Brag about your Hallowe'en triumphs/disaters! (Or other costume success/tragedy)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ve always loved Hallowe’en and I’ve usually proudly made my own costume.

Back in the 80s, when Wacko was the coolest thing. I dressed as Michael Jackson. (Note to self: Do not “gel” your hair with Vaseline.)

Some that I made as a kid were stupid. e.g. I once dressed all in black and pinned a raccoon tail torn off a Davey Crockett hat to my butt to be a cat. Used one of my mom’s brown-looking lipsticks to draw whiskers on my face. I was probably the worst-dressed kid at school (at that includes those cheapo store-bought costumes that were just plastic masks and garbage bag plastic “costumes” with holes for your head and arms that just made you look like a trash bag.)

But I was proud, proud, proud of my costume! And I walked around on all fours with my butt in the air and was haughtily offended when people thought I was a raccoon.

Ah, but one of my favourite, and genuine successful costume concoctions:

I looked in my art supplies, and saw I had bits and pieces of stuff and a jug of grey poster paint . I rummaged through a cardboard recycling bin and found a big box, cut it, bent it, painted it grey and with a bit of black drew on the rows of masonry. Notched out the edges and I looked like a chunck of concrete block wall. With the dribs and drabs left of other acrylic paints, I added “graffitti” the most prominent onf the front and back being “Berlin Rocks!” “Berlin #1” (as well as less-prominent slogans like “Hitler only has one ball!”) Put on a turtle neck and ugly grey track pants and off I went. Total crafty-time invested: 45 minutes.

Went to a party and people would look at me, then beam as if they were brilliant when they figured out:

"Hey! You’re the Berlin wall!"

At the party I ran into two girls dressed as East and West Germany. (Walking carboard maps.) So we got our pictures taken together a lot with me in the middle.

Scary moment: Drunken folks started chanting “Tear down the wall! Tear down the wall!”

I was a success! pride I was clever! priiiide Truly brilliant was I! priiiiiiiide

Added bonus: It did not stain whiskers on my face for days like my mom’s lipstick had!

Share your costumed memories!

This year I’m a dog. I love making last-minute costumes. (Yup. Made the mask too! Yup it was slapped together the night before.)

2

My worst costume I was a bicycle-built-for-two.
A flat canvas front with wheels painted on it, plastic tubing hotglued into pedals and handle bars, with real kiddie grips with streamers.
But it was impossible to sit down, walk around without knocking things over, and hot as hell.
Disaster.

3

Well, last year when my daughter was two, we found some great leopard skin like fabric that was kind of long and fuzzy and turned her into Pebbles from the Flintstones. With her animal skin toga and animal skin moccasins and little bone holding together a small flip of hair, she was about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.

4

That reminds me. One year, a friend of mine… oh, hell it was me, okay?! I made a fancy robot costume that had lights, sound and everything (used Lite-Brite pegs, and a jerry-rigged, portable door alarm). Well I thought it was cool…

Until I tripped fell over. Couldn’t get up again. I was the trick-and-treater lying on the side of a hill whining “Help!.. Help!”

5

Last year, I went as a vampire, but all I did was wear my fangs with a little black dress and, because it was freakin’ cold outside, my long black swing coat. The idea was that you wouldn’t know I was a vampire until it was too late.

When I put in the fangs, I immediately realized that Dracula must have had a lisp, but by the time a few hours had passed I was able to speak normally with them. At a party, I was standing and chatting with someone I knew, when she said “So you didn’t dress up?”

I bared my fangs. Her eyes widened. “That’s some creepy shit,” she said. “That was totally unexpected.”

My costume worked! I felt very proud of myself, until the next time I saw her and realized she was too stoned at the time to remember it, so I only I knew of my triumph.

6

The Two Faced Man, or DaToad Takes First Prize Coming and Going.

