A zombie look I created that is similar to that of 28 days later. Spent days before researching and making many different recipes of fake blood in many different shades in order to create a realistic look. I even got stopped by both law enforcement officers and a paramedic because it looked so real in person!

Submitted by Alex,

For my Axl Rose costume, I had a wig cut down for my head, wore a read banana, added lots of bracelets, cross necklaces, aviator sunglasses, black combat boots, tall white socks, a kilt and Guns n’ Roses t-shirt with arms cut off. Axl’s tattoos are what really make this costume as they are what he is known for visually. I found a pair JUST LIKE HIS online, via etsy, which lasted for 3-5 days:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/BamaSpyder

Submitted by Mark Baggett, Jasper, Alabama
www.MarkEvanBaggett.com

I recently saw something similar to this on my fav Japan blog,and had to have one! I made the body and arms from a McCalls costume pattern, the rest is all handmade. I made the feet and added faux leather bottoms, stuffed the ears, and made a hood that closes with velcro. so fun, so easy!

Submitted by oddbreed, seabeck wa
bitsnpieces-oddbreed.blog.com/

My 2010 Halloween costume was inspired by DR. ROCKZO, the rock n’ roll clown, a cartoon character from “Metalocalypse,” a popular Adult Swim show about a heavy metal band that basically rules the world. DR. ROCKZO’s character was supposedly inspired by David Lee Roth of Van Halen.

As far as the costume, here is how I made it:
• HAIR: I ordered a long white synthetic wig online. In order to make it bright blue, I mixed Cyan pen ink with 70% alcohol in a spray bottle and then sprayed the wig in layers. After air drying, I washed the wig out in cold water, air dried again, and then brushed to get tangles out. In order to get the final bright blue I repeated this process a total of 3 times. After getting the final bight blue color, I then had a hair-stylist friend cut the wig to fit my head while wearing it and then teased the hair and sprayed with hair-spray to get the volume.
• NOSE: I purchased a professional clown nose online. In order to get the spikes I used Sculpey oven-baked clay. I formed the spikes with the clay, test fit them and then baked them in the oven. Afterwards I attached them to the nose using Super Glue.
• HAT: I purchased a white officers cap online. I used purple fabric paint to paint the material and pink vinyl to cover part of the cap, attaching with fabric glue. Next I used purple “fun foam” to cover the black brim of the cap and and also cover trim on the hat. I also used bright yellow “fun foam” for the accents and for the police badge, which I attached to the cap using a pin clasp, that was glued to the back of the foam.
• SHOES: I spray painted a pair of tennis shoes bright pink.
• BOOT COVERS: The bright pink furry boot covers were purchased online.
• SPIKED CHOKER: I used two layers of bright yellow “fun foam” glued together to make the choker. I cut holes and attached “bulldog spikes” using screws and washers, and glued velcro to “fun foam” to fit around my neck.
• SPIKED WRISTBAND: I used an old belt that I cut down and covered with pink vinyl. I cut holes and attached “bulldog spikes” using screws and washers.
• JUMPSUIT: I purchased a custom-cut jumpsuit on www.Spandexman.com and then painted purple stripes on the legs.
• MAKE-UP: I used clown make-up which I applied myself. I “set” the make-up using powder and then a coat of hair-spray.
• MIC STAND: I painted a oval piece of wood silver, then attached to a mic stand holder. Actual mic is a piece of wood painted black with a real “wind screen” attached to end with a piece of velcro.
(Photos by Max!mus and PhotoGnome)

Submitted by Mark Baggett, Jasper, Alabama
www.MarkEvanBaggett.com

For this costume I made the 13-foot-long scarf out of thrift store sweaters (see detailed instructions below), dyed the hat brown and attached a hat band, made the necktie, and restructured the collar of the button-up shirt.

Doctor Who is a British science fiction series that first began in 1963. The Doctor is a Time Lord who travels through time and space with various companions. So far there have been eleven Doctors (each a regeneration of the previous), and my favorite is the fourth Doctor (Tom Baker). The scarf I made is based off the one worn the fourth Doctor. This oversized, multicolored scarf is definitely the most recognizable piece of his wardrobe.

Materials for the scarf:
-7 sweaters, one for each color
-thread
-sewing machine
-hand sewing needle
-embroidery floss
-iron
-ruler
-chalk

I know nothing about knitting. This is the way most people make their Doctor Who scarves. So, I decided to do some upcycling and make my scarf out of sweaters from a thrift store. I made the original Doctor Who scarf that was worn by the fourth doctor in seasons 12-14.

