Thursday, October 16, 2014

Costumes from Halloweens Past

Costumes from Halloweens Past
On the first Halloween after our marriage, we began a tradition of costumes. We choose a theme together, and our costumes are home-made (or home-assembled) and done on a budget. We love making silly poses and mugging for the camera on Halloween, and I enjoy making the costumes for us in the days leading up to it. I'm very excited about our costumes this year, which are about 75% finished, but for now I'd like to share our costumes from Halloweens past.
Homemade Halloween costumes - Wreck-It Ralph, Vanellope
Homemade Halloween costumes - Wreck-It Ralph
2013
Wreck-It Ralph: Ralph and Vanellope

I enjoy movies involving lots of candy even more than horror films around Halloween, but Wreck-It Ralph is one of our favorites any time of year. These costumes were great fun to put together. A few pieces were thrifted, and some we already had - like the orange t-shirt and shorts. I used Rit color-remover and dye to color my formerly navy leggings teal, and I also dyed the green plaid insert on Ralph's costume. We couldn't find inexpensive overalls, so I pinned an overall bib I made from scrap fabric to a pair of my husband's shorts. He really wanted the cookie award to be part of  his costume, so I constructed it from polymer clay, which I also used for my hair candy. The stripes on my legs were white duct tape. My hair was colored dark brown at the time, which worked for the costume, but we used some temporary hair color spray to cover my husband's blonde.

Favorite part: hair candy and Ralph's award
If I did it again: bake more of the hair candy pieces directly on to the bobby pins instead of trying to attach them with beading wire (too clumsy, and snags your hair)!
Homemade Halloween costumes - Kate Walker, Oscar
Homemade Halloween costumes - Syberia
2013
Syberia: Kate Walker and Oscar

I was rather proud of these last-minute Syberia costumes I assembled from things around our house. This was a few days before Halloween, also last year. Nothing was purchased for these costumes. (I already owned a pair of steampunk goggles, haha). These costumes were based on how the characters appear in the 2004 game, Syberia II, which was perfect for wearing outdoors in the brisk weather. 

Favorite part: cutting the fingers off a pair of damaged leather gloves and turning them inside out to get the effect I was looking for. Also, drawing a metallic mustache on my husband's face with silver eye-liner.
If I did it again: I'd love to create accurate versions of these costumes someday, though - paying special attention the automaton costume.
Halloween costumes, 1920s, Lackadaisy
Homemade Halloween costumes
Home-made Halloween costumes
Halloween costumes: Lackadaisy
2012
Lackadaisy: Rocky and Ivy

This was our first Halloween together, and these costumes were somewhat last-minute (we were married earlier that month)! I'm a big fan of Tracy J. Butler's comic, Lackadaisy. Cats, prohibition, St. Louis, pancakes and so much more. That's all I'm going to say about it. It must be read. Our costumes were inspired by human versions of two of our favorite characters. My husband's trousers, suspenders and tie were thrifted, and I purchased some yellow Rit dye to color my dress and fabric for the scarf and hat embellishment. Everything else we found in our own closets.

Favorite part: flirting with the Roaring '20s.
If I did it again: make the little club pins (which the characters in the comic wear) from polymer clay.

Thanks for reading, and if you have any photos of your past Halloween costumes, please feel free to link to them in the comments - I'd love to see them!

bloglovin | tumblr | twitter | pinterest

16 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh this is so cute! Can't wait to see what adorable thing you do this year!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh holy cats (see what I did there), I *love* Lackadaisy and you got Ivy and Rocky perfect! Especially Rocky's crazyface. Don't let him near the syrup :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aw, thank you! Lackadaisy is fantastic, isn't it? <3 My husband is a genius at imitating facial expressions. Now I want pancakes...

      Delete
  3. These are so awesome! I have to be honest, I'm not familiar with most of the inspirations behind them, but they all come together really well. I also really love that you and your husband get dressed up together and really enjoy it. My boyfriend and I also like to do the theme thing - it just makes it more fun, feeling like you've got a partner in crime.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Jessica! That's quite a compliment. "Partners in crime" is a fun description. :D

      Delete
  4. Such a fun post and you guys are adorable together! I don't really dress up for Halloween, but we are going to my son's school carnival and I think I am going to wear a vintage-style dress, oxfords, and red lipstick for fun.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Catherine! That sounds like a great idea. I'm picturing you in something that's reminiscent of Bomb Girls or Call the Midwife - I think because reading about those shows on your blog got me hooked on them :-)

      Delete
    2. I hadn't thought of those shows, but now you've inspired me!

      Delete
  5. Your Halloween costumes are incredible and have been so well done! Really, the attention to detail is amazing! I especially love the little sprinkles for Vanellope's hair (whom I love and even have a vinyl figure of her sitting on my desk) - so clever!

    ReplyDelete
  6. How fun! It's funny- I actually have always loved costumes, but haven't dressed up for Halloween in a donkey's ear. My husband would love to though, so maybe we'll take a leaf out of your book. My favorite of these fun looks are the 20s cartoon characters. Too fun!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love these! It's so cute how you guys ham it up for the camera together, and the costumes are perfect. The dress you used for Ivy is swoon-worthy. My boyfriend and I are putting together a couples costume for the first time this year - Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy - and I'm overly excited about it.

    I've been featuring past Halloween costumes every Thursday on my blog this month, you can check them out here, here, and here :)

    ~Isabella
    adventuresinhel.blogspot.fi 

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. These are so much fun, Isabella! Thanks for sharing. I'm impressed with all of them, but especially your Lucy! Great expressions. :-)

      And Muppets sound like a really fun costume idea!

      Delete
  8. What a fun post, and excellent costumes even though I confess I'm unfamiliar with the characters behind them. There's a very obvious attention to detail though, and I just love that you dress up together! I adore the '20s Lackadaisy costumes, you both look fantastic and the style suits you so well!

    ReplyDelete
  9. These are such great costumes- even better that you usually have most of the stuff and make them yourselves! I really can't get into store bought costumes. You guys have had some really adorable ideas, although I have to admit I haven't heard of most of them, but I can still appreciate how awesome they are! :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I LOVE this post! So fun to see a roundup and you two look like you just had a blast together in all the costumes. Such a great job on all of them and I love how you used things you already had.

    ReplyDelete