Open thread: your DIY Hallowe'en costumes?

Anonymous

Every Halloween in college I did the same costume: I A)draped a sheet (my regular, everyday sheet, navy blue) over my shoulders, B)set a folded-up hand towel on my head to acommodate C)a wildebeest skull on top of my head. I occasionally garnished with panflutes. As for what that costume actually WAS, I couldn’t have told you, but having an actual wildebeest skull on your head tends to satisfy people’s “no half-assed costume” desires enough that it didn’t really matter.

jacord

Funny O’Donnell ad juxtaposition on BB: http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8959/15783123.png

Jason

I dressed up as Laughing Cow Cheese (La Vache Qui Rit) for Halloween. Scanned in a cheese wrapper enlarged it and wrapped foil around cardboard. The earrings were made from two of the cheese packages attached to clip-on ends from a craft shop. The makeup took about a half hour to fully get off, but it was totally worth it. Got a great response from everyone who has seen it!

http://yfrog.com/9ejxj

IronEdithKidd

I’ve been busy making a Jawa costume for my son. I’m on the last step, the eyes. I’ve completely neglected myself. I might pull my old TNG uniform out so we can go as mixed-SF. I tried to get my mate to go as Tallahassee from Zombieland, but he just won’t do a costume. What’s so damned uncomfortable and difficult about putting on a friggin’ cowboy hat and carying a fake shot gun?

dunktank

The two year old wasn’t cooperative enough to let me strap him in, and get the helmet on him, but he should be ready to roll by tomorrow evening. KA-Chow! http://www.flickr.com/photos/26874769@N00/5130269210/

Anonymous

I made a cardboard Cthulu mask out of a single small box (and some duct tape, rubber bands to help with the tentaclebeard, and scotch tape) and covered it in paper towels earlier and I intend to paint it a nice shade of soul-devouring green. I might also make a necronomicon to smack people around with or read forbidden scriptures from or give to potential grovelers

Jeff Carroll

Today my sister-in-law made herself up as BOTH Katy Perry and Russell Brand. On ONE face.

And she made a video showing how it was done!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEczm5AFzsU

It impressed us, and, frankly, scared us. We’re thinking Katy and Russell should consider not having children.

Anonymous

My husband and I dressed up as xkcd characters.
Him as black hat guy: http://yfrog.com/mzha8sj
Me as xkcd-model Cory Doctrow: http://yfrog.com/5mtaakj (not pictured: tiny hot air balloon on a stick)

Beeslo

Last year I went as a “proud parent of a first time trick-or-treater”. I basically built a 2 year old out of PVC piping and kids clothing. Went around door to door and got some fantastic reactions. I did it again this year!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjimA0iBjI4

sisterp

Wow – I finally scrolled through this whole thread, and these are seriously great. (Those greyscale costumes are brilliant.) Where we live right now, our Hallowe’ens are pretty quiet, so I’m vicariously enjoying it through you guys. Thanks!

cityrat

I will be wearing dozens of tiny mops and brooms labeled “Made in India” and going as the Outsourcerer’s Apprentice.

(Yes, I am aware that other countries are involved in outsourcing.)

My partner will either be St. Peter Cottontail or Pope Jean Paul Gaultier, depending on how lazy we’re feeling.

Anonymous

This is the first year I’ve really gotten into costume making – I’m going as Link (ocarina). I’ve got my hand sewn tunic and hat, shirt, leggings, boots, plaster + fabric gauntlets, plastic sword, and a deku shield salvaged from the forest. I’m so stoked to wear it.

DeWynken

http://flic.kr/p/8Px1sA

Hawley Griffin, aka The Invisible Man.

exact costume components: Black London Fog trench, a black Pendleton fedora, 3″ gauze, black DKNY dress pants I haven’t had a reason to wear in 10 years, black Catapillar half boots, and black cotton gloves. White zip tie from Walmart and a sharkskin Alfani longsleeve shirt.

Most of the time I lounge around in boxers and a tee-shirt, trolling right wingers on the net, so it was nice to dress up. We should all dress this way more often (minus the gauze).

covermebadd

Here’s your two best band costumes ever, care of the world’s greatest 80′s cover/live mashup band, Blasphemous Guitars from San Diego http://www.Facebook.com/BlasphemousGuitars

2010: Oates & Oates & Oates & Oates & Oates & Quaker Oates
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/album.php?aid=42786&id=131143750229026&fbid=173142352695832
2009: Papa Smurf with Blue Man Group
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=131143943562340&set=a.161342143875853.39237.131143750229026
2009 video of Cyndi/Devo mashup Girl U Just Want To Have Fun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQYlOMi3q_M
(w/Devo costume stage invasion)

efergus3

Sorry, just handing out candy while wearing my ‘remove the head or destroy the brain’ T-shirt and carrying my cricket bat. Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.

brownhb

I always do costumes last minute. . .I too am going as a tea party protester. I’m going to have fun making the signs. I want to do a portrait of Obama combining as many iconic dictator/revolutionary images as possible (Mao Hitler Che Obama?) and have tea bags stapled to a hat. My boyfriend is going as a stimulus job – he will wear a shirt with a green collar and wear a propeller hat (windmill!) with a sign that says “brought to you by the ARRA”.

Last year I was also lazy and went as keyboard cat. I painted some cardboard to look like a keyboard and strung it across my front, wore a blue sweater, and had cat ears and whiskers.

caseyd

My son has been making Lego Bionicle creatures for the last 7 years or so, but now at 12 he decided to make a d20.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/badubadu/5127944138/

it’s made of electrical conduit, fabric, foam, and needlepoint grid all hot-melt glue and duct taped together.

the needlepoint grid stuff, which is under the 1, is really cheap and effective for creating a 1-way window.

smonkey

My gf decided last minute she _must_ be a centaur.
Two days later the house looks like we lost a war with craft.

On the up-side she looked awesome!

http://bit.ly/bV1BXV

jfaehnle

My personal favorite & a major crowd pleaser (I got a lot of hugs from intoxicated strangers & offers to… well, you can guess). Towelie:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/33185852@N07/5122612074/

This year, I am considering mocking a costume that I know will be wildly popular & of questionable taste. I want to get a very Latin-American-looking poncho and make myself up to look like a little kid, so that I can tell people that I am a Chilean minor.

arboretum.ind

Making costumes is one of my favourite thing to do. Also I’m a perfectionist, so it’s usually bang on.

Last year was the King of All Cosmos from Katamari Damacy.
This year is AstroBoy. Just finished the enormous vinyl boots.

Also worth noting that I just saw a Perfect David Tennant Doctor while out shopping and it made my day.

Anonymous

Best costume I ever made: Bowling pin show girl from the “what condition my condition is in” scene from The Big Lebowski. SO. MUCH. FUN.

http://img204.imageshack.us/f/16661968571447913225733.jpg/

sumrow

I made an old school “big head” Mummy costume complete with binky lights. The head is Papier mÃ¢chÃ© on a used construction hard hat.

Here is the finished costume (sans hand and feet)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sumrow/5128162863/

And a slide show of the construction process:
http://www.johnsumrow.com/2010/10/29/halloween-mummy-mask-process/

Thanks! Happy Halloween boingers! :D
~ John

janusnode

Once I dressed all in black, and wore black make-up, black shoes and socks, a black hood, black gloves, and black sunglasses. I had a blinking red diode on my chest. I was ‘Being & Nothingness’.

jonnypage

My wife and I went as the Yip Yip Martians from Sesame Street, lots of laughs, and we won the costume contest for the party we were at! http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonnypage/5135887143/

nemesys23

A bottle of a strange, yellow, high-fructose-corn-syrup laden soda appeared in my fridge yesterday… so I drank it… and started contemplating MIRACLEZ!!!!! http://www.flickr.com/photos/24900772@N04/5132550616/in/set-72157625281010024/

Anonymous

Hey bro! This is still hilarious!

this is my boingboing account

Favorite Halloween costume a couple of years ago for my son was Ghost Rider Johnny Angel. My son wanted to give each house a present, so the night before we spent making paper flowers on pipe cleaners. We made angel wings out of cardboard, broke open a pillow and glued feathers all of them, put him in a leather jacket and a skull mask. So, then, my husband playing his accordion, I would sing “Johnny Angel” as my son went up to the door of each house with his bucket of paper flowers, and my son would make a gift of one of the flowers to the household. He was so thrilled giving out those paper flowers.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55223366@N06/5122098543/#/photos/55223366@N06/5122098543/lightbox/

jvonstratton

Last year my friends and I went as Lady KISS. It was EPIC:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs095.snc3/16238_172898527121_707302121_2731072_7842223_n.jpg

And the year before we went as Pac-Man and Ghosts:
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-snc1/v372/171/49/707302121/n707302121_908207_1799.jpg

I think the trick is to have friend willing to dress up in theme with you. All of these costumes were home made. Invest in a good glue gun, and you’re half-way there!

Jonathan

Last year my gf wore a star trek outfit and cowboy hat (Space Cowboy), and I wore a gangster suit, red tophat/suspenders/bowtie, and tommy gun with paper hearts glued onto it (Gangster of Love).

Best costume I’ve seen so far this year: blue pants/t-shirt/sailor hat, with knotted pieces of rope attached to costume, and “Bullshit!” screenprinted on back of shirt. Who did that guy think he was?

Captain Knots!

Xeni Jardin

THESE ARE ALL SO GREAT!!!!

Anonymous

Cardstock, duct tape, flashing pumpkin earring, wire, ribbons and paint=lighthouse hat. Modified long skirt, corset, frilly shirt.

I’m going as Pirate Carmen Miranda.

enealio

I’ll be going as Lloyd Dobler from the movie Say Anything. I’m creating fake arms with PVC skeleton and foam coverings that hold up a boombox (papercraft boombox to save on weight) and inside are portable battery powered speakers. A cord runs through the fake arms to my iphone so I can play Peter Gabriel’s IN YOUR EYES at any moment. It’s almost complete. Photos/video later today.

Anonymous

Sputnik 2 & Laika
http://bit.ly/dBeIxl

Anonymous

My six-year-old son wanted to be the Green Knight from Castle Crashers. Here’s his costume, entirely made by hand by his mom:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18626930@N00/5105992199/

(His shield has the black rectangle painted on it now.)

shutz

Not quite as DIY as what I bet others will post here, but I like modifying or combining parts of existing costumes to make something original (usually to illustrate a pun.)

