Don't buy into Halloween - make it!
The true joy of the holiday is DIY
Well, it's here - fall and that most anarchistic of all the holidays - Halloween. Its history is shrouded in tradition, fables, and superstition. And, as with all holidays for years now, Halloween is also cloaked in abject commercialism. One can buy literally any costume they want. From classics like witches, ghosts, goblins, and ghouls to any mega-blockbuster franchise character - there's a ready-made getup - ready to be had - for a price.
Sure, it's fun to dress up and pretend, no matter what. And in the last-minute pinch, wearing even those big-box store designs is better than nothing. But there's a special joy in DIYing an outfit from scratch. And unlike a store-bought rendition that will surely fade into the crowd (no matter how spectacular), a custom creation will turn heads and invite comments like no other.
So take the time, and gather some supplies because Halloween is almost here. AND - it’s not too late! Here’s a story from last year on getting some things together for that last-minute ensemble.
~JRC
Cobble your last-minute Halloween
It's not too late to make that perfect costume
First published October 29th, 2021
I know, I know. It's the eleventh hour; Halloween is upon us. And if you haven't received that fancy Squid Game outfit you ordered, you're likely not going to by the 31st. But have no fear - there's still time to DIY a great costume. All you need are some old clothes, a few found objects, and craft supplies. Oh yeah, and an idea.
As much as I hype Halloween, you'd think I'd be more prepared. But my son and I drug our feet this year. For a while, he wanted to be Snake-Eyes from G.I. Joe, but that idea faded. And nothing took its place. As of the beginning of this week, we had resigned to being zombies again. It's easy to do the makeup and it’s fun. But seeing that we had already done it twice in recent years, the idea was kind of boring him.
Ideas can be the hardest part. Coming up with a concept that is doable with the items you have around the house is key. If it requires exotic materials or elaborate maker skills, skip to another plan.
As a kid, I always wanted to dress up as a dinosaur, but we couldn't manage such a complicated build back then. So instead, I went as ghosts, sometimes cowboys, and once a mechanic. One year my brother and I even dressed in drag (although we didn't call it that at the time - I was like ten, I think). These costumes we could pull together with old clothes from my parent's attic. And that's the trick of DIY - cobble it with whatever you have, but make sure you have what your idea demands.
Besides, G.I. Joe, my son's interests are all over the place. From Star Wars to real NASA astronauts, the outdoors, to pirates, he likes it all. And he especially enjoys concepts he can modify and create around. Lately, he's been into monster trucks and has several toys that he has been customizing. I don't particularly like the sport, so I have been less involved in this current fascination. But these trucks remind me of the Mad Max movies that featured outlandish road machines.
On a whim, I asked, "Hey, buddy. What about going as Mad Max this year?"
"Yeah!" He responded instantly.
A few months ago (and to his mom's chagrin), he and I watched Mad Max: Fury Road together. Yeah, it's rated R and is pretty rough in some spots, but I fast-forward past the particularly nasty scenes. And it's so over-the-top and frenetic that he doesn't seem to mind when I do. Anyway, he likes the gritty aspect of the title character (and all the crazy vehicles, too).
Cobbling a costume is a lot of fun. I like going through bins of old clothes, previous years' costume parts, and my maker supplies for inspiration. With costumes, you can marry materials that normally don't go together. Plastic, metal, cloth, rope - even paper - all combine with some hot glue or the all-mighty duct tape. Remember - it doesn't have to last forever, only a night.
We found an old long-sleeved shirt, a dark pair of pants, and various belts and straps that we could use for his Mad Max costume. This attire naturally lends itself well to cobbling; the backstory of Max's outfit is just that - cobbled together from found pieces in a crumbling world. Perfect!
The character's signature look involves a leather jacket with one old football pad attached to the right shoulder (I have no idea how a piece of American football equipment made its way to the post-apocalyptic Australian wasteland). Anyway, to simulate this look, we used a thrift store brown woman's leather top. It had a zipper in the back, so we made that the front. And we cut and shaped some black EVA foam to form the pad and the open triangular piece seen in the movie version. I attached these parts with hot glue and some rivets from my leather-craft kit. I also fastened an old canvas belt and used this as an anchor for a fake survival knife (also made out of EVA foam).
We ripped the right sleeve off his shirt and cut the lower third off so it didn't hang out. The pants were acceptable, so the only thing we did was configure a couple of short kid's belts around his left knee to serve as the brace (Max has a bad knee in the original three films, and he has a mechanical aid of some sort). With a scarf and an ace bandage wrapped around his left wrist, the costume was almost complete.
Almost, that is, except for the most critical part - weathering.
To take your cobbled costume to the next level, you have to weather it. This is the process of using paints, dies, abrasives, and knives, to make a prop look used and worn. It's a fun process, slapping on paint, rubbing in grime, and roughing up edges. There's an art to it, but it's simple to add character to costumes once you get the hang of it.
As with materials for costumes, don't let what is "normally" done get in your way. Put watercolors on clothes. And don't be afraid to spray paint them either! It's about achieving a look, not making a functional outfit.
To learn more about weathering, check out my YouTube video explaining the basics:
To weather the Mad Max costume, I used black shoe polish to darken the jacket. This alone tied the piece together. Then, I melted and shaped the EVA foam with a heat gun, making it look less rigid and more used. With a bit more shoe polish on the exposed shirt sleeve and a slight fraying of the torn edges, the costume was complete.
In all, we made my son's Mad Max outfit in one evening.
It was a blast doing it - working on the fly; we'd share ideas, cut, paint, test, and cut again, all quickly and almost sloppily. But the result is anything but shabby. Instead, it's quite passable and, I would say, recognizable as Max. And that, of course, was the goal.
Such is the beauty of cobbling a costume. It doesn't have to be exact; we're not after a movie-accurate reproduction here. This kind of making is seat-of-your-pants, folks. And that's the real charm in doing this. Anything goes, as it should. And the results are sure to please.
The bonus: it doesn't take weeks or even days to pull off an excellent cobbled costume. As I said, it took us only an evening to get my son's together, and we now have time to spare. Speaking of which - there are two more nights until Halloween. So get with it! Plenty of remaining time to DIY your own cobbled costume for this, the best time of the year.
Happy Halloween, all!
JRC
You’re spot on for me. I’ve rented costumes and made costumes over the years, and the made costumes have always been the most fun and the most memorable. 😊