sans cloth napkin cravat, which was also deemed very embarrassing...)

 Frozen in place, waiting for a coin

here he is fussing at us to stop talking to him and asking him questions.  

"I can only talk when you put a coin in my jar!"

 Somehow he didn't mind chit-chatting with his friends, though.

 Cute as a brass button with his quill pen

 Rear view of his pony tail

Frozen again.  I'm glad we went the traditional costume route rather than the paper money route.  All morning he would have been whacking people all morning with that big green board strapped to his back.