My biggest success was a white Elvis costume, complete with Elvis wig, and my new (at the time) acoustic guitar, along with latex elf (pointed) ear tips.

Get it?

I was ELVISH!

Won the office costume contest (hands down, from what I was told afterwards.)

BeeDog

Steampunk lady, with an 1890′s period correct dress my Mother in Law (who is a saint) made me for my 30th birthday. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1688350010892&set=a.1688344370751.2095168.1301966331

Intersection

3 or 4 years ago I went as a ghost. I put on a sheet and hung an old touchpad computer in a hole in the front of the sheet. Then I wired it to a board camera in the back with an old video to USB cord. Opened the camera stream in windows and voila, you could see through me. The whole costume took about 20 minutes to build but people were blown away. It was a great combination of high tech and totally ghetto. Everything was held together with string and tape but it worked!

Anonymous

I dressed as a homemade gold robot a few years back with flashing lights and built in ipod dock from gold car split pins and tape, not a classic box robot either check it out!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tzidik/2989718867/

also theres a pic of my brothers too an alien Jedi and a Heath Ledger joker both of which I put together and painted for them (not a great shot though)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tzidik/2994966292/

Crispinus211

I relish the chances I’ve had to make costumes for (and with) my daughter. She’s been Queen Amidala, Puss-in-Boots, and Batman. Lots of love, cardboard, and machÃ© went into those outfits. And much of it in the years PGG (pre-glue gun).

She’s old enough to take charge of her own costumes. This year she’s a self-styled “80′s exercise chick” — think spandex, leg warmers, and big hair. Nice, kid.

One year a friend of mine wore overalls and a sailor’s hat, with freckles and a straw-white wig. There was a Campbell’s soup decal on his chest.

Raggedy Andy Warhol.

Wish I’d thought of that!

Anonymous

This year I made both my brother’s and my costume for Halloween. We were sack people from the game little big planet. I sewed the costumes with the help of my sewing teacher. I made the costumes from burlap and sewed everything myself. If you go to my blog at

http://lunamakes.tumblr.com/

you can see some pictures of us.

VirtuAllin

A couple of years ago, I made my own Fembot costume – like from the first Austin Powers movie. It was fun to make – got a pink nightie from the thrift store and glued on some feathers. I made the high calibre jumblies with some cardboard and silver paint. All I was missing was smoke coming out of the barrels.

I won 2nd place in a contest – $75 paid for the evenings festivities!

http://www.virtuallin.com/images/fembot.jpg

Mister44

I am thinking of wearing my silk Mandarin shirt, with a toy fire hat and a siren or fire truck toy and go as a Chinese Fire Drill.

Sekino

Whoops, sorry for our ‘double’ post: I thought my post hadn’t gone through and that I got logged out… Later found out that the site had been hacked :P

Anonymous

I’m really tired of all those sexy bumblebee costumes, so I made a sexy bedbug costume. Sewed “legs” made out of brown tights and the stuffing from an old pillow and attached them to this weird minidress I found at a thriftstore. The antennae were made by my boyfriend out of baling wire and a headband. You can’t see it in the photo, but he also made me an abdomen/butt out of cardboard, tape and markers. I got mistaken for a roach a lot; but most people understood that I was as “undesirable insect”.

And what did the boyfriend go as? A sexy bedbug exterminator! We found one of those baby harnesses at a thrift store, then plopped a fishing bait bucket in it, added some gaffer’s tape, some random tubing we had lying around and the nozzle from an old bottle of Febreze. Voila – a pesticide sprayer!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/suzypictures/5129256174

Anonymous

TRON

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5577585&l=9c2c028e75&id=591338232

Xeni Jardin

So horrible! :)

Johnny Fry

This was my Zoidberg costume a few years back: I used a shower cap and a dish glove turned inside out and then cut appropriately, red permanent marker to get them the right colour, a bit of latex glue i took from another halloween kit and face paint. The glue worked really well because all night idiots kept pulling on my face tentacles and it never once came off. For the claws I cut up two red bowling pins from those kids plastic bowling kits..

http://bit.ly/bY55eg

Anonymous

@Anon32 I bought that shirt from Threadless last week!

MrJM

All you need is a Domino’s tee-shirt and a pizza box and… voilÃ !

You’re an English literature major.

escowles

Ha ha ha. I’ll have you know that this Creative Writing major is gainfully employed, with good benefits.

Granted, I’m employed as a programmer. But at least I put my communication skills to good work, unlike the compiler-and-sort-algorithm skills that CS grads have.

GammaBlog

http://gammablog.com/2010/10/31/halloween-skeleton-costume-2010/
The arms are operated by a lever at the shoulder joint. The elbows and hands are made springy with piano wire. The lower body is a skeleton grabbed from Google images, applied to 1/4 inch plywood and jointed with bicycle inner tube rubber. The jaw is operated similarly to the arms. All for the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade tonight.

Anonymous

Underwater witch from Florida…. or Senatorial candidate from Delaware?

Anonymous

I was a stick figure a couple of years ago. I dressed in full black and pinned glowsticks to myself in the shape of a stick figure. Last year I was the cookie monster, blue sweats/sweater/beanie, with 2 ping pong balls for eyes. This year I will be either a poppin fresh or an astronaut by using a white spray suit. Otherwise I will try to be a double rainbow somehow.

Touched by FSM

My 10 year old is going as “Crazy Dave” from Plants vs. Zombies. Easiest costume we’ve ever made. Tupperware, plastic serving spoon handle, duct tape and aluminium foil made Dave’s saucepan head protection. Add one large t-shirt with a throw-pillow underneath for a small gut, a fake beard, and a walnut to carry, and he’s good to go. ‘Why’d I put this walnut in your hand? Because I’m crazy!” It never gets old, man.

bgizzy

Here’s my Rat Fink costume. Crappy pic, better ones to come.
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f315/jakevanhook/fink.jpg

genre slur

A Large sheet, liquid adhesive, a few garbage bags of leaves.
A pile of leaves.
Not good for bars, galas, et cetera. Tailor-suited for occasions at a home. Sitting in a corner, whilst friends sneak goodies to you. Surreal.

tarehna

A couple of years ago my husband made a sort of convertible Dalek costume for our little guy. Like two people knew what he was (apparently not a Doctor Who crowd) and he scared the crud out of some of the smaller guests at the party, but it definitely counts as an epic win in my book.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtF6-IwhSfM

Anonymous

My Patrick Bateman costume from this year.
http://imgur.com/pDiOK.jpg

Anonymous

My best DIY costume involved an old swimsuit, liquid latex from a porn shop and painstakingly gluing foam ‘scales’ on. But I was the only Mystique that night!
http://twitpic.com/31euic

A. B. Itch

Here’s my SO in his gnome ensemble:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/akbuthod/5131952264/

avoision

This was my costume (most of which was made in a flurry last night).

Free Robot Hugs for everyone!

Joonce

I made an Astronaut Costume this year.

My Spacesuit includes a working movable visor, in-helmet lighting, magnetically attached “air-hoses”, and a spacepack with built in speakers for my iPod to play some spacejams.

Here’s a good photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joonce/5087856381/in/set-72157625054908423/

And a link to the rest of the set:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joonce/sets/72157625054908423/with/5087856381/

The helmet is made of papier mache, bondo, and an old wetsuit.
The spacepack is made of cardboard and includes an old boombox I took apart to fit inside.
The rest is a painter’s suit, some gloves, and custom shoes.

Rezmason

Tomorrow I’ll be wearing this to Jon Stewart’s rally in DC:

http://rezmason.net/justabill/bill1.jpg

An’ I hope I’ll be a lawww someDAAAAY-

Prospero761

I know someone who wore all black and taped random socks, underwear and string to himself and went as Static Cling.

Anonymous

Tattoo shirt, blue body paint, huge wooden sword, and a kilt. I’m going as a Nac Mac Feegle!

BeeDog

Crivens! Which one, Rob Anybody? Or just a generic Feegle?
Anonymous

@Anon #5 Sweet! I was going to go as Miss Tick by attaching a yellow frog to my witch hat, but decided go as Christine O’Donnell instead – on my hat I shall affix a pin that says “I’m not a witch, I’m you”

Talon

So for the office costume contest this year I bought a pair of black shorts that didn’t fit me (waist size 48 I wear size 32)some old brown shoes I found at home and an XL yellow collared shirt that I had drawn a zig zag line on them with a magnum sharpie. And I went as Charlie Brown, but not just ole Chuck I also got a sheet cut it to a smaller size dyed it black and had a friend of mine sew it onto a regular white sheet (I don’t know how to use a sewing machine). I then took screen shots of scenes in It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown were he’s wearing his ghost costume and cut holes out of the top sheet similar to the ones he had. The black sheet was thin enough to see through and to simulate the black holes from the cartoon and to help obscure others from seeing me. I also had a brown paper bag with I Got A Rock written on it to drive the point home. I also removed the sheet so my coworkers could make sense of my costume if they still didn’t get it. Needless to say I was one of the 2 winners out of 10 people.

Sorry for the long post.

BVS

Humpty Hump from Digital Underground:

http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y255/BrianVSalvatore/?action=view&current=Halloween2010.jpg

Morrigan

Hubby & I are cutting holes in a couple of white sheets and going as ghosts. I figure no one does that anymore.

Brainspore

Quickest costume I ever through together: stetson hat, trenchcoat & gloves from my closet, gauze from my medicine cabinet and a pair of sunglasses. VÃola! Invisible man.

Nathaniel

My devil costume from a few years ago:

http://i1218.photobucket.com/albums/dd407/nathanielvirgo/devil_2.jpg

http://i1218.photobucket.com/albums/dd407/nathanielvirgo/devil_1.jpg

Procedure:
1. Remove horns from toy Viking helmet and glue to shaved head
2. Construct a Star-Trek style face mask out of plasticine and Copydex (a brand of craft glue that’s virtually indistinguishable from liquid latex). This took about a week.
3. Colour every inch of skin red with stage makeup. Happily, makeup sticks to Copydex just as well as it does to skin.

To top it off I borrowed a girly T-shirt from my female housemate which read “0% angel”.

sloverlord

Any Minecraft fans here? I’m starting to see Creeper costumes sneaking up on the Internet.

Sssssssssssssssssssssssss…….

