Happy Troll-oween from It’s a Schorr Thing! The girls love dressing up regardless of the day, but it’s always fun to get the whole family together and get into the spirit. Bailey was in charge of the theme last year (Michael Jackson Thriller Zombies) and so we let her pick again this year. When we first asked her, without hesitation, she yelled out Poppy from Trolls. She changed her mind about 30 times but kept coming back to Poppy, so a Troll-oween it shall be.
Bailey had her dance Halloween Party a week before Halloween and we typically will throw on a Fairy or Princess costume, but we wanted a dry run for how her costume would hold up for the night. Since she would be moving a ton, if it was going to last, this would be a good test. And as always, we were running late so I had to put the whole look together quickly. Here’s how it turned out:
It was too cute not to share on social media. We got a lot of positive feedback and some questions on how we created the look so I thought I would share.
DIY Poppy Costume:
I started looking for different Poppy costumes online and was very underwhelmed with the prospects. The only one you could buy in store was at Target (not cute enough) or Party City (way too expensive). I looked around for blue dresses that we could turn into a costume but came up empty handed. I thought about trying to make one but I have zero patience for trying to learn how to sew (some day!) Then one night at dance as we were talking about costumes, I mentioned we were going to try to be the Trolls and one of the awesome Moms mentioned her youngest was Poppy last year and her dress was from Etsy and she would give it to us – score! The next week, she brought it in and it was super cute! (Thanks Rebecca!)
The next thing we ad to tackle was the hair. We had a Poppy wig that we found on one of our treasure hunts, but it was definitely lacking some volume. After looking at several options in store and online, I knew I had to figure something else out. Plus I had to start thinking about the rest of the family’s hair. The stores had a few headbands with troll hair but the colors were limited and not very full…plus they were $10 each and I did not feel like spending $40 for hair. I ran next door to Michaels and found rolls of tulle that were BOGO, grabbed 6 and two packs of baby stretchy headbands and spent $14 with tax. Of course, we could have just grabbed some spray paint, teased up her hair and made it work, but there was no way I wanted to try and comb that out after.
I went home and decided on the length I wanted the hair, doubled it over and cut about 24 pieces out of the tulle roll. Then I took each halved piece and tied them in knots along the headband evenly, similar to how you would for a tutu. When it was done I pulled them in a high ponytail and added a hairband near the top. It looked a lot cuter than I anticipated but when Bailey moved, the hair sagged a bit.
I looked around for something to help with the volume saw a pink tutu, balled it up, tied it to her real ponytail and then added the wig on top. It stayed perfectly and it had the right volume!
We grabbed her Poppy headband we got for a dollar over the summer, layered it on top and voila! When it was time for dance, we just dabbed a little pink lipstick/eye shadow combo on her nose and cheeks and she was ready to go!
Sienna was still getting over being sick and having an ear infection, but wanted to dress up too. She wasn’t a fan of the full wig, so we had to do a little improvising.
We were a little late to class but got there right before the fun began. It was so fun seeing all the other little dancer’s costumes! And they learned a new dance to Monster Mash which Bailey recreates whenever she hears that song. We even found out about a bonus trick or treat event at Olathe North that we went to after class was over.
The best part about the Poppy costume, it only cost $5.50 for us to make!
DIY Smidge Costume
For Sienna’s Smidge costume we recreated the hair the same way we did Poppy but we used about 30 pieces of tulle and knotted the hair closer to the end. We clipped a pink sparkly bow that we already had to the top of her hair. She didn’t want to wear the wig so we had to improvise and secured a few pieces of tulle and the bow to her ponytail.
We found a pink sleeveless dress at a thrift store for $1.99 and cut up a piece of $.99 felt and secured it with a safety pin. The dress was really cute and she may be able to wear it next summer so we didn’t want to sew anything on. Bailey had a long sleeved yellow shirt we put underneath it and Smidge was ready for only $4.50.
DIY DJ Suki Costume
At the thrift store we were able to find a hot pink tank ($2.99) and some white pants ($4.99) that I felt would work for DJ Suki’s outfit. We used the same technique as Poppy’s hair and I tied a few smaller pieces of orange tulle to the bottom for her bangs. To top of DJ Suki’s look we added a few bangles from our vast collection and added some funear warmers that looked like headphones we snagged on one of our treasure hunts for $.99. Total spent for DJ Suki’s costume – $10.50.
DIY King Peppy Costume
The hardest costume to put together out of this set was King Peppy. The clothing was easy – thrift store for the pants ($4.99) and a scrub top that we cut the sleeves off ($.99) and a borrowed orange tee. The hair was another story. I went back and forth with the hair for several days, tried pleading with Bailey to just let him be Branch (no-go). I looked online and the only King Peppy Hair they had was a set for $40 – um, no! So I had to get creative.
His hair is more spiky and standup-ish (I know that is not a word, but it is what it is) than the other trolls so I couldn’t just put it up. Cutting the tulle shorter didn’t work because it shot out in all directions. I needed something to give it more shape and found it in a giant box of goldfish. Luckily Brian’s head fit in the mega goldfish size box so I cut it down about a third of the way, secured the headband full of tulle to it. It still flopped around but it had more shape. I cut a long piece of the white tulle and tied it near the top of the box over the hair so that it would spike up. I didn’t like the look of the string around it, so I added more tulle and tucked it under the headband and around the top tier to hide the strip of white tulle at the top. I felt like a craft-genius after getting that figured out!
But the hair was the least of my issues with King Peppy. His mustache and eyebrows are really what make King Peppy who he is. I had these grand ideas of how easy it would be to just use a dab of eyelash glue to some tulle and construction paper – I was totally wrong! After a few tears and frustrated attempts, I was about to give up. But I got inspired and grabbed a needle and thread, strung them through the mustache pieces and had Brian tie it around his head. It worked! Then I did the same with the eyebrows and King Peppy was born! Total spent – $7.50!
All total we spent about $28 for all four costumes. And don’t let me forget about Cooper! We tied together a silly head band the girls had along with one of their dress up hats, found a $.99 tank top and he was set!
He might not forgive me for it for awhile, but there will be extra treats for him tonight. That still brings us in for under $30 for our family Troll-oween costumes, and the best part – we had a lot of fun hunting and making them!
We also went up to Dad’s work this afternoon and won their Group Costume contest and Dad’s pumpkin won their pumpkin contest too!
Halloween night isn’t the only dress up we got into these past week. We went to Celebrate Olathe at the Community Center, did another trunk or treat event and just wore costumes because we could (duh – as Bailey would say). We also had a lot of fun decorating pumpkins this year Here are some of our favorite memories from this Halloween season!
Hope you and your family had a safe and Happy Halloween!