I went to the Salvation Army Thrift Store and bought two of the ugliest 1970’s suits every made. A Lavender double knit and a black and silver pinstripe sharkskin. Two horrible shirts, the two gaudiest ties I could find and two pairs of hideous shoes (white loafers and a pair of side lace “fence climbers”).

My SO cut the back off of one suit coat and stitched one shirt with tie into it. Then she stitched the coat front, shirt and tie onto the back of the other coat. She split one pair of pants and stitched the front half to the back of the other pair. I cut one pair of shoes in half and attached the front half to the heels of the other pair.

I got a pull on mask of an ugly old man that tucked down into my shirt. I got another a half mask of another weird looking guy with a beard, and attached it to the back of the whole mask.

7

I took a grey choir robe, some grey suede boots (don’t ask…BAD idea) and a swimcap with a couple hundred plastic snakes attached and painted grey, along with grey greasepaint, and was a fantastic Medusa…especially after lining my eyes with red.

Red eyeliner doesn’t wash off well.

We took the box that the fridge came in and made a phone booth out of it, and my journalist husband wore a Superman t-shirt under a partially removed suit and tie… With proper bracing with some 1x3 furring strips and some handles, it lasted all Mardi Gras day one year.

My musician mother took a huge piece of fake fur, the copied a domicile long-term rental agreement onto it with Magic Marker…thus she was a favorite composition ,Fur(imagine the umlaut) Elise.

Husband also went once in regular clothes, but was very charming and outgoing (unusual for him). He was a serial killer, because they look just like anybody else…

8

Dressed my 3 year old daughter as Wonder Girl - bought a WW T-Shirt, found a Navy Blue Skort and ironed on White Stars, found a guy on E-bay who could make the Bracelets (got Gold and Silver), Belt with the Golden Lasso, Bought a Gold Tiara and put a Red Star in the middle of it, my mother-in-law made a WW Cape, the only thing I could not find was Red Boots, and could not make Boot Covers, so she had Blue Canvas Shoes and I put a Red Star on them, she also wore Blue tights and socks, she wanted a sword and shield, but could not find, so bought her a Gold Wand and put a Red Star on each side and she wore a Gold and Red Stoned Amulet and a Gold Star Ring.

9

oh, and under her WW T-Shirt, she had a Red Sweat Shirt under, cause it was cold, that’s why the tights and socks.

She was cute, and my mission to make her Wonder Girl worked.

10

My favoritest home made costume was a red crayon. I got some red fabric, sewed it into a tube with tabs at the top for armholes, and fuse-glued a black felt oval to the front. I wrote “red” on my butt in black marker. Then I finished the costume with a red watch cap, red turtleneck, red stockings, and red gloves, plus a paid of BoBo sneakers. I think the only things I needed to buy were the fabric and the stockings, and the whole costume cost me maybe $10.

11

My favorite was I went to a t-shirt shop and had them press on the word COSUTME on the front of a white t-shirt. Then I spent the rest of the day drawing a UPC code on the back. Matched it up with some white pants and white shoes and I was set, generic costume. If someone asked I could be, well, anything. And the best thing is it was not uncomforatble unweildy or messy.

Another favorite was I once took a golf ball, cut it in half and used just the cover applied to my forehead along with some fake wax scar tissue and some face paint to make it all bloody and gross. Outfitted it with some tacky golfer type clothes, put white makup on my face, grabbed my putter and I was done.

12

My costumes tend to require an explanation. The most brilliant one that nobody got was one of the Dogs Playing Poker. I got invited to a Halloween party at the last minute and had to run out to Party City. All they had was a dog mask. So I bought it and a fake bowler-type hat.

When i got home, I put on a dress shirt, put a card in my hat and a deck of cards in my shirt’s pocket, got a plastic cigar, and went. And no one got it! Damn my high concept ideas!

13

My best costume wasn’t because of how I made it. It was just a suit and a mask. I went as Richard Nixon. This was around 1978 or 79. I was about 10 or 11. People brought me into their homes to take my picture, they thought it was so funny. I was with my best friend, who was a vampire. He got jealous and pushed his teeth out funny, and went around saying he was a vampire with scurvy. I was still more popular.

