SewingSew

I wonder how many of you make costumes? When I was a child, we were lucky if we got a store-bought mask. It was usually up to us to make our own costumes using things we had around the house. FYI, do you know that you can make fake blood using Karo syrup and red food coloring? When my children were young, I usually made most of their costumes. I thought it would be fun to start a thread to share our Halloween costume histories and ideas. I know this board is full of members whose creative talents are not limited to quilting.

My husband and I love to dress up for Halloween. One year we were both nuns. Part of our job was to make out in the corner at the party we were at... We won first place that year. Another year we were Africanized killer bees complete with Afro wigs and a toy machine guns. I bought our wings online. I used a McCall's bee costume pattern and yellow and black fleece and Poly-Fill to make our bee costumes. We went to a party another year where the theme was super heroes. I made myself a Captain Obvious cape. I appliqued a huge yellow O on the front of a red t-shirt and I purchased a captain's hat. My husband was Powdered Toast Man that year. I made a huge piece of toast out of Styrofoam for him to wear on his head and I made him a red pair of underwear with an appliqued T on them. If you want an idea of what it looked like, you can Google it. One year we were Octo-Mom and Octo-Docter. I ordered some big fat red wax lips. I bought some fake long nails from Sally's. I purchased a long black wig and wore a pair of large black sunglasses. I bought 8 baby dolls from the dollar store and I bought a baby sling from Goodwill to store the dolls in. My husband wore a doctor's costume that I bought at Wally World. We won first place that year.

When my daughter was 6 years old, I made her an elaborate costume. It won a first-place blue-ribbon for the town we lived in. She was a trick-or-treating alien. Around that time, I had been involved in "Story-Hour" at the town library. I would read my group of children a book and then we would do a craft project afterwards that was related to the subject of the book. A local company had donated an enormous amount of large sheets of different colors of shiny plastic coated sticky paper that had adhesive on one side. I had a lot of silver paper that looked like shiny chrome. I used a motorcycle helmet and Poly-Fill and purchase a set of antennas from the dollar store. Then I went to work creating an alien head with big pointy ears. I made an alien costume out of green fabric and I created alien hands that had several long fingers with suction cups on the end of each one. I used an old beat-up pair of sneakers and Poly-Fill and the silver sticky paper and my imagination to create a pair of alien feet. Then I went to work creating a flying saucer using cardboard. When it was finished, it had a dashboard with a windshield and a gear shift and lights. It was attached to her using suspenders that I had created. It was lightweight; otherwise it wouldn't have worked out. I purchased a bunch of those luminescent glow-sticks and right before my daughter left for Halloween, I broke them to make them light up and then I hot glued them all around the circumference of her flying saucer. She looked so amazing that people stopped their cars to get a look at her costume.

This is starting to look more like a blog than a thread, and I am out of time, so I'll stop here. I look forward to hearing about some of your costumes.

Tartan

I made all of my children's Halloween costumes. One of best was little Bo Peep complete with bonnet and crocheted spiral curls, a stuffed lamb on a leash and a Shepard's crook. In our area now they don't even allow costumes at school for Halloween. Heavens forbids the kids actually have fun for a day.

AnnieF

I made all of my children's Halloween costumes....my favorite was a tweetie bird costume with the big head...but my daughter wouldn't wear the head so you couldn't really tell what she was. I also made a spider out of a costume fur coat I bought at a thrift store with 8 feet that I connected to the arm so they would raise and lower. Now....I make my grandchildren their costumes until they get too old to dress up. It's the one thing they really love to do...although it's hard on the young ones when we go to the fabric store to pick out fabric....they think the costume is made instantaneous...so it's hard for them to wait. This year my youngest is going to be a Star Wars Ewok and my second youngest is going to be some sort of green horse from Mario Brothers, Yoshi.

lynnie

i live in a condo and we have annual Halloween customs. My husband looks like Fred Flintstone. He let his whiskers grow out, and i made him the sheeth that he wears. I made him a paper mache club. He was aforable. Sadly, the first place was always the president of the HOA. Yhat year, the new pool was being set, and we had a kiddie pool with a mushroom in the center. It cost us $42,185.00!! I went as the kiddie pool. wore blue pants, and blue Styrofoam around my ankles. I got a yellow umbrella, same color as the mushroom, and hung about 800 yards of white iridescent curling ribbon from the edges of the umbrella to simulate water. The HOA was not pleased with me.