Ugly Canuck

The Creeper?!

Surely you cannot mean this guy:

http://www.thefifthbranch.com/images/oldies/creeper1.jpg

You surely cannot!

lorq

In college, years back, I purchased a bag of balloons, a black magic marker, and some safety pins. My roommate and I blew up the balloons, wrote the letters A, G, C, or T on them, pinned them to our clothes in an identical clockwise pattern from collar to pants hem, and went to the Halloween party as two complementary strands of DNA.

Anonymous

I’m going as a combination of things. i have a black mask and jacket to wear but my DIY piece is a glove with 8″ syringes for fingers. Here is a picture (i made caps for the syringes to make it kid safe, they will come of after trick or treaters end and barhopping begins)

http://i53.tinypic.com/1jw228.jpg

Anonymous

We went as Tetrominos (Tetris pieces); the best part was trying on boxes in Staples and being given very strange looks by the other customers. The worst part was the complete lack of peripheral awareness and frequent bashing-into-things.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gmurphy/5132801178/

Anonymous

Last year I dressed as a Demon in the Sack:

http://photos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs067.snc3/13441_526517772374_37302445_31318417_4833000_n.jpg

Dressing as a Dickhead this year — from the YouTube video Being a Dickhead’s Cool.

dreemer

I’m thinking a red, white and blue t-shirt and a poorly spelled, grammatically incorrect sign = Tea Bagger! Guess I need big boots and a Don’t Tread On Me sticker!

ill lich

Probably my most notable costume was guitarist “Esteban”– very easy to make, just black shirt and pants, black cowboy hat, sunglasses, sideburns, name tag reading “HELLO my name is “Esteban”, and acoustic guitar. Some people didn’t get the joke (FYI, he’s this kitschy “famous” guitarist who sells crappy Chinese made guitars on the shopping channel QVC), but it gave me a good excuse to play guitar all night, something I want to do when I get drunk anyway.

Sarahcudda

I made a Cthulhu costume for my son using a Sleestak costume and an alien mask. Tentacles courtesy of some floral wire, batting, saran wrap and liquid latex:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24159898@N07/5135200379/

Anonymous

I for one welcome my tentacled costume making overlord!

Anonymous

If all goes as planned, I’ll be spooking people as a zombie (slightly steampunk) Amelia Earhart, using refurbished material from a baseball, bottle lids, and various trinkets for goggles. once i complete the look with an aviator cap, the fun times will begin! BRAINS! PLANES!

craspy

My wife and I went as Cobra Commander and the Baroness

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11721836@N03/5131022644/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11721836@N03/5131019764

All credit to My lovely wife for putting these kickass costumes together!

fricative

Look at this DIY banana costume.

Just look at it.

stefrobb

I made a Bender costume for my eldest (8) – he sees it as a great excuse to run around shouting “Bite my shiny metal ass!” Aw…

The cigar is stuck on with a magnet, so is detachable. Took a couple of weeks all in. We’ve been distracting drivers and causing accidents today. Fun!

http://goo.gl/GhdZ

Anonymous

Wow, here was I thinking, gosh these yanks take halloween so seriously, and then I realise from the tui beer that you are from my country.

Awesome job!

Go the kiwi no.8 fencing wire.

radrice

Last year I fashioned a helmet out of a pumpkin. Add tights and glow sticks and you have Pumpkin TRON. http://ow.ly/i/4WN6

Algaescraper

I made my nine year old, gremlin-loving daughter a Stripe mask this year. She even has her own “Grimlen” (to avoid Copyright battles) site, grimco.info, where she makes drawings of friends as grimlens. It’s paper mache and resin. She’s going to wear it with the claws and feet and a Snow White dress she bought…

Hope you all dig it:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/55295283@N02/5128023855/

Hools Verne

I’m going as Communist Mario.

Anonymous

Chairman Mario?

dunktank

Our two year old is obsessed with Lightning McQueen, from the movie Cars, so when he goes out tomorrow night he will be wearing this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26874769@N00/

All I have left to do is connect the suspender-like straps that he will wear over his shoulders.

Xeni Jardin

Post a shot of your kid in the costume!!

Anonymous

I dressed as Susan Sto Helit (specifically, Susan from Hogfather): black skirt, black vest, white shirt, white hair with a black stripe pulled back into a bun, carrying a poker.

Sadly, only three people at the party had even heard of Susan/Discworld/Hogfather.

Anonymous

My daughter as Katara from Avatar: the Last Airbender

http://twitpic.com/31zoqz

http://twitpic.com/31wsie

karstenclavier

bohemianjello’s dragon with handmade paper mache mask…

http://picasaweb.google.com/113052475803173167019/Dragon?feat=directlink

voluntas

This year my wife and I were N64 Mariocart characters (Toad and Bowser).

Clearly, we’re playing battle mode:
http://imgur.com/vFr6S&PxreUl
http://imgur.com/vFr6S&PxreU

jamiethehutt

I’m going to a mad hatter’s tea party on Friday as a playing card so I’ll probably reuse it on Sunday.

I’m getting a duvet cover, cutting head and arm holes in it and painting a value on the front. When I hold my arms out I *should* look something like a card :-P

Quick, simple and easy, and that’s important as I’ll be travelling across Scotland on public transport from one party to the other on Saturday…

Anonymous

Dress all in black, paint any exposed skin black as well. Maybe a white belt to make yourself stand out, and an ipod (or white piece of cardboard).

Dance spastically, you are an ipod commmercial.

everyplace

My friend Ben Gersch’s‘s Edward Scissorhands costume, made out of goodwill clothes, pizza boxes and sculpy, is a pretty great example in my mind of DIY.

Sondub

Once (and only once) me and my younger brother had some “on the outside” underwear, and some rubber gloves and it was perfect – for about 5 minutes.

NightBrigade

My girlfriend and I went out last night as a Mac and a PC!
We actually swapped our preferences so that I could include the “Fatal Error” joke on the PC screen.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs475.ash2/74865_676850040120_18909600_38473796_7892302_n.jpg

Maggie Koerth-Baker

I’m being lazy this year and going as Leela from Futurama, simply because I already had most of the outfit in my closet. I made my cyclops/mutant eye out of a plain dust mask, trimmed into to a more eyeball-ish shape, and painted with fabric paint.

Related: Do you know how hard it is to find a simple purple wig in this town? Yeesh.

My husband is being even lazier. A little hair product. A LOT of glitter. And he’s a sullen sparkle vampire.

stephcaye

A couple years ago I went as a LOLcat. Made a pretty easy black cat costume (a dress and leg warmers made out of sparkley black “fur”-like material, plus cat ear hair clips (best Hot Topic purchase EVER) and a white board around my neck with a pen to write capshuns.

Anonymous

wear whatever you normally would = a pirate. an internet pirate. (hang a piratebay logo round your neck to really make the point)

acb

I once did a variant of the Internet Pirate idea; I took a pirate costume and and old waistcoat, sewed a dead iPod I had lying around to the waistcoat and went as a “MP3 Pirate”.

xandoru

Kuro and Shiro from Tekkonkinkreet

http://www.flickr.com/photos/martinhsu/5132044545/in/contacts/

Faberware plastic collander, flower arrangement cones, dowel rod, cardboard, chain, lots of hot glue, spraypaint and cel vinyl!

Anonymous

Hopefully it’s not too late. My Manos, Hands of Fate costume.

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4051/5132570617_9434d02a30_b.jpg

Neural Kernel

I don’t really have time to do any Halloween stuff this year (moving…) but I figure one of these days I’m going to just slap together a quick “Blue Screen of Death” costume :P

fennylaise

I was invited to a party with “Death” as the theme. So naturally, I am going as the Blue Screen of Death. I am in the midst of scraping a keyboard for CTRL ALT and DELETE keys.

sparkle j

You’ve heard of Hello Kitty, right?

How about Hello Squiddy?!

Who doesn’t like a little tentacley goodness for Halloween? It’s a very warm costume, that’s for sure. All 10 appendages are represented in fleece. Apron fabric was acquired from Spoonflower.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sparklej/5120931039/

Maggie Koerth-Baker

The best simple DIY costume I’ve ever seen though was a guy who showed up at one of my college parties wearing a pair of tight-fitting jeans, cowboy boots, one of those early-90s multi-colored collared shirts … And a Vader mask.

He was Darth Brooks.

squeakyanimal

Nice. I did a similar one in ’99: tight jeans+cowboy hat & boots+red & black patterned face paint=Garth Maul.

styrovor

Lots of really amazing costumes here, incredible work everyone!

This was my first year really getting into making a Halloween costume (I’m more of a slap-on-some-zombie-makeup-at-the-last-minute type) and I think I may be hooked.

I was the incomparable Yo-Landi – and I’m frankly shocked that I’m only the 2nd one to show up in this thread:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/styrovor/5129929236/

oldjut

The image of Jack Nicholson frozen at the end of The Shining has always stuck with me. Haunting.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/125297/icytorrance.JPG

decided to make it into a spooky costume.

source image: http://robsmovievault.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/the-shining-snow.jpg

Waffles

My friends wanted to do a theme costume to the tune of Homestar Runner, and I chose the prolific Strongbad to emulate. But, being a poor (employed) English major I couldn’t buy a luche mask and gloves etc. etc. Luckily, a red ski mask, felt, and a Mountain Dew bottle (for the eye pieces) helped me make the mask, felt and craft stuffing will make the gloves, and my old pair of shoes and some spray paint made his boots. My girlfriend will complete the look by going as The Cheat.

I’ve never been a very crafty person, but after years of being a loyal bOING bOINGer I felt like this year was the time to see how well I could sew. It feels good to know that every part of my costume was made by hand.

Anonymous

My daughter wanted to be a “Gumball Machine” for halloween. Not something that you can buy really. So I stepped up and with her help created this costume. Had the rough idea of how to do it. Didn’t want to trap her in a plastic dome, so went the square route. There was a duct tape contest for halloween costumes and the red duct tape was perfect. Hacked apart an old Ikea kid’s tent for the frame. Painted 144 styrofoam balls for the gumballs with glow in the dark acrylic paints. The whole thing it pretty light, there are shoulder straps inside and a hidden bag that candy put into coin slot falls into.

http://flic.kr/p/8P27Zs
http://flic.kr/p/8P27Ry

We entered it into this contest. If you think we did well please cast a vote. Should be on the site soon:

http://www.spookduckularhalloween.com/gallery/kids-contest

Anonymous

My favourite low-rent outfit was being an anarchist: a scarf tied round my face, a black hoodie and a plastic bottle with a bunch of toilet roll shoved into it for a molotov cocktail.

