Fantasia Dancing Mushroom Costume by aelthwyn

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For Halloween this year Mark was feeling apathetic because he couldn't come up with a good costume idea he could make in time. So to surprise him, the night before I got this idea to turn the hat you see here : into a Mushroom cap based on the Chinese Dancing Mushrooms from Disney's Fantasia. He was so thrilled and had a great time pretending to be a mushroom as we went around trick-or-treating with my cousin's kids at the mall - he was a big hit, hehe

Since the dancing mushrooms in Fantasia look oriental (since the song accompanying that scene is the Chinese dance from the Nutcracker) I tried to put together a white outfit with an oriental feel using a couple of different robes we already had, and a broad white sash aound the waist - which you can't really see in this photo. I chose a white skirt of mine instead of white pants because it would look more like the single stalk of a mushoom. I braided his hair down the back since you can occasionally see what looks like a little black braid or ponytail on the Fantasia mushrooms.

For the hat, I made a cover for the large basket hat Mark has out of some slightly stretchy reddish-orange microsuede stuff I had. I just cut a circle and put elastic in the hem so it can easily be taken on and off the hat. Using clear fishing line I sewed a bunch of large clear plastic beads on top for the dewdrops which the mushrooms shake off their heads at the begining of the dance in the movie. Underneath the hat I used some sheer tan fabric wrinkled and gathered to make the mushroom gills.

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