Sunday, April 15, 2012

How to make a Teabag Outfit (for a T Dress-up Party)

Last night I went to a dress up party where the theme was to dress up as something starting with the letter T to celebrate Tammy's birthday. Since this lined up with the day my hair went pink, I decided to go as (strawberry) Teabag. I thought I'd document the making-of the giant teabag costume in case for some strange reason someone else might want/need to make one!

I started off by looking at an actual teabag, and decided that it would be fun to recreate a giant realistic version. I took a look at how the material made up the teabag, and thought it would be quite easy to make out of crepe paper.

Firstly I laid out 4 large pieces of thin white tissue paper, and sticky taped them together:
4 Sheets of Crepe Paper

I made two folds parallel to the longest edge of the giant rectangle so that the ends met each other forming a tube of crepe paper, then I sticky taped the two edges together:
Folded in Half

Folding the giant tube in half gives the two "compartments" of the teabag:
And in Half Again

I used a piece of cardboard to make the bottom flat:
With a Cardboard Base

Scrunched up pieces of pink crepe paper made up the "tea" filling:
Crepe Paper "Tea"

I split the "tea" in half and filled up each of the sides of the teabag:
Filled up with Tea

The top of the teabag is made by folding each corner in, and then folding the centre over itself. I used quite a bit of sticky tape (and help from my mum!) for this part:
Foldy Over thing at the Top

The whole contraption hung around my neck via a long piece of twine that was stapled to the teabag in two places. On the end of the twine, I tied the teabag "tag", which I made by laminating a pink A4 piece of paper folded in half. I made the design on the tag myself using the real lipton logo and some random pictures of strawberries:
Stapling on the String and Tag


And that's it!
Teabag Costume!

Needless to say, I was the only Teabag at the party! There were so many clever outfits, including Tomb Raider (Tammy!), Topless waitress, Teacher's Pet, Toy solider, Teenage mutant ninja turtle, Traffic lights, Terence (from Terence and Philip), Tweedle Dee, a Tourist, and so many more. I love dress up parties!
Dressed as things starting with T

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi !
I had this crazy dream, where I was going to a party and everyone was dressed up in "tea", really weird. And my friends decided to throw a party where the theme is "Tea and cie". So I looked everywhere to find a idea, and here I am !
What you did, is really beautiful and clever, so I was thinking to do the same as you !
I just have one question, on your 4th step, when you put the cardboard piece, where do you put it exactly. Is there 2 little cardboards in both compartments ? Or did you stapled it "outside" and below the 2 compartments ?
I really hope you could help me !
And I'm sorry for my english. I'm a french girl, and I don't speak a fluent english, but I hope you'll understand me, and answer !
Thanks again
Caroline

Unknown said...

Hi !
I had this crazy dream, where I was going to a party and everyone was dressed up in "tea", really weird. And my friends decided to throw a party where the theme is "Tea and cie". So I looked everywhere to find a idea, and here I am !
What you did, is really beautiful and clever, so I was thinking to do the same as you !
I just have one question, on your 4th step, when you put the cardboard piece, where do you put it exactly. Is there 2 little cardboards in both compartments ? Or did you stapled it "outside" and below the 2 compartments ?
I really hope you could help me !
And I'm sorry for my english. I'm a french girl, and I don't speak a fluent english, but I hope you'll understand me, and answer !
Thanks again
Caroline

Jess Manea said...

Bonjour Caroline, sorry for the delayed answer, hope it's still in time!

It was one large carboard piece on the inside of the paper tube to keep the bottom of the "teabag" flat.

I didn't attach it at all, I just made sure it was a good size and slid it in half way, then bent the tube of paper up on either side around it.

So in that picture with the carboard next to the tube, the next step was to just slide it inside until it's half way.

Really hope that helps, and good luck!

Unknown said...

Totally still in time, actually the party will be in February 2013, so I have plenty of time !
Thank you for your answer, it's so nice of you !
I didn't understand the carboard piece wasn't attach, but now you're saying it, it was kind of obvious !
So, thank you for your explanations !
I decided to go as Green Tea (I have green neon false eyelashes that i'm looking forward to tryin' on !)
If you want, I'll try to send you some pictures of the party !
Maybe I'll see you around if you ever decide to come to visit Paris !
Caroline

Jess Manea said...

Yay I'm glad it's in time! I would love to see pictures of the party, you'll have to send them through :)