My most off colour one involved a knee length brown jacket from a charity shop worn over shorts to simulate nakedness, white socks with black shoes, and a bag of werther’s originals in my pocket. “What have you come as?” “I’ve got some sweeties in my pocket if you want to reach in and find out…”

Anonymous

I made my own original scifi inspired alien mask from scratch: http://www.flickr.com/photos/networkshadow/tags/halloween2010mask/
My site for more art etc: http://androidworkshop.com

brassandlace

Not nearly as creative as some of the other costumes, but my 3 friends and I are going as matching Victorian-esque shepherdesses to the Fancy Dress Gaskell Ball in Oakland on Saturday night. Definitely hand made, we’ve spent countless hours each on the entire outfits from petticoats to dresses to embellishments.

Damned if I won’t wear this costume to every event I can get away with after all that time and money.

Also, with so many stellar sounding costumes, I think it’d make a great Boing Boing meetup at Golden Gate Park next year. I wish I could see all the different costumes!

Emily

I actually emailed Mark a picture of my costume last year when I was a ukulele:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/25254506@N08/4068545829/in/photostream/

and this year, inspired by Ze Frank’s fabulous World Sandwich project, I was the world. As a sandwich. Here are my antipodes:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vermilionink/5135306203/in/set-72157625287503560/ and http://www.flickr.com/photos/vermilionink/5135913286/in/set-72157625287503560/

Anonymous

This year i was an iphone. A giant, cardboard iphone.

maitrix

I was at the Rally For Sanity dressed as Southern Louisiana and the oil spill.

foxtongue

I’m going as Sputnik this year, with my boyfriend tagging along as Laika. Our flight suits are orange dicky jumpsuits with cosmonaut patches sewn onto the arms and over the heart.

I’m taking my old, beaten up motorcycle helmet, bolting four telescoping stereo anntennae to it, and spray-painting it silver.
He’s wearing fox ears and a tail and a bone shaped silver dog-tag that says LAIKA C.C.C.P. / CANINE COSMONAUT.

Last year we were a clumsy knife thrower and his hapless, knife studded assistant. Here’s a picture of us with the best costume we ran into, a DIY praying mantis, complete with the head of her ex-boyfriend: http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxtongue/4066859460/

KristiWithMoxie

I’m wearing 70′s clothing (disco gear) plus zombie make up = disco is dead.

cjp

A friend of mine went as an eyeball. She put papier mache over an inflated yoga ball, then popped it and cut a hole in the bottom and two for arms at the sides. She used the centre of the painted pupil to look out of and created disgusting bloody veins hanging off the back.

garfield1979

http://www.flickr.com/photos/garfield1979/5136104506/

My Sons R2-D2 Costume. Home made, cardboard body and Papier-Mache head supported with a bicycle helmet.
Fitted a trap door for candy drop off.
Costume was a HUGE hit with everyone.

b-c-e

Needed a costume in a hurry this past saturday & hadn’t a clue. Wound up with a witch hat, a pad of 45 8″ sticky notes & a sharpie. Started out with a note reading “I’m You! :-)” (aka christine o’donnell) & then left the pad & marker sitting around throughout the night. Wound up using all 45 – some very interesting results!

Anonymous

DIY Splice! From the movie Splice!
My good friend had the idea to be the character Splice from the movie Splice and completely pulled it off! Still freaking us out at the moment…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47657104@N04/5130874984/

risuther

I love Halloween because I love coming up with costumes.

Going as a blank slate this year. Moved into a house with old wood panel remnants and latex paint. Add in this tutorial and you can be any colour blank slate you want. I’ll hang the ‘chalk boards’ back and front (sandwich board styles) and carry around an eraser and chalk (regular and sidewalk variety) with me and people can write messages on me all night.

Manooshi

I went as our lovely Yo-Landi from Die Antwoord!

Here’s a few Flicker pics. I will add more to the set as I get more better quality pics from friends. My camera (except my flip-phone cam on TwitPic) was outta commission.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13955466@N03/sets/72157625157799907/

briandriscoll

i have an escaped convict outfit im wearing, but my pride and joy this halloween is my glove with 8″ syringes for fingers. I got the idea from Scarecrow from Batman, but the end result turned out different. i put tips on the syringes to keep it kid safe but they come off for the costume contests later in the evening.

here is a picture http://i56.tinypic.com/2em3jhz.jpg

nickeyc

Since this is an election year this might be applicable.

For a party in 2008, I wanted to be something truly scary so I made a Diebold voting machine costume. I used some foam core, a touch-screen TabletPC, and hacked up a quick javascript webpage that counted votes (incorrectly, of course).

http://www.cs.umd.edu/~nchen/photos/votemachine.jpg

Wish I had an iPad back then as the costume would have been a lot lighter.

Anonymous

To clarify what the costume is supposed to look like, in all it’s glory:
http://screencrave.frsucrave.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/splice-movie-bd-firstlook-0309-2-26.jpg

The costume:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/47657104@N04/5130875190/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47657104@N04/5130874984/

PrettyBoyTim

My son and I went as robots today; it was a lot of fun, although it made it very difficult to do anything.

http://www.aidley.com/images/Robots_750x1000.jpg

I also did the puppy up with some bat wings. All the teenage girls who came round trick-or-treating went absolutely *crazy* over her…

http://www.aidley.com/images/BatPiper.jpg

Jimbo

Last year I was Teddy Roosevelt the Rough Rider. I work khaki pants, a safari jacket/shirt, boots, leather gloves, a thick leather belt over the jacket, neckerchief, and an Indiana Jones type hat with the side folded up. Only thing I purchased was the hat for $5 at CVS.

Here’s what I was going for:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Theodore_Roosevelt_in_Rough_Rider_uniform_in_the_field.jpg

I carried a large walking stick and stuck a teddy bear in the belt, but people still thought I was Indiana Jones even though I had no whip or leather jacket, was wearing glasses, had the mustache, and everything.

cjp

You didn’t have the right audience for Teddy. Shoulda gone trick or treating at the old folks’ home.

ephexxx

Here’s the Nibbler costume I did for my wife this year:
http://stevejonesdesign.com/etc/nibbler.jpg
http://stevejonesdesign.com/etc/nibbler2.jpg

Anonymous

I went as a matryoshka doll. I was the biggest doll and there were two smaller dolls hiding.
http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs172.snc4/37930_563065939585_40402607_32887097_3506652_n.jpg

910dohead

Here is my DIY costume. I’m going as Tourettes Guy. I pretty much bought everything at Wal-Mart except the logo on the shirt. I couldn’t find the image so I had to recreate it in photoshop. Then I used Avery’s printable dark iron-on transfer paper to iron the image on to the shirt. The only downside to the costume is that I have 20/20 vision and those glasses are real.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f49/910dohead/PISSS.jpg

Anonymous

Remove the lenses.

Anonymous

i was tetris, and my god was a nintendo controller.

you can see photos here! http://www.flickr.com/photos/ireniebat/sets/72157625307087076/with/5144503532/

Pea Hix

my mom made this amazing alfred e. newman mask from scratch out of Papier-mÃ¢chÃ©. the bugs have gotten to it a bit over the years, but i plan on wearing it to a party tomorrow nonetheless. here she is modeling it.

http://www.shitteo.com/alfred01.jpg
http://www.shitteo.com/alfred02.jpg

Anonymous

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jameslosey/5135565683/

The legs from a pair of thrift store pants sewn into cones and propped up with coat hangers and beards stitched from a fluffy Christmas tree skirt helped us pull off our garden gnome costumes with much success.

LMA

In response to today’s photo of the impaled skateboarder, it seems that we action sports participants all think alike: check out these pictures of the costume I wore to work on Halloween. Mind you, the helmet, sling, and hospital band were all part of an actual accident that involved me, and an ATV to Ambulance evacuation back in September. However that crash didn’t include a flattened fox, a crank to the braincase, nor a zombification, Bummer.

http://picasaweb.google.com/alan.burnstine/ZombieBiker?feat=directlink#5537374364955187586

http://picasaweb.google.com/alan.burnstine/ZombieBiker?feat=directlink#5537374382478761522

LMA

P.S. If you go to LMAppelbaum1 at youtube you’ll find a bloody humorous music video I composed about the actual crash.

Anonymous

I’m decorating a bodice and skirt with a pile of discarded computer cards â€“ my 8 year-old is going trick-or-treating with The Motherboard.

nickelrocket

Found a large Plastic/foam pumpkin that lights up at Walmart couple years back. big enough to fit over my head. Cut out the bottom to snugly fit, minor surgery to see safely through it. Tied a mantle/collar of corn husks all the way around. Few more desk jack-o-lanterns with batteries strung together with twine to sit on my shoulders and back. Hot glued black and fall-colored garland all over a black sweatshirt for the two-layer effect. Camoflage work gloves with raffia hot glued on tops. And a steel cane with garland and mini-jackolantern wired together. Pimp Daddy Pumpkin King!

Anonymous

flannel pjs, fuzzy slippers, copy of TV Guide = Typical Saturday Night

Anonymous

My Jack costume made my Halloween, and so did the gratuitous amount of candy it got me. The brutal leather jacket that ended up being worn in the picture didn’t detract from the night either.

http://i317.photobucket.com/albums/mm395/applesnack/2010-10-30150420.jpg

Anonymous

cardboard, hot glue, duct-tape, spraypaint = just about any costume imaginable. this year : http://is.gd/gmCyq

Anonymous

Rad! Can you post the pattern?

Anonymous

I just saw this DIY robocop costume for a 2-year-old kid:

http://www.sweet-juniper.com/2010/10/part-kid-part-machine-all-cop.html

Best part is, he actually lives in Detroit and did a whole photo shoot around town, even with real Detroit police.

Anonymous

my favorite costume i’ve ever done:

i made a (very realistic, apparently) pregnant belly out of lycra and poly-fil. (sort of a crude tank top with a compartment at pregnancy height.) painted my face up like a dead person. wore a black evening gown over it, and had a crown and a sash. the sash said “Miss Conception.”

