Little Red Hen Costume

The first-grade team at Evelyn's school is putting on a folktale wax museum tomorrow. Each student has been assigned a folktale character, as well as a short script that needs to be memorized. The students need to be dressed in a costume that fits their role, and they were encouraged to wear creative (i.e., homemade) costumes.

After asking a dear friend for suggestions, I had an idea of how Evelyn could be transformed into the Little Red Hen. Here's what I started with:
- 81 feet of red crepe paper streamer paper ($1.00)
- red T-shirt ($3.00)
- red baseball hat
- yellow piece of construction paper
I cut the crepe paper streamers into 32 strips, each strip just a little bit longer than the length of the T-shirt. (Yes, my seamstress-in-training, Julia, is off to the side in this picture.)

Then I hand-stitched the streamers onto the shirt. I sewed eight streamers onto each sleeve (four hanging in front and four hanging in back), and I also sewed eight streamers onto each shoulder (again, four in front and four in back).

I cut out a comb/crest for the hen's head and taped it to the hat. I also taped the word "Clever" to the front of the hat (covering up the "N"). A major focus in first grade right now is understanding character traits, and in her speech, Evelyn talks about how the Little Red Hen is clever when she tricks the fox.

Voila! For a mere $4.00, Evelyn is transformed into the Little Red Hen!