I’m not sure if you’ve noticed or not, but I LOVE making costumes for the kid.  So far, the biggest, most in-depth one was Furiosa  to go with my Immortan Mama, which we took to a convention to properly walk it around.

But Halloween is always tricky.  When she was old enough to choose herself (age three?), the first costume she ever asked for was Max from Where the Wild Things Are.  So I found a pattern and lovingly worked on the costume for over a month or so (I had never made a full body jumpsuit before), and then the week before Halloween she said, “Well, maybe I just want to be a bee.”  Um…no, kid.  It’s too late–you’re Max.  Hahah!  And so she was Max, and she had fun, and all was right with the world.   So I always ask her to REEEEALLY think about it.  And then I give myself plenty of time to start.  And once she decides, there’s no changing.

The next year, I used cardboard, paper clay, knee pads, and gold spray paint to turn her into her favorite droid, C-3PO, and it was WAY cool.  Then she learned about Falcon from the X-men, and freaked when she saw the pre-made costume in the store…so I decided to compromise (because it was on sale), and let her wear it to a convention we were going to near the end of October  (Even though I reeeeeeeally wanted her to wear the C-3PO I worked so hard on).  But Halloween, she was all droid.

The following year, she was all about teenage Nightcrawler from the cartoon Xmen Evolution, and I threw together a little 3-fingered and 3-toed costume for her.  I glued simple blue ears to some hair clips and clipped them into the wig.  I used red duct tape over cardboard and flip-flops for the boots, and I just traced around her hand and sewed a simple shape for the 3-fingered gloves.

Last year, she was Pokemon-obsessed.  Well, more like James from Team Rocket-obsessed, and dressed as him.  I used her old karate uniform, her rain boots, and a purple wig, and sewed her a simple Meowth doll with a painted face.  Simple, but so much fun!

This year, she’s been all about the Giant King.  We’ve seen the movie a million times–it’s a foreign film dubbed in English, and she’s in love with the big green robot Zork (which she insists on calling “Zorp”).

I let her think about it for months, and she settled on him for Halloween.  No matter what came and went, she still chose “Zorp.”  She even finally saw all the Harry Potter movies, and said she wished she could dress up as Harry some time at a convention or something, but she still insisted on “Zorp,” and he is her Halloween pick no matter what.  “Maybe we can save Harry Potter for my birthday,” she said. (Oooooh, YES.)

So I got started by raiding our cardboard from the recycling bin, and roughing out a chest piece shape with masking tape and hot glue.  Looking back, I could’ve probably done without the masking tape and just used the hot glue, but–live and learn.

Then I built the head like a little hat, and sprayed it with green spray paint, and adding details in acrylic paint.

I painted up the details on the chest.  The chest piece just slips over her head, and the headpiece has a bit of liner inside it to cushion her head a bit.

And finally, the arm pieces:  The husband picked up one of those accordion-style dryer vent hoses, and I spray painted them green.  I also had her try on the chest piece again (I’ve learned that it’s super HARD to get my kid to try on and size things!), and had to add some cardboard to the neck hole so it didn’t fall off her shoulders.  The tricky part will be attaching the vent hose “sleeves” to the chest piece so they don’t just slide off her arms.  I haven’t figured that part out yet (it will most likely involve a lot of duct tape), but I’ll figure it out in the next couple of days!

She’s so excited!  So yeah, she’s probably spoiled with custom-made costumes, but I really do love making them, so it’s a lot of fun for me, too.  I always think of it as a fun challenge to see what I can come up with to make it work.  It’s a great way to keep the creativity flowing, and make something unique and fun!  But really–whether you’ve got a store-bought or homemade costume, the whole point of the thing is FUN.  It’s gotta be fun for everyone, right?

Myla asked me what I’d be, and I told her I’d probably just paint my face, robot-style.  That’ll be fun.  So keep an eye out on Facebook and Instagram for a Halloween update.  And have some good, clean, safe fun out there!!!  Happy Halloween!

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