I was a dying misconception.

i say the belly must have been realistic because several people took my boyfriend aside and said, “um, do you know your girlfriend is outside drinking bourbon?” he said, “well, yes, she’s an adult.” “but she’s 8 months pregnant!” “dude, you haven’t seen her in 2 weeks. you pregnancy has a fast forward button?” we had many many good laughs over that.

V’s Herbie

I went as a ladybug when I was 9 or so.

The entire costume was two sheets of red poster board cut into ovals with spots drawn on, and some sort of felt mask with pipe cleaner antennae.

It was so quick and cheap, and I thought I was hot shit.

you can be almost anything quickly starting with a sandwich board…

jonathon

That Minotaur costume is really excellent! Well done!

Anonymous

A little late to the party…but I went as Old Gregg!

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t262/pepcorn/halloween2010003.jpg

Anonymous

Last year my department (finance) decided on a common theme of pirates. I obliged and went as a representative of the Somali maritime industry – balclava, camo jacket over a t-shirt, Adidas track pants and white sneakers. To complete the effect I had a home-made (very realistic!!!) RPG, all-black M60 and, of course, a bandolier. I drove to the office fully dressed and surprisingly did not get pulled over or shot. Other cars did get out of my way though…… :)

Derryl Murphy

Two years ago my sons were a garbage can and Rorschach:

http://derrylmurphy.blogspot.com/2008/10/halloween-2008-early-post.html

I’ll have to go to another computer to find the pix of my older boy as a popcorn box. It was also quite cool.

Mhgood

I made my son a Lego costume this year. Just took a cardboard box, taped one side closed but left open the bottom to allow him the ability to walk, glued four paper bowls upside down on the front side, cut arm holes and a head hole, and then pray painted the whole thing blue.

He didn’t like weraing it that much, but he looked darn cute and even won our subdivision’s community costume contest.

And, of course, since I’m a dork that way, I made myself one as well.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=7491816&l=a2fdb172f8&id=513210567

DJBudSonic

I did headhunter last year and for one party this year, and made my own shrunken heads from styrofoam, paper and West Epoxy, wax thread, hair, etc. I like making things that are as real as possible, from real materials, but I had a problem with this costume – I had a 6 ft bamboo staff on top of which I mounted a skull and two antelope horns along with other decorative ‘JUJu’ elements, and carried a real Machete in a fake-jaguar skin sheath. They wouldn’t let me into the clubs for the contests. Go figure!

Halloween is surely the greatest Maker holiday of all….

atdt1991

How about Powdered Toast Man from Ren and Stimpy?!

http://goo.gl/ACvh

(Actually, I couldn’t find tights my size on short notice (not to mention an inflatable bikini) so I went as his Altar (ha ha) Ego, Pastor Toastman! I’m only sad you can’t see the collar in this shot …

jjsaul

When I was half done with that Kermit costume, a lot of tequila at my local dive resulted in me wearing it to sing a karaoke version of “rainbow connection.”

It’s no “Pressure”, that’s certain. In fact, I had one arm shoved inside the half-finished head because I was reading the lyrics off a smart phone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAB4q0S6KbY

That was also the first time I realized that the lyrics to Rainbow Connection really match the GLBT rainbow branding. DURING the singing, of course.

Stephen Mstar

My kids are all Star Wars. Last year they went as complimentary costumes. The two youngest were Ewoks while the oldest was an AT-ST walker that chased them all evening.
Little Ewoks
Big bad AT-ST

Greatest thing about having creative kids is the costumes that they ask for. Always challenging, always rewarding.

Anonymous

I haven’t made myself a costume worth mentioning in years, but the costumes I make for my daughter are another matter. Oh my, is she cute on Halloween!

Here are links to her Baby Owl costume she wore at 1 1/2 yrs old,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildjinjer/3227977764/in/set-72157605654113730/

and the Giraffe costume she wore at 2 yrs old.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildjinjer/4063303700/in/set-72157605654113730/

She’s three now, and requested a parrot. I’m finished with it, but there are no photos yet, so stay tuned!

Anonymous

For halloween last year we were “in black and white (grayscale).” It was AMAZING and everyone loved it. The photos of the night were incredible too!

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/hs059.snc3/14637_165965621540_726596540_3422099_5506558_n.jpg

Anonymous

Here are two pics and a video of this year’s costume.
A robot with built in drink dispenser. I forgot to take a camera out with me, but ended up in tons of strangers’ photos from the evening.

http://f.cl.ly/items/75ba5a1cf67e91195e68/robot.png

http://f.cl.ly/items/fa84c811f001fb2f23ca/robot1.jpg

https://vidja.s3.amazonaws.com/96/1z9ns.mp4

Anonymous

I make masks for myself. I usually just wear one of them. This year I am going to wear one that I call “Nest.” It’s sort of a self portrait.

http://ianlangohr.squarespace.com/masks/nest-2009/

Mister44

This year I am wearing my Mandarin silk shirt, a toy fire hat, and a siren or a toy drill and go as a Chinese fire drill :o)

Anonymous

I want to borrow a bunch of kids for halloween and outfit them with Richard D James paper masks…

And nerf baseball bats.

Anonymous

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?be150d29dc.jpg
a couple of years ago i went as Dr Harleen Quinzel/Harley Quinn, turned up in labcoat and glasses then changed into the alterego part way through the eve. Red D&G bodysuit over tights and mesh longsleeve, some duct tape diamonds did the job quite nicely

Anonymous

I’ll be the cat that ate the canary this year:
I’m making a screen-print on a black t-shirt with 3 parts. The back of the rib-cage, a yellow bird, and then the top of the rib cage. It should pan out to look like an x-ray a ‘la looney tunes.
i’ll be wearing the basic cat costume, a couple of feathers glued to my mouth, and I’m set!

mkultra

ankle-length cream-color bathrobe, a reproduction-quality Dr. Who scarf repurposed as a sash, a pirate wig with the beads removed, small wreath for a crown of thorns, giant ’70s elton john sunglasses, gold chains and giant gold cross, cigar and my own rather long and luxurious beard = Jesus Christ Superstar

I’m trying to decide if I should put W W I D ? on the back of the robe. too much?

jonathon

What Would I Do! Oh oh yes please!

ganman

I went as Doc Ock from Spiderman II and, the year Razor scooters came out, I was Scooter Through The Chest.

http://www.seangannon.net/halloween.html

Happy Halloween!

mylesnyc

The birds! Run!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mylesgaythwaite/5133323875/

http://www.xeni.net Xeni Jardin

@mylesnyc, that’s amazing! how’d you make that?

Spicoley1

Awesom-O & Towlie, DIY 2010

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27367952@N08/5137466110/

Spicoley1

I made Awesom-O out of boxes, used a bicycle light with a cut out water bottle over it for the light on the head, used a hanger wrapped in electrical tape for the atenna, an actual processor from inside a Sesame Street orginal Nintendo game, can opener, lots of duct tape, etc. oh-and dryer vent duct for the arms.

Towlie was made from 2 towels stapled (not sewn) together, masking tape for white stripes and eyes and mouth were hand drawn on poster board, the arms were just plain white opera gloves, inside there was a 3 piece PVC pipe “T” to support the towel with an elastic girdle to keep it on the wearer.

j9c

If we dress up at all, we go for handmade. This year, having learned that Halloween is a time for “scary” costumes, our son decided on making a nuclear waste barrel costume. His idea, not ours. He sewed a cylinder of yellow felt, made the nuclear hazard trefoils out of black felt and sewed those on, yellow cardboard hot-glued for the lid, a slit cut at eye-level to see out of. He looked up stress-fracture patterns on metal barrels on iStock, cut some of those in and is sewing (store-bought, ugh) glow sticks behind the “cracks” so that the “radiation” can seep out dangerously. And he’ll be easier to find in the dark. I will be taking him from house to house dressed as BP oil worker: stained mechanics coverall which already reeks of petroleum anyway, a few BP logos glued to back and chest, rubber boots, hard hat, goggles, and some black paint splashed on it all. Real oil is incredibly nasty and as a lazy mom I’d like to avoid the mess because I already do too much cleaning.

Bergeboy

Made this in 2 hours for my sister today. The whole time I was thinking how much people on here would love it.

Papercraft Cantina Band

http://i710.photobucket.com/albums/ww107/Tythal/fcadb8b6.jpg

Anonymous

My son and daughter.

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/image.php?3ef033f9ae.jpg

codereduk

Stole this from an old friend:

Renting a full tuxedo, with a huge sign hung around my neck that says, “I’m Sorry”

I’m a Formal Apology

Anonymous

Some great costumes here! I freakin’ love Halloween. I live in Panama City Beach and I was thinking of going as the Oil Spill. I just need a piece of shimmery-black fabric with a rainbow sheen to drape myself in, then some toy fishes and pelicans – paint them brown and black and maybe put little Xs over their eyes and glue them on the hem. Maybe some zombie-looking makeup with big tears down my face, then a safety helmet with a BP logo to top it off. I was thinking I could print out some fake checks to pass out as BP claims as well.

2008 – I was sexy Washington and my girlfriend at the time was sexy Lincoln: http://tinyurl.com/2d84ajd
http://tinyurl.com/2e5kvuv

2009 – I was the March Hare (or White Rabbit, whichever people seemed to recognize more), my little sis was the Mad Hatter, one of our friends was “Bad” Alice, since her costume was red instead of blue, and we made our other friend be the Cheshire Cat (Really easy to pull off, black clothes, some quick ears sewn out of felt onto a headband, and a terrycloth robe belt for her tail: http://tinyurl.com/24bs9ey
http://tinyurl.com/278mfgv
http://tinyurl.com/246fuue

Anonymous

One of my favorite costumes was one I wore to a party full of medical interns and residents: I wore army fatigues and tied a bloody cloth around my shin- I was a Lower G.I. Bleed.

Redwalker

My two best customs ever were:

The Grimrepairer
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/JDg2azliyMHdLUNxARuaSvHx6n1G1mvMjnRc93YEUsk?feat=directlink

Scarecrow
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/pNzlffJavsjILF4Mrx3NkfHx6n1G1mvMjnRc93YEUsk?feat=directlink

Bizangles

I’ve DIY’d my costumes for the past 4 years.