When i was a kid, my mom took black leotards and split them to make 3 stands to make a long braid. We had kimonos my grandma gave us, and I went as a Geisha. Mom also made me to be a candyman with a black sweatshirt and cndy sewn on. I was attacked by older kids for that one. I think you can go as anything if you put your mind to it.

scorpius

I made them as well everything from pirates to astronauts , as a kid I loved the Ben Cooper Halloween costumes and still do , as cheap as they were they were fun and symbolized Halloween for several generations.

I still have a batch of them in the boxes , Ape Soldier from Planet of the Apes , Moe from the 3 Stooges , Gumby , etc

I bring them out and decorate with them every Halloween. Lots of Memories in those little boxes of bygone fun

Debbie C

Two years ago, my DH and I were invited to a Halloween Wedding. Everyone was required to go in costume. For all you Rocky Horror fans, my husband was Riff-Raff and I was Columbia. We blew it out of the water!

Clarice29

One year my daughter won first prize in an Indian costume I made from brown paper grocery bags. I made her a skirt with pleats, a vest with some trims. I then taped a smaller bag on her back for a papoose and put a doll in it.
Then a headband for her and the doll. She had long brown braids anyway so that worked well. She was pretty cute.

Stitchnripper

My aunt made our Halloween costumes down to the wigs. I won trophies at the city parade. I made costumes for my children and also for the grands. Mr Stitchnripper and I don't dress up.

tessagin

One year my son was getting ready to join scouts and it was an indian costume he needed. Hand stitched it in an hour. Made the pants too. He wore it for Halloween also. Couple years later my cousin stopped by with her boys, (6). One of their costumes fell apart (paper). My son got his costume out and let him wear it. With the warrior paint and feathered belt around his head he was dressed to the hilt. Had a little bow and arrow fashioned out of a hanger. Haven't had anyone to dress up in a long time. So many have ruined the "fun" holidays for kids.

mac

You all are too funny. Love the costume ideas.

Being born on Halloween, I took great pride as an adult to make my Halloween costumes and wear them to work. Not too many people were insane enough to dress up, but there were the zany people like me, thank goodness. On of my favorite costumes that one of my co-workers wore was a hospital dressing gown open in the back and he wore a plastic tushy, that from a distance look really real. It wasn't X-rated or anything; but it did get some very funny looks. As I remember, he won first place that year. Some of the ones I did were:

Sylvester the cat, that plush got on everything and everywhere when I sewed it. It was really hot, too. You couldn't wear it at a party, that's for sure!
The next year, I was a bumble bee (bright yellow sweatshirt sewed with black felt stripes and wings made from a pair of white nylons and a head band with big antennas, like the ones they wore in SNL)
The next year I was a killer bee, same costume as above, but I included a big rubber knife with it. Sorry, I didn't have a machine gun, like you did, mores the pity.
The next year everyone had a hard time guessing what I was, which greatly disappointed me. I wore the same bumble bee outfit and a witch's hat. I was supposed to be "bewitched", nobody guessed.
The next year, nobody guessed what I was - at all - I wore one of cozy sacks that you zip up and keep warm while watching TV. I was a sleeping bag.
The last year I dressed up, I put on Mickey Mouse PJ's, green cold cream on my face, I wore curlers on my head and Maxine bunny slippers. The question I was asked the most was, "Did you even dress for work, or did you just roll out of bed and come to work?" If they only knew...

Now, those were the fun birthdays... I don't dress up anymore, I just stay home and watch old horror movies.