Santa's Sweatshop

My kids have gone to the best preschool in the world. Fantastic teachers with a can-do attitude who create an atmosphere of quality learning that is fun. Each year they put together an adorable Christmas concert, and this year they decided that the kids should be in costume.

Sixty-seven kids.

That's a lot of costumes, just to clarify. And we had 3 weeks to make it happen. And a budget of...as cheap as humanly possible.

Did I mention I was the only volunteer able to sew?

Luckily, many of the costumes were a simple "brown shirt + brown pants + dollar store antlers = reindeer" or elf, etc. Some things could also be done by glue gun. That left me 7 costumes that needed sewing.

The first mission, should I choose to accept it, was to create 4 pint-sized Santa costumes from this:
a red felt sack for the dollar store.

With a few buttons, some additional white, black and gold felt, and a little Christmas magic, I came up with this:
Modelled here by The Middle Child (who has been wearing a Santa hat all week but today of course it could not be found):
I basically hacked that bag into bits and put it back together to make pants and a top. Even the bag's drawstring was reused for the pants, and the lining in the bottom of the bag happened to be gold felt, so I didn't have to buy any. Total cost per costume: approx $4! Hats and beards were available at the dollar store and will be added.
(I can't fold. I need training at The Gap.)

Now, off to try and make 3 nutcracker costumes....any ideas? I was given red short-sleeved polo t-shirts to work with and I am not feelin' it. I need them done by Thursday!!