2006: #21 from Venture Bros. http://flic.kr/p/zE9ff
2007: Mii http://flic.kr/p/3JUt4V
2008: Down on his luck tycoon. http://flic.kr/p/5BnUVJ
2009: The Shoveler from Mystery Men http://flic.kr/p/7bVjkp
2010: Sockarang from Axe Cop (no pics yet, sorry)

speeb

Saw this on a friend’s photography page, pretty sure the link should work. Apologies if it doesn’t.

ALL THE WAY!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=487604355699&set=a.487603995699.299988.56409845699

Erica

I’m a last minute kinda girl. Dylan was perfect.

http://ifihadmywayeveryday.tumblr.com/post/1444911935/me-as-dylan-my-hair-hurts

Anonymous

My neighbor and I took our kids as a pack of dalmations. We cut black felt spots and used fabric glue to attach them to white sweat pants & sweatshirts. We cut out ear shapes and glued them to white knit hats. Then we used black eyeliner pencil to color all the noses.

MadMolecule

My favorite costume I’ve worn was a buttoned-up trenchcoat with only shorts underneath, dark shoes and dark socks, and sunglasses with a baseball cap pulled way down over my eyes. I was a pervert! Er, I was dressed as a pervert.

And here I am last year, as Snidely Whiplash.

andurin

We went as the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe a couple of years ago: my sister and her friend Kelly sewed their costumes, while I went for the old standby of a refrigerator box:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/avelino_maestas/5134078594/

fubbs

I went as my work ID card. I scanned my ID card, then blew it up to life-size & had it printed. Glued it to cardboard, cut out the rectangle part where my picture was, and hung it in front of me with straps that went around my shoulders.

Last year I went as gum stuck under a chair. I made a tiny chair out of cardboard, and wore it on my head like a hat. The rest of me was either painted or clothed in green.

cjp

This thread is amazing. Can we have a vote for best costume based on the photos submitted here? Wonderful work across the board.

Anonymous

tie strings to hands of several action figures, attach to various parts of your body. You are a Runaway Macy’s Thanksgiving Day balloon of yourself.

Jimbo

khaki pants + dirty/bloody wife beater + bare feet or fake bare feet + holster + badge = John McClane

jjsaul

I made a chainmail vest a few years ago. 10,000 steel rings ordered from a foundry in Canada, several lock-tight pliers that got worn/warped enough to no longer lock, and about a hundred hours of work later, I had a nice item I could have bought for $80.

Or that could have dropped from a mob.

Oh wait… this one was better. $30 of foam, felt, hot glue, and copper tubing = Kermit!

http://picasaweb.google.com/covingtonjim/DownunderHalloween#5398185349854387682

bardfinn

Yellow slacks, orange t-shirt, red button-up shirt = Ubuntu.

This only works because I can mentally answer the product of two arbitrary numbers before an adult with a calculator.

(Kids: no matter what your parents say or think, this skill is absolutely useless in adult life. Better to learn to do the figures on paper or an abacus. No-one (except perhaps Google or the IRS) will ever hire you for this skill.)

tproa

After being told I looked like him enough, this year I’m going as Jamie Hyneman. Ten minutes of shaving and a $10 beret later, I have this: http://twitpic.com/31vlor It’s gotten several comments from folks so far.

Anonymous

This year I decided to build a Lego Figurne Vampire costume. It took me about a week and 50EUR. Quite happy with the result.
http://gallery.me.com/borjamaris#100107/Posando

Anonymous

I am going as a Prescott Pharmaceuticals rep. (look it up) I will wear suit and tie but I have an Prescott ID badge made and I am going to give out candy in little plastic bags as free Pharmaceuticals samples. I was thinking I should hand out some T-shirts that say “Sorry about the whole Zombie thing” that would also have the Prescott logo on them.

tschmidty

A couple years ago, I was a superhero of my own creation, Super Geek Girl. I had a lightsaber, Geek Squad t-shirt, inhaler, and light bulb taped to my head.

http://i766.photobucket.com/albums/xx306/SchmidtyBiddy/Me/DSC01952.jpg
http://i766.photobucket.com/albums/xx306/SchmidtyBiddy/Me/DSC01952.jpg

morgan

A couple Halloweens have since passed, but I made this mask from various plants, wire, and an old fluorescent mask to help hold it all together:

Plant Mask

Allison Miller

I made this awesome DIY Giant Box Robot costume yesterday for my husband, although I did wear it for pictures. It took him awhile to learn to walk on stilts, but everyone loved it!

http://bit.ly/dA77kA

Anonymous

I’m going as count duckula. Got a cheap vampire costume,
with white gloves, bow tie. Green face paint, and a yellow cardboard beak with teeth.

just need a grannie with a arm in a sling calling me “duckyboos”

fungstyle

My best DIY costume was “The Devil’s Advocate.” I wore my best lawer-like clothes – pinstriped suit pants and vest with a blood red button down and carried a brief case with contracts for souls. I then pinned pieces of paper to the outfit that said things like “Billions of sinners can’t be wrong” and “Have a little sympathy” and “He’s really not a bad guy once you get to know him.” My friend Nick was the devil and I “represented” him all night. Great fun, and fun run ins with the slutty nuns and jesuses out and about that night.

Pavlovia

We’ve been pretty upset that people don’t cheer for important things, like science, logic, and grammar, so we thought we would become the Cheerleaders of Reason.

Grammar is a science,
Science is a process,
Process follows logic,
Logic is an art!

Check it out:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55366486@N04/5134157630/

Anonymous

I usually go all out on my halloween costumes, but this year particularly drove my wife crazy. :)

This year, I put together a Ghostbuster outfit, complete with slimeblower. The pictures:
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y183/Ghost_XIII/ghostbusters012.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y183/Ghost_XIII/ghostbusters008.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y183/Ghost_XIII/ghostbusters007edit.jpg
http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y183/Ghost_XIII/ghostbusters005.jpg

This took me about 3 months to build and tons of trips to home depot. It isn’t 100% movie accurate, but it was definitely close enough to make a big impression at our Halloween party this past weekend. Most of the design is courtesy of the discussion on the gbfans.com forums. Enjoy :)

Anonymous

I’m going as Katy Perry from California girls (she wears a crazy dress covered in sweets) and my boyfriend is dressing like Snoop Dogg from the video – he wears a pimp suit with candy all over it. Glue gunning candy to any accessories and clothing looks really cool :)

Anonymous

Here’s a few quick shots of my Disco Ball 5.0 costume. This is the 5th version i’ve made over the years, and the best one yet… there will be more pictures soon & the making of, coming on my blog deeptrouble.com

http://gallery.me.com/amandeepjawa#100209/photo_3&bgcolor=black

Swampdog

My all time favorite DIY costume: I used a plastic “brain” from a costume shop. I cut out a piece about 6 inches in diameter and made an “x” slit in 2 crossing cranial grooves. I glued a small zip lock bag behind it (cutting the x into one side of the bag also). I glued the whole thing behind a hole in a cheap knit cap so it looked like my brain was exposed behind the hole in the cap. I could reach my fingers through the x slit and rummage around in the zip lock bag. I filled the zip lock bag with gummy worms and fake blood. I wore that along with shabby clothes and gray-green makeup (zombie). So I was a zombie that could pull bloody brainworms out of my exposed brain and eat them.

LibrarianMitch

My best Halloween costume, my last year of college, was DIY, and simple (too simple): One sock, with the word “CENSORED” written on it. (The allusion to the Red Hot Chili Peppers was unintentional.) Also, aquasocks (I don’t go barefoot outside) and a bathrobe (gotta have something to flash people with, though I also just held it over my arm part of the time).

I had been on Student Court for two years, and knew all the campus cops (all ex-NYPD, impossible to shock). So I consulted with one of them about the costume, and she said it would be okay. One of the newer cops wanted to send me home, but the officer in charge that night (who did not have a reputation as a civil libertarian) overruled him.

I do have pictures, and no, I’m not posting them–for which you should thank me.

joeyjoseph

I made this cardboard giraffe mask thingy for a friend, http://www.joeyjoseph.com/post/1421816694/last-giraffe-pic-evar-a-happy-recipient-im-on

dunktank

That is phenomenal! I think something along those lines would be terrific on stage… if only I could think of a play with a giraffe in it.

Anonymous

im going as KuurroooSaki!

LibrarianMitch

Did I mention that I did that stone-cold sober?

jjsaul

The “cold” part must have made keeping the sock on a challenge. ;-)

Jerril

This year I’m going as a death metal fan. Which is a little recursive, as I’m actually a death metal fan, but not the kind that owns the usual regalia.

A trip to Canadian Tire for a box of 4″ smooth sided nails with respectable looking chiseled points and 8 feet of 3/16″ chain (why is all the hardware imperial? We’re in Canada) and then to Fabricland for black faux leather vinyl and velcro. Tonight it’s to the drug store for hair wax or something. I already have the outrageous and well-loved black band T-Shirt, black jeans and some black and white face paint for corpse paint… and some medieval weapons…

Xeni Jardin

Man, so many awesome awesome costume ideas.

20tauri

Here’s me as Leela from Futurama :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixbymaia/5134220226

pundog

Man, I love Halloween. It’s always a great opportunity to make something crafty and retro. Some of my favorites:

Garbage Pail Kid card: painted a posterboard, cut a hole for my head, and attached a beheaded Cabbage Patch doll for the body, for a 3-D effect:
http://gallery.me.com/pundog#100086/IMG_4341

Eddie Valiant with Roger Rabbit hiding in his trench coat: sewed a homemade Roger plush (with a stick to control his head movements through my pocket):
http://gallery.me.com/pundog#100167/IMG_5437

Bob’s Big Boy: painted some white overalls checkered, ironed letters onto a shirt, Elvis wig, and found a hamburger pillow on Ebay:
http://gallery.me.com/pundog#100225/bigboy

Halloween, you guys!!

john

I had a lot of fun with a bald wig and gray sweat pants and shirt one yet. And my 1 year old in a Baby Bjorn. We went as Dr. Evil and Mini Me!

Another time I was cheap and just went as Flask, the evil twin of Beaker from the Muppet show. Hardest part was getting my hair orange enough without making it too permanent.

This yeah… the kids are going to be a hobbit and a cow girl.
I love the Motherboard idea though! Should get the wife to do that one.

Anonymous

Thanks to the skills of my Mother-In-Law, my 9 year old son has had a series of fabulous costumes.