14

Oh, I hate it when that happens! That’s why I was so gleeful when people figured out that my brickwall outfit was the Berlin wall.

FTR, I would’ve got your poker-dog outfit. The clever, thinky ones are the costumes I like best.

A couple years ago, I saw a bunch of middle aged folks dressed as the Von Trapp Family. They’d made lederhosen outfits out of ugly drapes and were singing (poorly) in fomration. It was hysterical!

15

When I was about 10 I went trick-or-treating dressed as a pickup truck. My original plan had been to dress as a toilet with the candy bag as the toilet bowl but my mom would not hear of it, so I painted a picture of an old fashioned pickup with running boards on a large paper grocery bag and had the candy bag be the bed of the truck.

A few years ago I dressed as Bill Clinton, complete with boxer shorts and a cigar. I stood at the door and passed out candy and some of the kids argued as to whether I was George Bush or Al Gore. One kid said mine was the second scariest costume he’d seen all evening. I’m not sure I want to know what the first scariest was.

16

When I was about 11 or 12, I went trick-or-treating as a barrel of toxic waste. I took a big piece of yellow cardboard, drew all sorts of warning signs on it, and folded it into a tube. I attached suspenders to keep up up around my torso. Unfortunately, I had to explain it to everybody, so I guess it wasn’t very successful.

My “best” costume is probably the one I wore this year. I needed a costume for a party last saturday, so I drove over to the local costume place to see what they had. After much looking, I selected a Grim Reaper outfit. It consists of a black hooded robe, a skeleton mask, and skeleton gloves. I also picked up a plastic scythe in the accessories aisle.

Turned out to be a heck of a good choice. Everyone liked the costume, and several people took pictures of themselves with me. Later, I won the Scariest Costume award. Tonight, I brought the costume over to my parents’ house to help pass out candy. Again, it was a hit. Several kids said that I had a cool costume, and I scared a few of the younger ones. Definitely my most successful costume ever. Plus, that black robe is really nice.

17

The great costume that no one ever got was this: I dressed all in black, with a domino mask, a Zorro-type hat with ball fringe, some iridescent sunglasses and a set of black wings. I was a Spanish Fly. I thought it was pretty clever, but I had to explain it to everyone.

Best costume that people did understand was Hawaiian shirt, baggy shorts, fishing hat, black socks, sandals, sunglasses and a camera. I put the sunglasses on, then applied bright pink blusher to all parts of my face not covered by the glasses. I was a tourist, and the costume was a big hit. Then I took off the shades, and the crowd went wild at the “sunburn”.

18

My best that people got was a grim reaper. I had the robe and got a one-way black mask, so I could see out but you couldn’t see my face. It was REALLY scary when I pulled the hood up over my head. I had parents bribing me with candy to scare their kids.

19

My best costume was when I was Elizabeth Taylor. Big wig, taffeta dress, diamonds, clutch purse with lots of medicine bottles (filled with candy) that I could pop all night, and a chicken leg bone. hack Great fun.

This year I was an Elvis Impersonator. It was fun, though I’m not sure how one goes about getting pomade (ingredients: Petroleum Jelly and Olive Oil) out of one’s hair.

Funniest thing that was said to me today: (I work in an elementary school):
1st grade boy: Miss Leafrog, who are you supposed to be?
leafrog: Have you ever heard of Elvis Presley?
1st grade girl: Yeah! He died on the pottie! Then they took him into the backyard and buried him!

20

my best costume was for a “Dead” party. You had to come as someone who was dead. There were lots of Millie the ghosts and murdered prom queens and monster rubber masks. I took a red t-shirt and made a Star Trek shirt out of it along with black pants and black botts. I was a Star Trek security officer cause when you see oe go down to the planet with Spock, Kirk and McCoy, that’s the one that won’t be coming back!