Those days are over at my house.
My kid has been climbing and running and falling down in some of her clothes for two years now and they are full of holes. This past week I've found holes in three pairs of pants, two shirts, a dress, and a pair of shoes.
You know what that means.
Time to get all Incredible Hulk and let her rip them off her tiny muscular body and bedazzle them!
We busted out the scissors, glitter glue, and googly eyes to make some fancy ripped up clothes with monster faces. I can't describe the fantastic dances that were inspired by the fluttering sleeves and exposed legs. It was a whirlwind!
Age: 3+ depending on how fancy you want the end product. I don't mind if mine end up in the trash tomorrow. What the heck, let the almost-2 year olds play, too!
Time: about half an hour plus time to dry the glue overnight.
Cleanup: pretty easy, about 5 minutes to wipe up the glue and wash hands.
What you need:
- Old clothes or shoes, the more stains and holes the better
- Scissors
- Glitter glue, acrylic paint or permanent markers
- Paint brush or cotton swabs
- Googly eyes
- Privacy so your kid can strip off the clothes to paint after cutting them up
1) It feels incredibly naughty and fun to rip up your own clothes (you will have to decide for yourself if your kid is capable of restraining herself from ripping up clothes you don't intend to turn into monster dancing apparel. My kid is pretty trustworthy. Famous last words, right?)
2) I hate throwing away anything that might possibly ever maybe sort of have a useful crafty afterlife. I don't mind throwing away finished preschooler craft projects.
3) It was a great craft to do before bedtime so we could let the clothes dry undisturbed overnight.
Step 1:
Cut and rip up the old clothes. It's particularly exciting to rip the clothes starting at the holes instead of using scissors. But scissors add extra danger and excitement. For heaven's sake don't give your kid pointy scissors to use next to their skin! This calls for blunt tips.
Make sure you rip at least one sleeve or leg up the side so it flutters around when they're dancing later.
Step 2:
Take off the clothes and start decorating! My kid decorated the bejezus out of the inside of her shoe and filled it with glitter glue and googly eyes. Cute and sparkly, but not very comfortable to walk on. Plus I had to hide my chagrin at seeing our entire supply of googly eyes covered in glue so I started plopping pairs of them on the old clothes. Then I added a mouth. And some eyelashes. And some eyebrows. Then my kid started adding mouths. And eyelashes. And noses. And big globs of pink glitter that she said looked just like brains (they really did!) And big globs of blue that somehow ended up in her hair...
Use the paint brush or cotton swabs to thin out the thickest globs of glue if you want it to dry quickly. Leave the brain shaped globs if you have a full 24 hours or more to let it dry.
Step 4:
Put the clothes back on and dance, dance, dance.
A Brief History of Dance Clothing to Present Day The History of Dance Clothing would have to begin with the pre-historic cavemen whose remains have been excavated holding objects made of wood and even metal that one can presume to have been used by the caveman or woman in dance. Drawings on caves are still vividly alive to the ritual clothing used by cavemen (used to denote both sexes) in appeasing the gods of fire and water, the sun and hunting exploits .
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