My girls are obsessed with Mary Poppins. More than Frozen. More than any other show or movie. “Cream of the crop, tip of the top, it’s Mary Poppins and there we stop!” This made Halloween costumes an easy decision around here this year. Initially, I was going to dress Etta like Bert the chimney sweep, but what little girl wants to be Bert? Two Marys are better than one, anyway.
I took a couple of Dan’s old t-shirts from the donate pile and cut them off below the arms to make simple elastic-waisted skirts. It worked extremely well, and of course, it didn’t cost anything but time. For Elise, I took a women’s blazer I found at Goodwill for practically nothing and did a hack sewing job, taking in the sides and shortening the sleeves. Definitely some pretty horrifying stitches, but it worked. Etta’s jacket was a fleece coat we already had. I just rolled up the too-long sleeves.
Etta’s hat was from Goodwill and originally looked like a watermelon (um, yeah), so I painted it black before decorating them both with flowers and berries from the craft store. Elise’s bag was also a Goodwill find. Not a true carpetbag, but the size was manageable for her to carry around all night.
I was wondering if anyone would realize who they were supposed to be. After all, the movie is 50+ years old. But a lot of people recognized Mary right away (and I think the hat with the wonky flower in particular), which was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.