Spine Chilling Chia Pet Costume

This year for Halloween, we are offering a Special Limited Edition Macabre Spine Ch-Ch-Ch-Chilling Chia Pet!  Comes complete with creepy crawlies and entangling spider webs! We recommend minimal watering to further the weed-ish deteriorated look.  Fun for the whole family! Be the first on your block to be plagued with chiggers! Call within the next 5 minutes and we will throw in an extra stink bug!
But wait...... there's more! 

So, here is the Halloween costume I came up with for Ellie this year.  I saw a Chia Pet costume online and thought it was adorable. But then, without warning,  my mind became possessed by the demented spirits of Halloween and something a little more dark and eerie was produced.

I made the costume primarily from items bought at the Dollar Tree (not all pictured below):  green woven fabric place-mat, floral moss, plastic bugs, and spider webbing. 

I did not take pictures during the process of making the costume because I didn't know if it would turn out.  Last thing I need is a bunch of photos of failure and constant reminders.  However I do still have memory of the process and can share that with you:

I started with a piece of black stretchy fabric that I sewed into a "tube top" to fit Ellie.  I then sewed this to the underside of the fabric place-mat.  I saturated the loose floral moss with mod podge and glued it down to the outer side of the place-mat. After it dried, I loosely attached the longer gray spanish moss all over the fine moss to make the Chia more full looking.  Lastly, I attached bugs and spiderwebs.
(I entered the Chia Pet Costume in dollar store crafts.diy-costume-challenge)

Last year, Ellie's costume came out of the scrap pile....she was a Mortifying Mummy!