Halloween DIY costume hack - duct tape it!
Stick with this do-all adhesive for an easy homemade disguise
Happy Friday, all. Two weeks until Halloween - are you ready?! ~JRC
For kids of all ages, Halloween is a glorious time. Every October, we throw social norms out the window to parade around as ghouls, pirates, and aliens. And we do it all while acting the part. Dressed up as our favorite characters, we don not only costumes but also new personas. If only for a night, we remember how much fun make-believe can be.
As I said, a glorious time.
The best part of all this "fantasy come to life" is becoming anything we imagine. Commercially available costumes make make-believe as easy as one-two-click (for a price, of course). But where’s the fun in that? There’s something exceptional about creating your own Halloween costume. Yes, it can be time-consuming. And challenging if you’re after a cosplay-worthy design. But to create a fun costume that’ll turn heads this October 31st, you don’t have to go all-out. All you have to do is go all-in - on duct tape.
That’s right, duct tape. But not that silver-gray stuff your dad kept around the house. Today's duct tape comes in a rainbow of colors, making it ideal for creating quick costumes and props. Combined with some cardboard, cloth, and other random stuff, this Jack-of-all tape brings to life anything imaginable.
Why duct tape? Well, let’s face it: putting stuff together without it takes skills, knowledge, and time. This is the main challenge of fabricating something - anything, really. If it's cloth, one has to sew and stitch. With wood, it's glue and joinery. Plastics need a whole different knowledge base. And metal? Break out the torch and welder because things are about to get hot. But with duct tape, anyone can slap together stuff - almost any kind of stuff - in a flash. It's as if the normal limits of materials no longer apply - with duct tape.
Want to attach some wood blocks to a cotton shirt? Duct tape can do it. Want to make an elaborate mask strapped to an old construction helmet? Use duct tape. Want to build a Ghostbusters proton pack but don't have the quantum engineering skills of Egon Spengler? Grab a roll of duct tape!
My son and I made the pictured proton pack a few years ago when he was five. He was into Ghostbusters at the time, and it seemed like a great project. Why? Because we could do it together even though he was young - using duct tape. It’s safe for any age, and you don't need a dedicated workspace to use it.
We duct-taped together the proton pack body out of cardboard, wrapped around an old backpack for the straps. This we covered with gray construction paper. And then (using more duct tape), we attached various adornments to give the build character. After enhancing it with random bolts and some wire, we topped it off with a completely custom wand using a hose and rubber drawer liner (plus more duct tape).
The rest of his outfit we pulled together from clothes he already had. And with some printable iron-on paper, I made the Ghostbusters logo and a "Venkman" name patch for his shirt. To be honest, I think it's one of the most fun costumes I've ever made - and it was so simple because of duct tape.
Granted, the finished product is not a prop replica. It's more a proton pack "inspired by" the ones seen in Ghostbusters. But once we strapped this duct tape version on my adorable boy, it might as well have been a hero prop from the film. He immediately got into character, and the rest, dare I say, is Halloween history.
Making this costume using more conventional means would take days or even weeks. But with duct tape, in no time flat we created a memorable costume that thrilled our neighbors. Sure it was clearly a DIY, but that didn’t matter. In fact, it is what mattered most. Because we made it, we made the best of Halloween - for us both.
That's the joy of a DIY costume - it doesn't have to be off-the-shelf polished to make it work. In fact, the rough edges make a homemade costume even more endearing. So for this Halloween, don't order online to get your outfit of choice.
Grab a roll of duct tape instead.
Until next time.
JRC