Monday, October 26, 2015

We Welcome You to Munchkin Land and OZ!!!

So I have spent the last month immersed in Munchkins and Green, as I have been helping with the school play, Wizard of Oz.   While on a very small budget, I was able to create the head pieces for the Munchkins and head pieces for the Ozian scene.   I made about 20 of each head pieces.  Ill start with the Munchkin tutorial first and scroll down to see the Ozian headpieces!

MUNCHKINS
The Munchkin pieces were designed so that the Munchkins could hide behind some large wooden cut outs of bushes and have their flower poking over the edge of the bush.  That way when the Munchkins giggled their flowers would wiggle and be seen but the Munchkin would still be hidden until Glinda calls them out.

Supplies:
1/2 Yard of each Light Green and Dark Green Felt for contrast
20 Headbands from the dollar store (came 6 in a pack)
Large fake flowers from the local dollar stores in primary colors
And a whole LOT of Hot Glue


I started by cutting out a leaf and stem shape from the felt, alternating the design on my fabric so that I could maximize the amount of pieces I could cut out.  Since I was making 20 Munchkin headpieces I needed 2 leaf pieces for each headband for a total of 40 leaf cutouts. 
Once I had all my leafs cut out and used wire cutters to cut the stems of the flower down to about 5 inches.
I twisted the wire stem around the headband as tight as I could, but knew that the felt and glue would hold it all in place.



 One short line of hot glue down the center of only the top of the leaf and then fold it together to create the leafy look.  Felt is fabulous because it can be stretched and molded into the shape you want as well which added more detail to the leaf.

Next, finish the line of hot glue down the remainder of the felt to attach it to half of the headband.
. Repeat with the second leaf to attach to the headband. I then added hot glue to the wire stem of the fake flower and pushed the two felt leaves together so that they support the flower upright. 


 Then repeat 20 times for 20 headbands. ;)



Isn't this the cutest munchkin you've ever seen?  She's just modeling it for me so I could see how it would look on stage.  On stage in the production they looked awesome!  As the Munchkins would giggle when Glinda spoke their head pieces would wiggle from behind the wooden bush cutouts that the Munchkins were hiding behind.  This gave the audience a hint that there was something else there. 

OZIAN HEADPIECES INSPIRED BY WICKED
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Supplies: well, a little of this and a little of that in green and black, and a WHOLE LOT of hot glue.

Being a crafter/sewer I have a habit of seeing a small scrap of fabric and thinking "I can make something out of that" and then keep it instead of throwing it away like I should.  Well this is one time where that nasty habit paid off.  I used the left over green felt from the above Munchkin headpieces. Scraps of lace, feathers, fabric and anything else green or black that I have tucked in my scrap drawer.

FASCINATORS AND FEATHERS

As I researched ideas, I was stuck on British Fascinators for a way to unify the Ozian cast, while maintaining their individuality in their different costumes.  And of course fascinators have feathers.   I really love the look of feathers on stage they add so much drama.  However, purchasing that many feathers was impossible in my nonexistent budget.  So neccesity wins again with something new. I used the long pieces of felt left over between the leaf cutouts above and cut them to be about the shape of a donkey ear.  Then I folded them in half and stitched down the center on the fold sewing as close to the fold as I could.  This gave the felt the shape of a feather and the sturdiness of the quill down the middle of the feather allowing my new fake feather to remain upright when attached to the headpieces. 

Tip: When making a ton of these fake feathers, just sew them consecutively one after the other like a long chain and then cut the strings between them when done.  
Felt once again won my heart because it is so pliable and I was able to pull and tug at it to create the bending shape.  So after making as many of these as I could, about 30 or so, I was ready to move onto my next accessory. 

As you can see the lace in the first picture above, it was just a left over scrap of lace from something my mother in law had cut out and was in a scrap bag.  I stitched a running stitch along the 3 straight edges of the pieces and gathered it together by pulling on the top threads of my running stitch.  It was random and fabulous!  I then cut out large 8-9 inch circles out of the felt and used it as the base of each of my FASINATORS.  I would pinch the felt together at the center of the circle, open it up a little, and then put a glob of hot glue there and pinch it back together.  I will warn you I did burn my fingers so many times on these projects.  By pinching the center together it would give it a wavy disc look and provided more structure for the piece.  Frequently I would also glue a fake feather or lace in the pinched together spot in the middle and that would help to hold them up into the air.  Each one of these FASCINATORS ended up looking totally unique and completely individual.  It worked wonderfully with the costume guidelines that were send out for each child to bring an outfit in greens and black. We got some diverse outfits but were able to find a head piece to go with each one.  Helping to unify the whole ensemble. 


CLIPS
I found some great, large and strong hair clips from the .99 cent store as well and they came 3 to a pack.  They were strong enough that I was able to clip them into everyone's hair, whether thick, thin, curly, straight, up and down.  It was helpful cause everyone had at least one costume change and they were easy for the kids to put in themselves and then I could adjust them if needed. 






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