Mayor of Munchkinland

 {The Wizard of Oz}

Or maybe the title of this blog post should be 'how not to change the color of a brown top hat'... last month my oldest son performed in The Wizard of Oz musical. He was the mayor of Munchkinland as well as a couple of other characters. I had the opportunity to help out with costumes (sew & go shopping) which was a fun experience for me...

So he was in need of a large blue bow tie (what he's wearing in the above photo ~ I followed this tutorial) and a blue top hat... did you know that the Munchkin's favorite color is blue? I didn't.

 I bought this brown top hat & some blue fabric spray paint, thinking it would be a really quick & easy project to change the color of the hat from brown to blue, BUT the hat is a dark color (brown) & made of polyester & you're suppose to use the fabric spray paint on light colored cotton. With the results not being good, I had to come up with Plan B which was to cover it in the same blue fabric as the bow tie. I cut out some simple shapes & started sewing the fabric together while it was still on the hat !   It's like a slipcover for a hat, but not removable.
(sorry for the bad quality photos ~ I was working on this at night & had to use flash)

In the end it worked out, a nice bright blue hat that showed up well on stage, I think the Munchkins were happy with their mayor :)

See you tomorrow for more Wizard of Oz costumes...