A DIY picnic table costume + an homage to my creative Mom!

This month is an homage to a costume that my Mom had made when I was in high school. I was trying out for the varsity hockey team my Freshman year and didn’t have my license to drive myself yet. So, my Mom came to pick me up on the last day of try-outs, which happened to be Halloween. I came out of the ice rink, sweaty and tired only to look up and see MY MOM walking towards me wearing a picnic-table costume complete with a can of sprite and blue plastic cup hot glued to a hat! Um. What?! 

Yup! You heard that right. A vulnerable freshman, trying out for her first varsity sport and this is what happens amongst all of the “cool” upperclassman. Oy!

She’s flailing her arms, as if I didn’t notice her, yelling “DID YA MAKE THE TEAMMMM???  EM! EM!? DID YA?!?!”
I think I turned 90 shade of red and dramatically motioned for her to get back in the car. I’m sure I was yelling through clenched teeth “MOMMMMMMMM. WHAT ON EARTH?! Get in the car. Please. Just. No. Please, get in the carrrrrrrrr!!!!”

I have to admit that, now in retrospect, that I am enamored with how bold and “JILL” my Mom was. She worked in a law-office for crying out loud and she dressed up EVERY. SINGLE. HALLOWEEN!!!! She loved the imagination of Halloween and she instilled it in me! It didn’t matter how old she was, Halloween was the one day she was allowed to be a kid and dress up along with them. So, without further adooooooo, here is this month’s picnic table costume re-creation, because I aspire to have your boldness and creativity and quirkiness Mom (even if it embarrassed me in high school)! 🙂 

And there is also a comparison to my Mom wearing her version! 🙂 Now, if only I could have find that ant tablecloth fabric! 🙂 

Basically, I bought 2 yards of picnic table/red and white checked gingham fabric and made a version of a t-shirt dress out of the fabric. I modeled the bodice of the dress after a t-shirt that fit me well and then just “belled out” the skirt portion to make a simple dress. The whole dress took about 40 minutes to cut and sew (and now I’m convinced that I want to make a few of these out of jersey fabric for next summer, I mean….how cute, right?!) 🙂