Make Your Own Costume: The Four Seasons

What You Need:

• Scissors or pruning shears to trim plants
• Access to a garden
• Safety pins
• Colored felt squares for making additional decorations

What You Do:

Spring Costume:

Spring is a time of growth, life and new color. Wear pastel colors or neutral Earth toned clothing in browns, blues, greens, or even yellows and pinks. From your garden, local park or neighborhood, collect fresh flowers with long stems, green vines of ivy, or other materials. Weave ivies into necklaces or wreaths for the child’s head, and fasten leaves or flowers on with safety pins, glue or other materials. If you have a hard time finding flowers that will stay, you can also get some felt squares from a local craft store, and make some felt flowers to pin on.

To make felt flowers: Use chalk to draw a flower shape onto felt. Cut around the shape with scissors. Once the shape is cut out, it can be used as a stencil to make more flowers. Trace around the shape with chalk onto the remaining felt to make matching flower shapes.

Summer Costume:

In summer, flowers are blooming and everything is alive and growing in bright, vivid colors. Have children wear their brightest clothing. On top of that, collect bright, large flowers and leaves and pin them onto the child’s shirt. Again, ivy plants can be woven into wreaths or necklaces. Children can also carry bouquets or baskets of flowers to show the season.

Autumn Costume:

Autumn is a season when flowers start to fade, the trees change color and leaves fall. Wear browns, dark reds, or dark yellows to show the fall season. Then attach fallen leaves in all colors. Pin one bright colored leaf behind the child’s ear, or make a wreath of them. Children may also enjoy collecting pine cones, acorns, and other items. Make small holes in them or wrap string around them, and they can be worn as necklaces as well!

Winter Costume:

Snow and frost are the traditional elements of Winter, even though it doesn’t snow everywhere. Wear white, khaki, or dark gray colors to achieve the neutral winter effect. Pin leafless twigs on, or branches from pine trees that don’t lose their leaves this season. Then, use felt squares in blue, gray or another contrasting color to cut out small snowflakes and pin them to the clothing.