Easy costume ideas: 4 year old wants to be a car.

October 20, 2015 9:43 PM

My son wants to be "The King" from the movie Cars. I can't find any pre-made costumes for this guy. I'm not crafty. How?

I'm not crafty at all. I have no idea how to make something that would work. Painting eyeballs and numbers on a blue shirt is the best I've got.
One stipulation -- I really don't want to go the route of him having to lug boxes around. He's little and will tire easily. Ideally we're talking something that's mostly just clothing. Like this apron is wonderful and probably meets the requirements of "being" King but I wouldn't even know where to start.
Looking for any and all ideas, the easier the better!

posted by rouftop to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (9 answers total)

Whatever you end up doing, he obviously needs a spoiler. I'm guessing you could cut one out of a cardboard and attach it to the apron somehow?

Also come up with a way to get the number 43 on the side, and some racy looking logos and such.

Could you incorporate tires/wheels somehow?
posted by Sara C. at 10:11 PM on October 20, 2015

If you can find an outfit that's the right shade of blue, maybe you could use printable iron on paper to do the eyes, mouth, Dino logo, etc. could be like the apron or shirt and pants, and maybe matching shoes.

Or better than the shoes, get two of these wheels and, um, tie them to his ankles.

Or wheelie shoes, so he can move like a car.
posted by pennypiper at 10:26 PM on October 20, 2015

Response by poster: Printable iron on paper... very interesting! I had no idea that even was a thing.
posted by rouftop at 10:45 PM on October 20, 2015

I think you should paint his face blue (with matching clothes) and make him a tie on mask that looks just like the his windshield w/ eyes giving his sidelong glance. That will make him feel like the character. With the sides painted to match his face- so it's windshield shape w/ eyes!
And then just get some 43s and stick them on his sides and back.
The mask is key!
posted by TenaciousB at 11:02 PM on October 20, 2015

I would buy a blue apron (like this one but the right shade of blue.) Then I would print this logo on iron-on paper. Then I would buy white and black felt and cut out the eyes and mouth.

Pin everything where you want it on the apron so you have many chances to fix mistakes. Then use fabric glue to glue the eyes and mouth down by unpinning one bit of each piece while it is place, gluing it, and then gluing the rest when the first bit is dry. Then get out your iron for the logo.

For the spoiler, I'd get a narrow box (like from a case of wine) and cut it down to 5 or 6 inches high and spray paint it the right blue. You can literally duct tape it to his shirt so it's flat against him in the front and sticks out the back; nobody will see the duct tape under the apron!
posted by DarlingBri at 12:00 AM on October 21, 2015

Are you sure you can't use even one itty-bitty box? Because it looks like the quickest, easiest way to get a good Cars costume. Just one box, like maybe a standard moving box with little suspender straps to hold it on? (I'd definitely use the straps, because otherwise I can see how fumbling to hold a box up all night could tire a li'l feller out.)
posted by Ursula Hitler at 1:20 AM on October 21, 2015

If you dress a tricycle or wagon in boxes shaped/painted like a car, he could in it, get out whenever he was sick of it, and it could be pulled, not carried.
posted by jessicapierce at 12:42 PM on October 21, 2015

My go to is Tshirts from Salvation army and a glue gun and cut out felt. One large tshirt (the king's color). You can make tires out of felt and glue to "corners" at the bottom of the shirt.
I would make eyes out of felt and glue on shirt the shirt.

Black pants from salvation army with yellow stripes (like the road) is what I would do for the pants.
posted by ReluctantViking at 12:47 PM on October 21, 2015

So for my oldest son's 2 or 3rd birthday, he demanded to be a firetruck. I made one out of a cardboard box, which I know you said you didn't want to do because you were worried about him tiring out. But I just wanted to point out that my kid didn't find it tiring at all because it really wasn't much weight and I just hot glued some elastic straps to the box so it just sat on his shoulders and he didn't have to think about it at all. It was a really big box too (so much he kept getting stuck on stairs), so if you went with just a small box, it can stick out a bit but be really thin, I doubt your kid would notice it any more than regular clothes. Just for perspective.
posted by katers890 at 6:04 AM on October 22, 2015