This year is is going as William Shakespeare, and I’ve humiliated our poor greyhound with a Tudor style dress and “Elizabethan Collar”

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v231/wasagooze/Halloween%202010/shakespeareandmabel_faked.jpgIn the past he has been everything from Teddy Roosevelt, to Napoleon (trust me – Napoleon is the perfect costume for a 2 year old!)

Here’s a slide show of his whole Halloween history:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v231/wasagooze/Halloween/?action=view&current=81d3e196.pbw

Lonorising

I add a little more to this costume every year. Cassock from eBay; pieces of cloth, origami folded into a Bishop’s mitre; voodoo rosaries; and a steel claw fashioned into a staff – with a crystal ball for added effect. A little too subtle with the zombie makeup this year…

A neighbor “christened” me Cardinal Sin.

audomatic

We went as Photoshop and Illustrator (CS3 – we’re retro!). If it hadn’t been so last minute, I would’ve tried to wrangle a few more people into our Creative Suite. But then again, I don’t think anyone but my partner would have been so willing.

http://flic.kr/p/8PDaxi

jacob_ewing

A few years ago made a large collection of fake piranhas out of aqua-green balloons, small hair clips, cardboard paper, stuffing and staples. Then I attached them all over my outfit with their jaws clamping on to it. I was a piranha victim.

Anonymous

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradleygake/5126709370/

Anonymous

Here is mine.

Conehead from Plant Versus Zombies

http://twitpic.com/32fd95

Anonymous

Computer science professor dresses as a KFC Double Down: http://chowdownshowdown.com

laureltree

Best costume I’m getting to make is being a Guerilla Girl. I’ve got some semi-skanky party clothes with a censor bar about women in the media (hand made) and a Gorilla mask borrowed from my friend. I’m super excited for its debut.

apophaticsean

I dressed up as a SG team member that is travelling through a Stargate

Here is the pic:
http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/7113/76175462815458736675093.jpg

starfive

This year I already went to a party that was super mario themed, and super DIY. They created a castle fascade outside, with a flag pole and flag you could jump up and pull down. This would change the music to the end music and trigger a fire flower to come out of a nearby 8 ft tall green pipe that shot a giant flame in the air.

I decided to go as the original princess from the end of super mario bros. 1.. pixelated. Made it in one day (the day of the party out of felt and foam.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/strangepuppy/5114797202/in/photostream/

Anonymous

Here’s my Mata Hari costume, worn last night:

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/anniecargirl05/cool%20stuff/mataharifullheaddown.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/anniecargirl05/cool%20stuff/mataharifullrear.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/anniecargirl05/cool%20stuff/mataharimidclosefront.jpg

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y159/anniecargirl05/cool%20stuff/mataharicloseupheaddress.jpg

I made that headdress from scratch, and the bra top I assembled from a belly dance top I got off ebay, a regular bra, and a whole lotta sequins and a few crystals glue-gunned on. the jewelery and sari I also ordered from ebay and cut and arranged to my liking.

Anonymous

Two 5-minute $0 costumes from years past:

1. The guy who wears all his clothes so he doesn’t have to pay for checked baggage fees. Wore about 8 pairs of shorts/pants, 10 shirts, and 3 hats. This is a warm costume.

2. Naked Twister. Duct tape a Twister board into a tube like a tube dress with the colors in vertical stripes. Wear shorts underneath if you don’t want to be totally nekkid and have a place for your keys. Hang the spinner around your neck. By the end of the night, four total strangers had somehow each gotten all four limbs on my spots. Consider whether you will come off as creepy before trying this. Bring extra duct tape. This is also a warm costume because the Twister mats are vinyl.

Jeremy Hill

I managed the same one time, but the only thing I needed to get was welding goggles. It was a total last minute thing and won two bar costume contests that year. One first place, one third.

Xopher

I shave my head, so one year I spray-painted a jagged black stripe onto a white t-shirt, and made several speech-balloon signs with notations like “Good Grief!” and “Auuuuuugghh!” I would hold them up with the pointer at my head and make the appropriate face.

You say it should be a yellow shirt. I hear you, but I was a daily strip, not a Sunday one.

Melanie Gillis Photographer

We were all kinds of hilarious and we shot photos of everyone in their DIY costumes at my studio. Too much fun! Check out the album at

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=299305&id=588075364&l=efa154511f

Anonymous

surplus scrubs w/ nuclear sign from regional nuclear facility + gas mask + scarf, hat + paper snowflakes = nuclear winter

AdamUndefined

Last year spent a lot of hours on a Kool-Aid Man costume
http://plixi.com/p/53432145

This year I’m taking it easy and making two pieces of bread from cardboard, attaching them to my arms and wearing this shirt: http://shirt.woot.com/friends.aspx?k=15838

Anonymous

I made a tree costume this yea. I took a long time making sure I could wear the sweater all year- the leaves are reversable with one side being green (spring) and one reds/oranges (autumn) in spring I’ll ad flowers! I made the hat, too, which stands pretty well despite not, you know, being made of wood.
I think it turned out oakay.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/satiredun

Anonymous

http://www.flickr.com/photos/elleschneider/5134752955/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elleschneider/5135351084/in/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elleschneider/5135350774/in/photostream/

blade runner!

Anonymous

i am deeply impressed by this thread. how intense.

.~.

jhhl

Here’s my son’s from last year: Oogie Boogie: http://oogieboogiecostume.blogspot.com/ A masterpiece of burlap, plaster gauze, aluminum foil, hot glue and staples.

Antinous / Moderator

I went as Golden Gate Park once. Just leaves and twigs.

tatticus

We had a Daft Punk Halloween this year.
http://s768.photobucket.com/albums/xx327/tatticus/?action=view&current=daft_us.jpg

Slightly Askew

My son loves Jack, the Pumpkin King. We looked at the rubber mask, and at painting the face, but none of them looked quite right. Decided to carve it out of a giant Styrofoam ball instead. His giant tie makes a perfect mask. If we had time, I’d have painted the head white so it looked more like clay and not foam, as well as found a better white cap for his head.

http://yfrog.com/87img6878copyj

Anonymous

Re: Morrigan #7…

Interestingly, my 9-year-old autistic son came up with the idea of cutting a number of holes in a sheet and going as Charlie Brown. I was very impressed that he came up with that and tried to encourage him to do it but, after he thought about it some more, he won’t do it. He is afraid he will end up with a bag of rocks.

Anonymous

My best ever costume involved a cheap black suit and a bowler hat and a bowler hat with an apple hung from the brim with a few inches of fishing line.

I was Magritte’s Son of Man. The bowler was kinda pricey, but the rest was cheap and easy.

deep@worker-bee.com

Hi – her’s a quick set of pictures of my latest Disco Ball costume, Disco Ball 5.0 – every few years I make a better version & this is the best yet :-)

http://gallery.me.com/amandeepjawa#100209/photo_3&bgcolor=black
http://gallery.me.com/amandeepjawa#100209

I made the whole thing and have an iPod powered sound system in it :-) The video give you a sense of that…

I’ll have full making of details on my website, deeptrouble.com soon – but if you poke around the link below you’ll find older versions and some of my other costumes :-)

http://www.deeptrouble.com/pp/

hallam

I also did a dalek – a full sized replica of the actual prop.

http://dotfuturemanifesto.blogspot.com/2010/10/dalek-halloween.html

I was not inside when I took the photo, obviously. And it is not quite complete.

hpfan41

I am halfway disappearing cheshire cat :) my grandmother made it for me

qatarperegrine

This year I’m going to carry an old brass lantern and a(n Elvish) sword (of great antiquity) and be the adventurer from Zork.

If I’m brave I’m thinking of carrying around a whiteboard that says “West of House” (etc.) and letting people play me.

Anonymous

Last Saturday the hubby and I went to a themed party (Terror under the big top). I was the bearded lady. Even cut my own hair to make the beard – only way to have it match – and made the costume (4 bustled skirts, chemise, all the trim, tiny top hat) myself as well. Took about 2 full weekends, since I don’t own a sewing machine.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30988013&l=2cd9abe321&id=1493851808

Closeup of my beard
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30986477&l=aee9b2eaf0&id=1493851808

Me with the hubby at the party. He was Chappelle’s Blind Klansman.
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=30997726&l=7bc8e2cdea&id=1493851808

GuyInMilwaukee

I will be in a homemade monkey outfit and my wife will be a spider/human hybrid holding very large tiger testicles.
I, of course, will be singing:

Tigerâ€™s balls, yeah
I ate Tigerâ€™s balls
Now aint nobody gonna stop me never at all
Nobody put me up against the big black wall
â€˜Cos I ate Tigerâ€™s testimonials
I ate Tigerâ€™s balls.

Neil Gaiman is judging the costume contest. The winners will get to ride the worlds largest carousel at the House on the Rock with Mr. Gaiman.
Wish us luck.

nanner

good luck! that’s going to be awesome!
you might get a kick out of this… me and some other people last winter in bklyn…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/85466700@N00/4106052521/in/set-72157622692546607/
- GuyInMilwaukee
  
  Thanks nanner. Oh nooo.. you killed Neil! heheh
  
  Last couple year’s costumes.
  The Aliens: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCStTi0kzf0
  The Residents: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbLhcXjP8Ao

Cinbad

This year I’m going as the Little Oil Spill Mermaid. I bought a bridesmaid dress at a thrift store and modified the train into a tail, then added clamshells, paint and fabric to make it look more fishy. Poor Sebastian and Flounder were bought on ebay.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55329325@N04/5131180889/

beameup

I’m a high school math teacher, so I thought I should do something appropriate. We are currently using radians in trigonometry, so my students here me say “pi” about 100 times per class. I wore this to school on Friday. Students would look at me and say “Your a pumpkin. Why pi? Oh!” . I took a costume my mother made for my little sister many years ago and used a permanent marker to draw this on the non-jack-o-lantern side.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30088483@N02/5128927746/

planettom

I went as a Chilean Miner, complete with Rescue Pod.

http://planettom.livejournal.com/296535.html

Made from 2 32-gallon plastic trashcans. Except, though I could contort to fit in it, I realized I couldn’t with the hardhat/headlamp, so I had to add 12″ of a 3rd 32-gallon plastic trashcan. The mesh in the window is made from the bag that oranges come in.

kayleigh

Favorite costume: A friend of my sister’s wore a men’s button down shirt(buttoned completely incorrectly) men’s boxer shorts, men’s socks with her hair and make up a mess. She was last night’s one night stand.

whatbryan

I was Recession Batman. It’s all Obama’s fault.

http://i1218.photobucket.com/albums/dd402/whatbryan/Batman.jpg

dangertown

this year i tried my hand at being radiohead http://www.flickr.com/photos/55335014@N03/5133978701/in/photostream/ it was as awkward as is it was fun!