GETTING STARTED
First came research. (http://www.doctorwhoscarf.com/) This site is a godsend. I downloaded the pattern for the original scarf (seasons 12-14) from this website. I also looked at many pictures of the scarf, both the from the tv show and in real-life, to get an idea of the colours I needed.

CHOOSING SWEATERS
With multiple sheets of color pictures in hand, I hit the thrift stores. I looked for mens’ sweaters since they tend to contain more material. There are seven different colors need for this scarf. The knit pattern I was looking for was one that had small vertical rows on the outside that almost looked braided. I tried to maintain continuity by choosing sweaters with approximately the same size rows or the same knit, otherwise it looked goofy on the side I was using. On the real scarf the rows appear horizontal and the rows on my sweaters were vertical, so I ended up using the reverse side of the sweater as the “right” or outward side of the scarf. I had to search many different thrift stores to find all the colors in the knits I wanted. Chief among these stores were Savers, Goodwill, and Ragstock. I wasn’t particular about the content of the sweaters being all the same; some were cotton, others were synthetic. I was more concerned about color.

MEASUREMENT CONVERSION
Once I printed the pattern off I found that the measurements for each color were all in knitting rows, and not inches. I added up all of the rows in the scarf. I knew that the scarf had to be 13ft long (or 156”), so I divided the total number of rows by 156”, and came out with a conversion of about 8.06 rows/inch.

SEWING KNITS
For this scarf I used a 1/2” seam allowance. I used a zig-zag stitch for the entire scarf because the thread is less likely to break as the material stretches. Each section I cut 13 inches wide. The first few seams I sewed turned out squiggly-looking. As anybody who has sewn with knits knows, they can be a pain. The knits stretch as the fabric goes under the presser foot and when the fabric relaxes as it comes out the other end, the squiggly seams appear on the right side of the fabric. After a bit of pondering and experimentation I figured out how to make it less noticeable. As I sewed instead of letting just the presser foot do the work, I sort of forced the fabric through by squishing it together. It doesn’t totally eradicate the problem but it certainly lessens the effect. I further flattened the seams using a technique known as blocking which will be explained later. Having figured that out, I sewed row after row after row after row. FOR-E-VER. The scarf got so long that it became quite a pain to haul back and forth from my pinning table to the sewing machine and back again. I did run into a few material issues; some sweaters contained more material than others and the scarf pattern consisted of more of some colors than others. Basically, I ran out of sweater in one or two colors. So, I substituted a more abundant color when I ran out of other ones, or scrapped that band all together; both of which I hated doing because I feel it’s not staying true to the original. But, I guess it makes it unique. Oh, I should mention that I made two lengths of scarf so that I could sew them together and then flip them right-side-out. Everything was done twice. I didn’t really cut out the bands ahead of time but did it as I went along, which worked out well because by the end I was sort of “rationing” the fabric.

BLOCKING
Blocking is a technique that I am new to but it came in handy for this project. Blocking is the process by which you sort of stretch a knit fabric while it’s wet and iron it to make it lay flat. I spritzed each seam with water and sort of stretched it to open the seam. Then I laid a thin piece of cloth over the seam and spritzed that with water as well. Then I ironed down the seams using a medium heat setting (since the content of my sweater pieces was different I didn’t want to melt any synthetic fabrics, even with a layer of cloth in between). I was extremely pleased with the results of this technique—no more squiggles!

PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER
After many, many rows of stitching I finally ended up with two identical 13-foot-long pieces of scarf. First I laid the pieces one over the other, right sides together. I must have been looking at a different season’s scarf to begin with because I thought the scarf needed to be 12 inches wide but I guess it was actually 11 inches. I knew that if I just sewed down each side that the scarf wouldn’t turn out to be 11 inches wide just because my measuring is not perfect and the material stretches. So what I did was to make a chalk mark down the very center of the scarf. Then I made parallel lines that were 5.5 inches to each side of the center line, and that became my stitching line. I also used a zig-zag stitch to sew around the perimeter. I tried to pin very carefully along the stitching line so that all the seams lined up properly—and believe me there are a lot of seams, and therefore a lot of chances to screw up on them. If I was way off I just seam-ripped that section and re-stitched it. I left about half of one end open to turn the scarf inside out. But before turning it inside out I again blocked the perimeter seam. After I turned the scarf right side out I sewed the opening shut by hand. Using the cloth again I ironed down the perimeter seam.

