When I was in New York a few weeks ago, my friend Sara Clifton was telling me about her daughter Lucca's request to be a gumball machine for Halloween. Sara had no idea how to turn her daughter into a gumball machine, but Lucca was adamant, and I was not offering any helpful advice (balloons? a plastic bag?).
Here is her brilliant solution:
1. Make a red skirt.
2. Add gumball machine components (like a coin plate, knob and hole) made from felt.
3. Buy a couple plastic bowls and plate from the dollar store. You'll need one large clear bowl to make the gumball bowl, one plate with the same diameter as the large bowl, and one smaller bowl.
4. Hot glue the small bowl to the center of the plate. This will help eat up some of the space in the large bowl, so you don't have to fill the entire thing with gumballs (which would be too heavy for a little girl to wear).
5. Fill the larger clear bowl halfway with gumballs, and then press the plate (now glued to the small bowl) on top like a lid. Hot glue them together.
6. Glue some red ribbon around the bowl and attach ribbon to help support the weight of the bowl.
7. Add a red beanie for the lid of the gumball machine.
As you can see, Lucca was quite pleased with the final result. Hooray for handmade costumes! (And thank you to Sara, for sharing her how to with us.)