Anonymous

I’m going to be Rodimus Prime. My boyfriend is going as Cyclonus. Red and purple t-shirts, respectively, with a little fabric paint embellishment and cardboard wings. And of course, a poster-board bunny helmet for him.

Anonymous

our family isn’t so much about the diy costumes as much as diy movies. here is our zombie one from last year http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yklSai8zJyI . we’ve decided to go all out this year but we’re not finished. here’s what we’ve got so far http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiZ8V6JALTI

Antinous / Moderator

One of the best costumes that I’ve ever seen was a pair of sunglasses and a scarf over the head for Indira Gandhi. It was utterly minimal but everyone recognized it immediately. Similarly, a white shirt and loose tie with a garden hose around the neck for Dan White. A couple came to the same party as the Klinghoffers.

Anonymous

Having trouble signing-in, but I just wanted to say that this thread has been amazing, and I would love to see what kinds of pumpkins all these amazingly creative people are carving for tonight.

nanner

my 9 year old is going as Frodo so I needed to make him something he could safely wear to school & trick or treat in. This is what I came up with… Hobbit-Sneakers :). My project got featured on Craftster’s Facebook page today :)

you can see them here:
http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=363012.0

I also made his cloak but haven’t taken pix of the whole costume yet.

foxtongue

Now that my partner is up from Seattle, I got to take some shots of us in costume. He doesn’t have his dog-nose painted on, but here’s us as Sputnik and Laika!

http://porphyre.livejournal.com/926907.html

Someone said we were dressed as city workers when we were out last night, to which I said, “No! Cosmonauts!”.
They replied, “But cosmonauts aren’t real, city workers are, so you’re city workers.”
“What do you mean cosmonauts aren’t real?”
“There’s no such thing as a cosmonaut!”

TimLillis

I wanted to share my friend George’s costume, definitely one of the best I saw this year â€“ a Banksy painting.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8826310@N05/5138556191/

anditron

Steampunk Organ Grinder and my clockwork monkey. Okay, I had to swap out an accordion for the organ cause a mom’s only got so many hands.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/andibob909/5132630841/in/photostream/

Anonymous

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h260/scooter0101001/652cdec1.jpg

My wife n I tossed together a Supermanson n Susan Atkins salad!!

Muse

My most inspired costume was when I was about 10 or 11 years old. It consisted of a paper bag and a couple walkie-talkies.

I put the bag on the doorstep with a walkie-talkie in it, then rang the doorbell and quickly hid out of sight. When the person opened their door, I said: “Trick or treat, I am the invisible man.”

My creativity was not well rewarded. I mostly got a lot of confused adults who looked around for the source of the voice (most completely missed the paper bag), and then quickly shut the door. I didn’t get much candy that year.

I think it could have worked if I had figured out a way to suspend the bag in midair (from the porch) with some fishing line or something, but that would have made it way too complicated.

somefoolsmess

One of my favorites, which is now a staple for me at Halloween is, “ZOMBEAUX!!! The Clown”. I put it together at the last minute when going through my box of costumes from Mardi Gras’ and Halloweens from years past.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31173207@N04/5121799237/

Sekino

My husband and I made some cross-culture Greek monsters this year:

I am making a Kabuki Medusa costume, complete with home-made kimono and snake geisha wig, but I’m not quite done yet (tomorrow!).

However, my husband’s Minotaur costume with a Venetian Carnival flavour was finished tonight and we’re rather pleased. We made the bull mask from scratch, him modeling it out of cardboard and plaster and myself painting it. I made the toga as well.

Here’s the step-by-step process for the mask:

http://celesteagnes.blogspot.com/2010/10/diy-minotaur-halloween-costume.html

chetspartan

A few from years past. These were for my niece depending on what her favorite character was at the time.

Luv-A-Lot Bear ’08
http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/8446/withViv.jpg

http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/1452/VivmeetsLoveALotbear.jpg

http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/7020/withViv2.jpg

http://img131.imageshack.us/img131/9936/withtheleprachan.jpg

Elmo ’07
http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/7748/img1386p.jpg

http://img808.imageshack.us/img808/6645/img21601.jpg

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/8674/img2202t.jpg

http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/2575/img1338r.jpg

SpongeBob – ’06
http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/8730/img0232xa7.jpg

Anonymous

My best costume ever was a Rasta Scarecrow. A friend had made a long dreadlocked wig of raffia. The rest was easy: more raffia sticking out of the collar and cuffs.

clarkycat

This is the best that I’ve seen:
http://yfrog.com/n368773449873148194736323j

Anonymous

probably not too many people reading this thread anymore. I posted a rough cut of the zombie movie my family movie was making a few weeks ago. we finally finished. the cast includes only my kids(aged 4,7,8, and 8). It’s still highly entertaining even for people without kids. enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_J2wjHwQ4s

Fumbata

Fleece, felt, foam, fake fur, and a hell of a lot of hot glue = Swedish Chef. It turned out pretty good, so I made a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWB-EMCmrTo&feature=player_profilepage

Have a great Halloween!

Xeni Jardin

Good heavens.

So: I am blogging as many of these as time allows.

Rather than voting for which one is “best,” I would like to express appreciation for all of them, and for the fact that everyone here took the time to write in and share!

THANK YOU.

Anonymous

Black graduation robe, dark sunglasses, white stick with red tip: just another case of American blind justice (Alice’s restaurant, helps if you have 8×10 glossies with circles and arrows)

swell

Some of my favorite costumes i’ve made include:

Devil with the blue dress on…red body paint, horns made out of tin foil and painted red glued onto forward (this was the year i learned not to use school grade rubber cement to affix such things! go chemical burns!! i was 17, what can you do?), blue t-shirt cut up and modified to be more “sexy” and a blue mini-skirt made out of a fabric sample held together with safety pins

Margot Tenenbaum (from the movie the Royal Tenenbaums)…not a whole lot of this costume was DIY…polo shirt dress, loafers and pink barrette from my closet, fur coat from a flea market, but i did cut my own hair for the occasion and crafted a fake wooden finger to cover my own finger out of paper and colored with a brown sharpie.

The lucky charms leprechaun: Green jacket, blue vest and black men’s pants were thrifted, the paints were turned into knickers with duct tape, and a hat was created from a green plastic bowler hat to which i affixed a homemade shamrock on a wire (his kind of hangs off and dangles in front). I was of trick or treating age at the time of this costume so I used an empty family-size Lucky Charms box for my treat bag. Adults could turn one into a handy purse!

Anonymous

Not the only AT-ST (Scout Walker) on this thread, but my son’s costume garnered a fair amount of attention while we were out on the streets of San Francisco tonight:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/inexorabletash/5134204463/in/photostream/

Xeni Jardin

So many great comments, folks. I’ll be pulling some of these items as separate Boing Boing blog posts!

Anonymous

I was feeling pretty great about my outfit, until I saw the post above. I guess I still feel pretty great about it. I think it’s toward the better end of “cop out” costumes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nomadwarmachine/5129644499/#/

nanner nanners

Last year I did a bang up job of making my own Molotov Cocktease outfit.
Black leggings with a black leotard on top worn backwards, a long red wig, some red vinyl gloves and red pieces of scrap vinyl.
For the heart shaped eye patch, I just cut it out of an existing normal eye patch. And a dagger and gun, of course.

The funniest part was running into a Dr. Girlfriend character while I was out walking!

This year I’m taking a cue from Wayne’s World…”If she were a president, she’d be Babe-raham Lincoln.”
Just a corset over a white collared shirt, suit jacket, bow-tie, top hat, beard, heels, and a mole.

Oh Halloween, how I’ve missed you…

chgoliz

This year, one of my children is part of a group doing Avatar: The Last Airbender (anime/manga, not the recent live action movie). She’s going as Mai. Other than cosplay sites, I couldn’t find any pre-made options, so I had to figure it out myself.

Started with a boy’s Jedi cloak. Cut off the hood, fashioned that part into the two winged shoulders and added those to the cloak. Sewed cream-colored wide satin ribbon on to make the collar/lapels. Created a black belt with even wider black ribbon; added white stylized chrysanthemum button in the correct place on the belt. Will add white lining inside the sleeves if I find the time. Deep red mock turtleneck shirt and matching sweat pants underneath. Black knee-high socks over the lower half of the pants and my old Tai Chi shoes. Black wig for the bangs and Chinese buns…her own long dark hair underneath will hang down in front to complete the hairstyle. Wristbands (for the knives) made from coffee cup sleeves covered in tin foil. Long black gloves cut off at the first knuckle.

No, she doesn’t appreciate me. All of her friends do, though.

jacob_ewing

My wife and I are very pleased with our collective effort this year. We’ll be going as mixed-theme pair of Greek mythological characters. She’ll be going as a Kabuki inspired Medusa, and I’ll be a Venetian carnival minotaur. We just finished my costume and have it up on the intertubes now. Hers is soon to follow.

Anonymous

Favorite DIY concept costume: Freudian Slip. Wear a full slip or short one with jeans. Print out a photo of Freud, tape it to cardboard oval, punch hole on bottom, and use string/chain to hang it around your neck. When someone asks, Who are you?, just hold up the mask. Surprising how many people recognize Freud!

sabik

@anon, if you’re going as Freudian Slip, it has to be your *mother’s* slip that you’re wearing.

Anonymous

We went as a TARDIS and a Dalek! http://picasaweb.google.com/anastasia.hurley/Halloween201002?authkey=Gv1sRgCLyf8eq__MCvuQE#

Anonymous

white horse + ghostbusters = StayPuft Marshmallow Man! er…horse.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_XshLpV41WH8/TM4oXhEgzBI/AAAAAAAAAHk/Pk56K79ruXk/s1600/photo%2857%29.JPG

jacob_ewing

Not my costume, but kudos to the young lad I just saw in the grade school across the street from the office I work in: He was a “Lego” figurine, with a grey boxes for his torso and legs, and yellow box for a head with a little cylinder on the top and a big smiley face on the front. Awesomeness.

Open thread: your DIY Hallowe'en costumes?

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