Mardi Gras Costumes: DIY Craft Ideas

One of the most fun of the Mardi Gras costumes in the court jester, mainly because it is suitable for everyone, male and female, young and old. You can make your whole family jesters. And you can personalize it too. You can be a good Court Jester, or a bad Court Jester. And it is one of the Mardi Gras Costumes that does not have to be tailored to fit. As a matter of fact, the looser the better.

To make it authentic Mardi Gras costumes, you need to incorporate the three colors of Mardi Gras, purple, gold and green. You will need to make a tunic that will be worn over slacks. The tunic will come down to about the knees, so any pair of black slacks will do. Elastic jeans or leggings are great.

Now go shopping, but at a discount store. You need to look for a long sleeve, pull over top in one of the three colors. If necessary, get a size bigger to make it come to the knees. The next step is to get a piece of fabric in one of the other colors. Get enough to cover half of the top. Getting the picture now? Also get a small amount of fabric in the third color. This will be used to make the collar.

Now you have to get creative. If you have a fabric board for cutting out patterns, great. If not, work on a hard surface like a card table. Measure half of the tunic and cut the fabric to fit. You can either sew it in place, or use double sided tape. To hide where the two colors come together, sew on large circles from the third color where the colors meet. They will look like large buttons. You now have a two colored tunic. The collar is easy. Lay out the fabric and use dressmakers chalk and a ruler to make V shapes like this VVVVVVV or as many as you need to go all around. Cut them out making sure to keep the V's connected at the points. To really make them fancy, you can attach small pom poms in the other two colors at the point of each one. Good craft or fabric glue will do. So the collar around the neck and the top is done.

For the hat, lay out a piece of fabric and cut out a large triangle. Sew the sides together to fit your head. You can decorate it with circles cut from the other two colors and put a pom pom on the point.

The one thing about Mardi Gras costumes is that anything, and I do mean anything, goes. Use you imagination and embellish it up any way you want to. Carry a bag full of tricks, a jesters staff, or if you happen to know how to juggle, put on a show. Just have fun knowing that you will have one of the most unique of the Mardi Gras Costumes.