Halloween is just around the corner! Have I mentioned before that I LOVE Fall? ‘Cause I do LOVE Fall!
I don’t really care one way or another about Halloween – I’m not super into black and orange decor, but I do enjoy costumes! I enjoy getting creative and making unique costumes the kids can play with all year (after Halloween).
Max Steele and Gecko Halloween 2016
Obviously you can sew costumes – there are hundreds of costume patterns out on the market. I’ve even seen certain chain fabric stores stock entire collections of fabric just for costumes.
But you can also make amazing costumes with unconventional materials – or just plain old boxes!
Last year, Todd wanted to be a Minecraft creeper. So we got a few boxes and A LOT of duct tape of many colors.
I started by finding the right size boxes, cut a hole large enough to get the box over his head, then cut a hole so he could see. This hole ended up being the mouth of the creeper that I covered from the inside with a piece of an old pair of black nylons. Then started a random pattern of squares using duct tape to make the grid. I cut the tape with an exact knife and a quilting ruler (to make sure my cuts were straight). The hardest part was making the color pattern random… I really wanted there to be a pattern!
Then I found the body sized box and used two shoe boxes on the front as the “legs.” I used a dark green paint for the dark green squares, as I couldn’t find a tape in that color, but the rest is duct tape. So much duct tape.
He loved it – still does! It lives on a shelf in the garage and he plays with it from time to time. One day it will get destroyed, but he’ll have had a ton of fun in the meantime.
This year Todd has decided he’d like to be “Bee Bop” the robot from a podcast called “The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian” by Jonathan Messenger. Since this is an audio story, not a book or a tv program, Todd had to draw me a picture of what he thinks Bee Bop looks like. And the result is pretty amazing.
We’ve started working on this special robot costume (I even bought some cool LED lights I found on clearance at Craft Warehouse) and I can’t wait to see the end product. I have to get this one done soon, because Scott is really challenging my costume skills this year… he wants to be Teen Titan’s Go Blue Beetle!
Wish me luck! This is going to take me to a whole new level of cosplay skills. I think there may even be some EVA foam work involved for the wings. Thank goodness for youtube tutorials!
What are you dressing up as this year? Do you have any favorite costumes you remember from your childhood?
