My husband’s work hosts an annual Chinese New Year dinner, which always has a theme. Every year, I try to create a costume that is homemade and slightly over the top. If you marry an art teacher, this is to be expected! With the theme being ‘Around the World’ and our 5th year attending this event, I created an out of this world costume, if I may say so myself.

After obtaining a white jumpsuit for the astronaut costume, all I needed to do was add patches to make the bulk of the costume believable. This then allowed me more time to spend on the helmet.

 

The helmet and planet earth were made using 12-inch paper lanterns. I used papier-mâché to cover the lanterns helping make them a bit stronger. I could have actually added several more layers to help reduce the visibility of the internal wire structure to make it smoother but time was an issue. The helmet was cut with wire cutters and scissors to make the hole for the head and opening in the front. I then added a bit of foam tubing around the edging before painting it.

 

For the planet earth headpiece, I securing the globe to a headband with wire and duct tape before putting papier-mâché over the area where they joined. After painting it, I added a small spaceship to a piece of wire and hot glued it to make it look like it was landing on earth.

The costumes were a huge hit at the event and people appreciated the time and craftsmanship. We were over the moon when we were announced Best Dressed!

Another, annual dinner, another epic costume. I have properly secured my place as the costume queen of this galaxy and will rein to infinity and beyond or at least until the next annual dinner.