For a fast and inexpensive costume that won't look like those at the store, why don't you go as Paula Deen? Or, as my husband affectionately calls her, 'The stick-of-butter lady' with the cooking show. Every recipe she makes seems to begin with a stick of butter, lol... so guys all seem to adore her recipes.
Just a couple days ago I saw a small photo of her with her head sticking out of the end of a stick of butter costume, and thought how easy that would be to make.
Anyone who can sew a straight line could cut out four rectangles of bright yellow fabric for the body of it. Just measure across the wearer's (either adult or child) shoulders and add 4 inches for movement and seams. That would give you the width of the rectangle. Measure from their shoulders to their knees for the length of the rectangle. Sew the 4 rectangles along all the long sides, and look in your fridge at your butter stick and use a felt tip marker to mark the tablespoon measurement lines down the front and write 'BUTTER' in huge block letters down one side, leaving room at the top for the arm holes to be cut later. The other two rectangles could be left blank.
You could turn up the bottom edges twice and sew around it as a 'hem'. To stiffen the shape, place four strips of clothesline rope inside the seams on all four sides, between the corners, before you sew the hem. It should then fall more squared.
As for the top, just measure a yellow square about the same width as the top of the rectangles to make the end of the butter where the head would stick out, and cut a center hole large enough for the head to go through. You could then pin and stitch the edges to the top of the rectangles. Now all you'd have to do would be cut a square piece of cardboard from a large box, the same size as the top, and make a matching hole for the head, and wear it inside the costume to hold it up and keep the top end square, then cut holes in the rectangles on either side of the 'measurement' front rectangle, just below the 'shoulder' area for arms to go through.
This would be easy to adjust for the wearer, to make sure arms would have plenty of room. All it really would cost would be some cheap yellow fabric, or if it's for an adult who won't outgrow it, make it a little more 'finished' by edging the arms and neck with bias tape so that you can re-use it from time to time and wash it.
The real kicker would be to wear a really fluffy white wig and big eyelashes so you're sure to be recognized as Paula, lol... but a new mop head instead of a wig, and some lines drawn up from the eyes with eyebrow pencil would do for eyelashes. Anyone who's ever watched Paula on HGTV would recognize this costume. :^)
Source: I'm pretty sure the little photo I saw was from TV Guide.
By Mary from Mountain Pine, AR
