Halloween Costumes 2012

This year has been, and still is, manic. We really couldn't go in for any costumes that take a lot of time and planning. Mr Bogert has been on a bunch of foreign trips including New York and Canada this last week and just missed Hurricane Sandy. We're thinking about all those who were caught up in or affected by the superstorm, including our lovely New York friends.

I have been catching up on my course reading and activities after a horrible bug that followed on from the Smaller Person's birthday. It totally wiped me out, even when I was feeling better, I was just left really weak. Not a happy time. So I have had extension on three assignments and the new deadlines were all this week. Two have gone off into the ether to be marked, the other I just didn't have enough time, so I have made the decision not to submit. It will affect my grade, but I can't afford to fall any further behind.

So, as you can see, busy busy.

The Smaller Person recycled his sisters Pirate costume from her 4th birthday.

 

He wore his own dark blue trousers and white top, and the jacket and pirate hat from her old costume (which was a little big, but not enough to drown the poor boy). I bought a plastic pirate sword from the discount store and drew a moustache and beardy bit with my black liquid eyeliner. I tied a piece of blue fabric around his waist as a sash, and you can't see it in the photos from the actual night, but he also wore his little blue felt waistcoat that I made when he dressed up as Toad from Mario for his very first Christmas. I am amazed it fit!

The final finishing touch was the 'jabot'. I borrowed a lace edged plain hankie from my nan, folded about 1/3 of the way down (so you now have a longer flap showing below a shorter flap), I sewed a running stitch all the way across the top of the fold and pulled to gather, fixed with a couple of tacking stitches in the end and tied off. This was pinned in place with a safety pin.

He loved being a pirate and this took very little time to pull together. We were lucky enough to have the hat and jacket already, but if you don't, the hat can be substitued by a fabric bandana tied around the head, and a short waistcoat over a plain t-shirt will do just fine. If you have older clothes that can be cut, cutting zig-zags along the hem of the trousers works well. Then hold it all together with a fabric sash or scarf.

The Small Person was easier than you think to put together. She wore her own red leggings and long sleeved red t-shirt.

The skirt is made from 2.5 pieces of green felt, folded in half over a length of green bias binding (because that's what I had, ribbon would work fine) and stitched in place with a running stitch.

A slit is cut up the centre of each piece of felt as far as the stitching, so you are left with 5 flaps. If your child is bigger, use 3 full pieces of felt and you will finish with 6 flaps.

She is wearing my thick white gloves which have a cartoony look because they are so big. I bought a plain white 'velvet' mask from Wilkinsons. I tied the elastic in place and had the Small Person try it on so that I could draw Marvin's eyes in place with pencil.

Once they were drawn, I coloured the entire area with black marker. This covered the area without losing the velvet feel.

Mr Bogert was the master helmet and laster gun creator. The laser gun was made first from an empty cereal box, some corrugated card and a sheet of rolled up card. It was all stuck together with lots of masking tape.

 

He followed an image online to give him some sort of idea. He began spraying the whole thing with gold spray paint, but unfortunately the can ran out before he covered one of the sides. I finished it on Halloween afternoon by glueing gold tissue paper to the parts that were still to be covered.

The helmet began with strips of thin card, one around the whole head (like a crown) then cross pieces to form the crown of the helmet, again taped with masking tape.

The visor was cut from corrugated card and the ear flaps (technical name?) from more thin card.

Mr Bogert rolled a thin piece of card for the spike on top, and originally taped a small brush to it, but it didn't hold (too heavy). He began painting the whole thing with the only green paint we had: this awful watery green poster paint in a paint pen. As you can imagine,  the coverage wasn't great, so I covered the whole thing with green tissue paper today after I finished the laser gun.

I also made a block from gold card and stuck this in place on top of the spike. It had to be dried on the radiator to be dry enough to wear for trick or treating, but we did it - and I think she look fab!

I wanted to paint the skin around her eyes with white face paint so that her skin wouldn't show through the eye holes, but I couldn't find it, but you can imagine how it would have looked if I had!

We had a great time, and I've promised that next year, because I wont be as study heavy, they can pick something more complicated and time consuming and I will make it! This time next year I'll be cursing hasty promises ;D

It's our Village bonfire tomorrow night and we're all looking forward to Guy Fawkes night here in the UK. I hope if you're in the UK you've got something fun planned!