Monday, October 24, 2011

Goldfish Costume

I saw this costume idea last year...after I'd already bought a personalized astronaut costume for Bubba. I've been thinking about it for a year, gathering supplies and thinking of how cute Bubba would look in it. I figured this might be the last Halloween where I get to pick what his costume is...
You'd be amazed how hard it is to find an orange sweatshirt. Especially if you don't want a Florida Gator on it. The orange hat wasn't much easier. The costume actually called for an orange hoody - even harder to find than a plain sweatshirt. Plus, I figured Bubba was more likely to wear a hat than the hoody so it worked out OK.

The hardest part was finding the right glue for paper onto fabric. One of the issues was that I didn't want to ruin the sweatshirt - I would prefer it if we could still use it after Halloween. Amazingly enough, I ended up using Elmer's Glue. Supposedly it will come off in the wash. We'll see...

Bubba wore the costume Friday night for Boo at the Zoo. My parents came down to go with us and we met up with my cousin and her family there. It was fun but I would have liked to have seen more animals...Quite a few people commented on the cute goldfish which made me feel better about all the effort I put into it. Though to be honest, once I had gathered all the supplies, making it was actually the easy part.

Have you ever made a Halloween costume for your kids or yourself? How'd it turn out?


3 comments:

  1. Believe it or not, I actually made a REALLY cool Pumpkin-headed scarecrow for myself one year. The hardest part was finding a pumpkin big enough for my noggin!
    I was at USAFA that year so I went to the stables and got some straw. The BX provided the orange work gloves and duct tape. So here's how it went. I carved out the pumpkin from the bottom and had to check and recheck the fit for my head. The eyes, mouth, and nose came next. The last touch for the pumpkin was a straw hat, also from the BX. Actually, a straw basket.
    Under the pumpkin, I wore a black ski mask to further hide who I was and to keep pumpkin out of my hair. It also provided some cushion against the inside part of the stem.
    I wore a flannel shirt with long-johns under it. Those protected me against the straw. The rest of the costume consisted of ripped jeans (more long-johns), long socks, and combat boots. Once dressed, I created a tape-straw skirt for each leg to protrude out of my jeans and at the tops of the boots. I used blousing rings for the jeans so there was a neat line at the tops of the boots. I also created tape-straw skirts for each wrist and then buttoned the sleeves. You see the need for long-johns? More straw sticking out of the button areas of the shirt chest/belly, orange gloves on, and off I went. Arriving at the party, I put the ski mask on, then the pumpkin, and did an Oz-like scarecrow walk into the party. Great fun, no-one had ANY clue who it was under the pumpkin!

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  2. Wow! Sounds like your costume was awesome. Any pictures?

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  3. Nope, well, none that I know of. It was probably 1981 or 1982 and anyone there who had pictures is so far removed, I wouldn't even know who to ask if they had any. Sorry! I don't get into Halloween anymore but if I did, I would probably reprise the outfit... perfect for sitting out on a lawn or standing next to a pole and scaring kids who walk by!

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