TASSELS
The tassels on either end of the scarf consist of all seven colours. Normally these would be made out of whatever yarn you’re using to make the scarf but since I wasn’t using yarn I improvised with embroidery floss. I brought samples of all the sweaters with me to the fabric store and matched them as best I could (kudos for thinking ahead!). I bought two skeins of embroidery floss per color, one for each side. Using my somewhat elementary math skills I calculated that I could cut the floss into 2 x 10-inch pieces for each tassel. I wound the floss around a 10 inch long piece of cardboard and then cut the top and the bottom. I made 15 tassels for each side. The next challenge was how to figure out how to get the tassels through the fabric. All those pieces (14 per tassel) wouldn’t fit through even my biggest needle. Again improvising, I first made a hole where I wanted the tassel with a sewing awl so that I didn’t have to break any of the fibers of the scarf. Then I made a loop out of fishing line and threaded the group of embroidery floss through it, then poked the tail of the loop through the hole I just made in the scarf to pull the floss through. I had to cut the fishing line and slip the ends of the floss through the loop on the other side, if that makes any sense. You can look at the website to figure out the whole looping/tying bit.

THE HAT
This hat was originally a tan color and I needed it a deep shade of chocolate brown. I spray-dyed the hat using Fiebling’s Color Spray in dark brown. I took some brown grograin ribbon and hot-glued it to the base of the brim, and made a bow at the side.

THE NECKTIE
This necktie or cravat I made out of a maroon colored satin sheet. I used the wrong side of the satin and sewed a three inch wide tube of fabric, then turned it inside out and finished off the open end by hand.

CHANGING THE COLLAR ON THE BUTTON-UP
The collar on this costume has to stand up, and when I did that with this shirt the two ends of the collar overlapped and didn’t look at all like a shirt the Doctor would wear. I removed the collar and stitched the ends at a different angle, then re-attached it.

Thanks for checking it out!

Submitted by Kiah B, Duluth, Minnesota
modtoggery.blogspot.com

I have been an artist for years and I love to create and push myself beyond my limits! I have made original costumes in the past, but this year I really wanted to go all out! I am a senior art major at James Madison University, and my focus is in studio art, graphic design, and art history. My classes take up almost all of my time and I am constantly creating art in many forms. Though, I rarely get to do for myself and create art just for the love of art and not just for an elaborate assignment!

This year for Halloween I decided to change this unfortunate fact and do something completely original and completely hobby related. For once, this meant no school assignments, no critiques, no crazy deadlines, this was going to be just for me and I couldn’t of been more excited! I began my research months before Halloween. I surfed the internet for all kinds of characters I loved from all aspects of entertainment. Though, a lot of character ideas I came up with had already been produced and I really wanted to push myself to come up with a creative costume that had never been seen before! In the end, it was between Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon or Slinky Dog from Toy Story. I had to go with Slinky Dog, as he was an old time original and a great character in a movie I loved and that was obviously well known. It’s a possibility that Toothless will be my next year’s attempt I was surprised to see that not one person had taken the time to make Slinky Dog work as a costume, with slinky parts and all. I knew I had a huge task ahead of me, but I was determined to make it happen.

I never even made a single sketch, which is unusual for me, as I normally need some kind of basis. Instead I just studied pictures of Slinky Dog and was on my way. Due to the limitations of schoolwork, I started this project ONE week before Halloween. I did not realize at the time that this was absolutely not enough time for a full-scale paper mache’ project! All nighters were the only way this costume became a possibility and trust me I paid for it the next week!

To start off, I used an exercise ball and pumped it up to maximum size. I decided paper mache was going to be the best medium for my costume in order to get a hard “toy-like” look. I did not want Slinky Dog to look like a stuffed animal, but of the plastic form we know from the movies. Paper dipped into a glue/water mixture was placed all over the ball until several layers were built up to create a sturdy enough structure for the body. This took several days alone, and after it was dry I measured and cut it in half for each side of Slinky.
After there were two halves I used poster board to give depth and create the middles of each side. The hands and feet were done in similar ways yet, instead of having a solid structure I had to create one on my own. I used stacks of newspaper and molded them into the forms of hands and feet. Using old winter gloves and soft garden shoes for the basis, the newspaper molds were taped onto each. A lot of masking tape was used to get the final look of paws before I used a few layers of paper mache’ to harden them up. Next I worked on the head, which was a giant mistake. The head should’ve been done first, as it took me the longest and was the most intensive!

