An Adorable Gumball Machine: My Halloween Costume 2015

I've always been a fan of making my own costume- last year I was an owl (I cut and sewed hundreds of felt feathers onto a big t-shirt). Halloween is also a very fun holiday for me- I love to dress up.

So in the middle of September, I was looking online for Halloween costume inspiration. I knew I wanted to make my costume- and not be a witch, my costume for three years prior- but I didn't know what, exactly, I wanted to be.

I was in the car driving to a restaurant, when I found the costume I wanted. A gumball machine. I saved the image, and about a month later, I turned up at Hobby Lobby with a mission. Here is how to make a Gumball Machine costume of your own- plus tricks I wish I'd known before I started.

Supplies:

• Hot glue gun
• Pom-Poms (I would say, if you're my size or larger, 2 bags of every color you plan to use, plus one mixed bag for accent colors)
• Tank top (get one size larger than the size you actually wear. More on that below)
• Red fabric or red skirt
• Grey felt square
• Knee-High socks (optional)
• Headband (optional)

The first thing I did was pick a plain white tank top from my closet. As mentioned above, I wouldn't recommend this. When I glued the pom-poms on my tank top, all of its stretch was lost, and I literally could not get it over my head. I had to cut the back and sew elastic back there, so yeah, trust me on this one- get a size, or even two, bigger.

What I had to do to the back of my shirt to get it to fit!!!!

Then, I bought pom-poms at Hobby Lobby (of course, they are also sold at pretty much every craft store) and began to glue them on.

These are the colors I bought: red, orange, yellow, light green, blue, and pink. I also bought a mixed bag. The pom-poms are a little less than an inch in diameter. 

I started gluing on the pom-poms with my hot glue gun like so. 

After I was completely done with the top, I made a simple red skirt. You could, of course, also buy a red skirt, I just couldn't find one in my size at the store. 

I used my grey felt and drew with Sharpie the picture above. You could also use fabric marker or make the whole thing out of paper, but I used grey felt and sewed three sides on my skirt. 

One mistake I did make with the skirt, though, is that the felt was too high up to see, so I would recommend putting it lower than I did, or making the top shorter (or both). 

The completed gumball top and my socks. 

Finally, I bought some grey knee-high socks at Hobby Lobby to represent the pole of the machine (and to keep me warmer), and made a gumball headband. 

That is me by the way. Also, I think you'll recognize the yarn "S" in the background, which I made in an earlier post (it can be found here.)

I just glued pom-poms on a thin headband and wore it around my head. It really added a great extra touch but only took a few extra minutes to make.

The completed top. 

I hope everyone had a very happy Halloween, and enjoyed this tutorial. Let me know what you think of it in the comments. 

Love, Sophia, resident gumball machine