Homemade Halloween Costumes

The one dependable post every year. Our Halloween costumes were a bit more subdued this year, but still lots of fun. The kids helped a lot more and I didn't freak over perfection as much.


Here are the Homemade 2011 Costumes


My youngest was Gordon Freeman from Half Life. The base was underarmor style black thermal underwear. The vest type thing was Grey fun foam painted, and glued. Old shin guards that were painted and put on with black elastic. The "gravity gun" was made with an Ice Tea gallon and a two liter soda bottle. We used gift wrap cellophane on the inside of the 2 liter and some battery LED Christmas lights. Then duct tape and electrical tape. My husband and my son did ALL the work on this one!


My middle son was a sparkly unicorn. We used thermal undies and the white base. We made the hooves out of fabric covered tag board that I put some snaps on so they could be taken on and off. I also stapled some elastic on the bottom of the feet hooves so they wouldn't spin on him. (They even made a clomping sound when he walked which was an unexpected bonus!) The horn is made out of Crayola model magic and glitter paint, attached with clear flat elastic. It broke the first night he wore it, but we put a big blob of hot glue under it, and let it dry and it worked great. We used a feather boa for his main and tail. (There is an inside story to his costume, and it was wonderful!)


My niece was Mary Poppins. I designed and made her skirt (black fleece) and her jacket (blue and black fleece with black frogs for fasteners). I also crocheted her hat. The umbrella my mom made by cutting the head off of a parrot beanie baby (it was in rough shape on the bottom, so it was ok,) and attaching it to the umbrella handle. My mom found a lovely Victorian style shirt and we used red ribbon for the tie. My niece's carpet bag is actually my sister's carry-on that she got when she graduated. It meant a lot to all of us that my niece was able to carry a small part of her mom with her while celebrating Halloween.

So that's it. Another year done. Clean up is taking quite a bit though. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!!

Halloween Come and Gone

We do love Halloween in our house. The most consistant posting on this blog is Halloween costumes. My husband and my anniversary is Halloween. It just holds a really special place in our hearts. Here are the boys' costumes this year.


My middle son is a Piranha Plant from Mario Bros. Made primarily out of fleece, fiberfil, & plastic canvas


My eldest as Luigi (he did have a mustache, but there aren't any decent pics with him wearing it) Again primarily fleece (gotta love Wisconsin Falls!)


My youngest as Dark Helmet from Spaceballs. He LOVED this costume!


Hope you had a great Halloween too!

Costumes

We usually go nuts with costumes. This year we sort of took it easy.


Lore wanted to be the Doctor from Doctor Who, so I made his suit, he had his sonic screwdriver, he wore his shoes for trick or treating, but still had on his gym shoes in this picture. He wasn't cooperative at all, I call this "young doctor after a hard day of school on Gallifrey." I'm going to try to make him dress up and get a better pick, but I'm not going to hold my breath, he's been a little difficult to photograph lately.




Liam wanted to be Mario. We bought the bibs, had a red sweatshirt, we got some white stretch gloves and put little cartoon lines on them. I made the mustache out of interfacing, flannel, clear elastic and thread. I made the hat out of fleece.



Levi I don't even have pictures of (bad mommy!) but he recycled a simple black cloak and skellie mask and went as a reaper again.


Tim and I had plans to recycle one or our fav quickie costumes, that has never been photographed, but when we got them out of storage, there was a bit of mildew on it, so we scrapped that. I'm sure we'll resurrect them again, but I need to take it apart and see if it's able to be saved. So we went as Little House on the Whatever.... last minute we had it in the house from Ye Olde School House field trips and off we went. It was nice not being up until 3-4 am quick finishing it the night before. But we will have to up it next year.

DI Weekend

Well, I've been a little MIA since we had our DI regionals this weekend. We had practice everyday last week, and I got a touch overwhelmed. Absolutely no crafting on my part really, only supervising.


When it was all said and done, Liam's team had some major issues, however still ended up taking 1st! We didn't think they had a shot after all of the problems they encountered, but it was a really hard challenge, so not many teams signed up, and the ones that did all had difficulties. Also they kicked some butt (as I've been told) on their Instant Challenge. So they are going to State in April. I will now be co-managing their team to help out their main coach.

Here's half of Liam's team with their trophy. I am so proud of them, mine is the second from the left.

Lore's team did amazing. (I coach this one) It was their first year for all of them. They kicked butt as far as acting is concerned. No one knew that they missed a very large portion of their skit. The covered so well. Their costumes and etc... was all quite amazing too. The 2 biggest problems that they had were that part that they skipped was REALLY important. Like, all of their points were pretty much in that area. And they didn't understand the Instant Challenge at all. It wasn't explained very well, and the person doing the explaining had a TERRIBLE cold and was near impossible to understand. Also they couldn't retell the kids the challenge, but they left them the paper, which is fine for the 5th graders they are against, but doesn't help the 1st graders who really can't read that well that were on my team. Oh well, it was great experience and they learned a lot to take with them next year. They ended up taking 6th out of 6. But they were the only first year team, and they were really against mainly 5th graders who have been in it for years. I'm super proud, and I need to get a party planned for them soon!




Here's a (bad) picture of Lore in the Jester costume he made. He recycled tshirts to make it. He designed and cut and sewed the hat, collar, waist thing. And he made the sceptre which is a doll head (he cut off of an old doll) glued onto a bamboo stick. Made a hat and collar for. He's in 1st grade did I mention. I'm so proud of him!


Then we had my niece's Dedication at church the next morning, so it's been very busy. Hopefully we'll get back to a routine soon.

What are YOU looking at?

Well, it wasn't easy, but I was finally able to catch a bit of video of Liam's "Mad Eye" movement.

Here's with Tim doing it, sorry it's so dark, and please ignore my boys and their argument in the background.

Here's a shot of my son doing it. he's got a really funny look on his face, I don't quite know why.

2007 Costumes

I know I need better pictures, but I want to be sure that I post and don't forget. So here are most of our costumes from this year.


Here are Tim & I at a party on Saturday. Halloween is our 10th anniversary, so we made wheel of fortune (we are those old people who have to be home by 6 for wheel hehe.)
The wheel spins and the letters turn. People actually played a game. It was fun.


Our youngest wanted to be a transformer. Optimus Prime was picked because we thought it would be the easiest. If it were me I would have sewed something up, but my hubby and son figured it HAS to transform. So the above is a picture in truck form. Below is robot form.



Here's my middle son as Mad Eye Moody from Harry Potter. His magical eye really does spin. (I'm hoping to get video of that soon.) And his wand he made with his dad and it lights up green and red (depending on if he's stunning or killing deatheaters.)



Here's one of my nieces. She wanted to be a Strawberry Icecream Cone with whipped cream on top. Well you bet. So here she is.


Here's a picture of all of my boys and 3 of my nieces at church. They have trick-or-treat for unicef every year. My oldest is a grim reaper, but I haven't gotten very good pics of that yet.