(If you really want to, you can sew them on.) While your glue gun is heating, space out your buttons evenly. Now to add the buttons! This is a no-sew project, so you will use hot glue to add your buttons.I didn’t have gold buttons, so I painted some plastic buttons with gold and a touch of black paint. This was a pain and I recommend just using a neutral color t-shirt. Since I didn’t use a neutral color t-shirt, I added some black fabric to the back.I had him try it on several times and made adjustments as necessary. I also used Lil’ Man’s Haunted Mansion Butler vest as a template for sizing. I used this DIY t-shirt vest tutorial from Clarks Condensed to make the base of the Hatter’s vest.
The one perk of my laziness is that I can demonstrate how to make a great looking vest for those who are without the ability to sew. If I’m being honest, I could have lugged out the sewing machine to put this together, but I just didn’t feel like it. We chose a fabric similar to this crushed panne velvet for the front of the vest. I wanted Lil’ Man’s costume to look outrageous, yet elegant.
In her novel, we meet the Hatter before he has gone mad and we see that his creations are not only flamboyant, but somewhat magical for the wearer. Some of my inspiration for his look was drawn from Marissa Meyer’s Heartless, a book written as a prequel to Lewis Carroll’s original story. While I know he wanted to look exactly like the Mad Hatter he met at 1900 Park Fare, he is quite happy with what we pulled together from items around the house.
In the end, I just needed to make him the vest and the outrageous bow. We are reusing the white collared shirt and dress shoes from his Haunted Mansion Butler costume. I was relieved to discover a tweed blazer from last year still fit Lil’ Man (I always buy the next size up for him when purchasing clothes). While we were able to purchase the Mad Hatter hat, I had to figure out how I was going to put the rest of the costume together without breaking the bank. The Mad Hatter was a lot of fun, and he wasn’t as rushed as some of the other characters you meet at Disney’s character buffets. Lil’ Man just loved meeting the Mad Hatter at the Grand Floridian’s 1900 Park Fare, so I’m not surprised he ended up choosing to be him for Halloween (although Pokemon’s Ash Ketchum was a close second). It dawned on me at that moment as well that I would be DIYing a kid’s Mad Hatter costume that afternoon. Then Lil’ Man saw the Mad Hatter hat, and he knew right then what he wanted to be for Halloween. There were a couple of Toy Story and Peter Pan costumes, but the stock was pretty thin and nothing in his size was available. Not all little boys want to be super heroes or stormtroopers. We headed straight to the Disney Store where his options were somewhat limited. This last weekend I took him down to the mall to look for another costume. It’s just my luck that Lil’ Man decided to have a growth spurt the month of September and outgrow his Haunted Mansion Butler costume that he wore to Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party.