Homecoming Mum - Texas Style

In my last blog post, I mentioned that Homecoming week was coming up at my son's school (it was last week).  Therefore, it was my responsibility to make (or buy) a homecoming mum for his lovely date that he had asked to the Homecoming dance.  He's only a freshman and this was his first time to ask a girl to be his date.  It was a very nerve wracking time.  Her name is Claire.

In my quest to find instructions and ideas on the internet on how to make a mum, I discovered that not everyone celebrates Homecoming week or wear huge, giant mums on their chest.  Apparently, it's a Texas thing though I did discover that a few other states do it too like Oklahoma, Louisiana and I think Arkansas.  I had no idea that this wasn't something that everyone did.  I grew up in Texas and I never really thought about what other states did for Homecoming.

Anyhoo, in Texas the girls wear mums bigger than their heads (usually given to them by their dates or by their parents) and the boys wear garters on their arms that are a smaller version of the girls (given to them by their dates as well).
So, I thought, I'm crafty.  I can make the mum.  And so I did.  And it turned out WAY better than I thought it would.  I didn't make one of the giant ones - it wasn't bigger than her head.  It was about the same size as her head (lol).  Some of the mums are so big and heavy that they have to be worn with a ribbon around their necks instead of pinned to their shirts.  Some have 12 or 15 flowers on them and they light up.  Can you believe it?  I just thought it was nuts.

I was determined to make a normal size tasteful mum.  So, I set out to Hobby Lobby and proceeded to buy one or two of everything they had in the mum making department.  I have enough stuff left over that I can make one for next year.  I think I might have over bought, eh?  HaHa
Here are the up close and personal pictures of the finished product.
 

 My dear friend Robyn who is a veteran mum maker, told me to be sure and shop the scrapbooking sections and the Christmas department for anything that I could use.  Lots of times it's cheaper in those areas than in the mum making section.  I got the green sparkly ribbon in the Christmas area and then wrapped it around the white ribbon.  I also got the sparkly C in scrapbooking.  (thanks Robyn for all your great tips!!)

 Sparkly silver footballs. 
Some people make the mums out of other colors like maybe the girl's favorite color or they use a theme or something.  Since this was my first time, I just stuck to the school colors of green and white.  Also, it's very popular to attach a stuffed animal into the center of the flower.  I thought her initial was prettier and classier.

 The white ribbon says "class of 2017" and I made the green and white loopy ribbon and spelled out Homecoming 2013 in silver sparkly letters.  You can see some of the trinkets that are attached in this picture. 

 Lots more trinkets, lots of ribbon.  I used silver glitter jingle bells from the Christmas dept.

 I hand applied this silver scrollwork to the white ribbon one Friday night while my DH and son were at a football game.

 The green ribbon has silver letters that spell out "Claire" with glitter stars and footballs.

And here is the whole end product.  It was about 3 1/2 feet long and was a lot heavier than I thought it would be.  I finally just had to make myself stop adding things to it.  

This is my son's garter which Claire gave to him.  The tradition is for the boy and girl to wear their mums at school all day on Friday and then to the football game that night.  The homecoming dance was on Saturday and they don't wear them to the dance.  

It was such a fun week for the kids and I'm so glad a good time was had by all.  AND, the football team won their homecoming game which just made everyone more festive.

And that, my friend, is how you make a homecoming mum in Texas.  :)

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