A rounded trash can lid from my apartment was the basis for the very detailed Slinky Dog head. I had quite some problems with this, because once I paper mache’d over the lid I could not get it off! I had to recreate this several times, using Vaseline underneath the layers hoping it would pop off but for some reason this still did not work! I decided to move on as I was wasting valuable time. So, I started shaping his mouth and eyes in the same way I did for the paws. I also used very large amounts of newspaper and masking tape for Slinky’s face, but this turned out to be way too heavy to hold up on its own! I then realized the trash can lid would be perfect to help me hold up the front of his head and I kept it under the paper mache after all! I guess I can say I really got lucky, but in the long run I now need to buy a new trashcan! Once I finished molding his face and eyes I also put towels in the back of the lid to give more balance to the heavy face so it would sit on my head evenly. I then paper mache’d his face as I did everything else.

Last came the final touches and piecing it all together! I hand painted every single aspect of Slinky Dog. I paid special attention to his face and eyes because I wanted his head to be recognizable as Slinky and not some random dog head. I added felt ears and a tongue with a hot glue gun. The slinky body and tail were last and also extremely hard to create. I used hollow tubing and painted them metallic silver to mimic the slinky look. I took an immense amount of thin wire and thread it through the tubes and into the body in order for them to stay in place. Thicker wire was used for the tail so it would “boing” like a real slinky!

I had to leave a good amount of gap at the bottom of the slinky body so I could actually get in and out of the costume. I barely got it to work but after several tries I was successful! Finally I bought dark brown leggings and a turtleneck to wear underneath to mimic Slinky’s dark colored body! In order to get in and out of the costume I constantly needed a friend to help me and I am very thankful I had help or this costume would have never been possible! I wore the costume out on Halloween night and I must say it was a huge hit. I was getting comments everywhere I walked and was constantly asked if I had actually created the costume myself. I couldn’t of been happier with the way this costume turned out and I spent at least 40+ hours creating it! I honestly did not know at the beginning of this massive project if this costume would even be possible! I am so incredibly happy that I somehow made it work! I feel I have achieved something great in my art career and will definitely create more costumes in the future! The only problem with Slinky Dog was the heat that accumulated in the costume. It is quite surprising how well newspaper insulates and I had to take my head and paws off several times throughout the night. If I were to change anything about this costume I would figure out a way to cool myself down so I could wear this for hours and get full enjoyment out of it!

Thanks for checking out my costume, and I really hope you like it and appreciate my efforts! I am willing to answer any questions or give any tips, just comment or contact me at thomp5km@dukes.jmu.edu! ☺

DON’T FORGET to watch my video of the Slinky Dog costume at:

or type in Slinky Dog Halloween Costume 2010 in the search box!

Submitted by Kaleena Thompson, Harrisonburg VA
kaleenathompson.weebly.com/

This costume was built with a box (obviously) PVC tubing (for the skeletal body), newspapers, zip ties, duct tape,shoulder straps, a suit from the Salvation Army and hours of engineering to create the best illusion of a skeleton carrying me in a box.

Submitted by Jason Dudzic,

It all started with a desire to make my son a homemade Muppets Animal costume. After I looked at a photo of the band from my album, I realized I had to make the entire band (minus Ralph). We fit perfectly- I would be Janice, the guitarist: my son, Animal: My boyfriend, Dr. Teeth: And his two sons, Zoot the saxophonist, and Floyd the other guitarist. I started with my head which is the only one made from a bike helmet. The others have the foundation of baseball helmets and are much more comfortable! I started the other four heads on a Thursday night and did not stop but to sleep for about four hours each night till Sunday night. A few scratches from the chicken wire and a second degree burn from the hot glue gun and they were done! I still cannot believe I did this from looking a a picture from an album cover! We may be renting ourselves out for birthday parties! We have had a lot of fun with these costumes this year!

Submitted by Alice Frump, Indianapolis, IN

I just got scammed on Craigslist for $1700 so I was thinking of an innexpensive costume idea. The Wednesday before Halloween it hit me, Octomom! I went to the $1 store and bought 8 babies. I also got a t-shirt from 5Below that says “In the business of hardley working”, a cheap wig and wax lips. TA DA! haha And in this picture I photoshopped it and put myself on a red carpet

Submitted by Beth Shuster,

the franky manican is hooked too my hips so he sways when he walks a series of gears control his head and shoulders so he can look at ppl when they talk too him I control them with levers inside the table.Frank says key phrases by the use of a motor cycle battery a 50 watt amp klipsk horn speakers in his head and a i-pod that I control inside the table.
ppl ride under that table poke my face thinking that my real head must be fake .Amazing how many ppl can’t figure this costume out when they see it live.
designed built pat.
by leslie bruce Irwin
30 winniett st woodstock ont canada
n4s5z3
ph 519 788 2761

Submitted by leslie bruce irwin, woodstock ontario canada