I have a perfect cotton white dress that I’m going to use to make a costume of Athena. I just need a spear and a shield, and some decent gold sandals. And a party to go to 
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I’ve never really gone all out for Halloween, but I feel like I want to this year. I don’t know what I want to do just yet, but maybe I can gain some inspiration from fellow Dopers.
What are you going as? If you don’t know yet, or aren’t dressing up this year, then share some former costumes you think were particularly good.
I’ll be wearing a red long-sleeved top w/red slacks. Brown pom-poms are tacky-glued at random points to both top & bottom. Fastened w/bobby pins atop my head is a silver collander w/super-bulky off-white strands of yarn of various lengths.
You know the old kids’ song “On Top of Spaghetti”? Imagine the whole thing, if you will (if I can get my daughter to take a pic, I’ll post it). The idea is that the spaghetti’s on top of me…the red is spaghetti sauce, the pom-poms are meatballs, and the long white yarn is the lengths of spaghetti.
I work at Wally World, in the grocery department, so I think it fits.
Love, Phil
The best costume I ever made was a spider costume:
Take two rectangles of cheap black fabric long enough to go from your neck to just below your butt. Sew up the sides leaving holes for your arms. Sew a hem at the top and bottom big enough to thread a ribbon through for gathering at the neck and the bottom. You could sew it with two layers of fabric so you could stuff the bottom to make it puffy…or not. I used fake fur that was on sale when I made one for my daughter but it nearly killed my machine and left furry bits all over the house.
Sew 6 black tubes a little shorter than your arms, stuff them and sew three down each side spaced equally apart below the arm hole. Join the arms with a ribbon or elastic and a loop at the top to put over your wrist. That way when you lift your arms the other six lift too.
Then take a big circular piece of black netting and cut a hole in the middle for your head. Back when I made this I sewed webbing on it with ribbon but the fabric stores all sell the netting with webbing printed on so you don’t have to go to so much trouble. Reinforce the neck if you think you’ll wear it again. Wear this over top
Black turtle neck and black tights underneath and black shoes.
Draw a web on your face with black eyeliner and put a rubber spider on your shoulder.
My favorite costume I ever used was also my cheapest and laziest (and it might only work for men). I put on some dark glasses, got a white stick (as a reasonable facsimile of a blind walking cane) and glued some fake hair to my right palm.
Several years ago, a friend of mine dressed up like an alien hottie from a campy movie.
It was actually ridiculously easy - she wore a pair of platform sneakers (circa Spice Girls era), leg warmers, tights, a miniskirt, and a “futuristic” style top made up of a tube top sewn onto a shortened long-sleeve top in such a way that there was a little peekaboo cleavage (I’ll see if I can dig up pics… that description sounds confusing as hell). She spray painted everything silver, and then carried around a big water gun that was also spray painted silver. I loved it.
I’m planning on copying that idea at some point… I always seem to be away on Halloween, though, which tends to put a damper on that plan. 
My son’s going as Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes. We have the most excellent stuffed tiger for him to carry. It’s been in the family for at least sixty years, so it’s got that well-loved look and it’s definitely not a Tigger or any cartoony-looking cat. He’ll wear a red striped shirt and likely a blonde spiky wig. I told him if no one “gets” his costume, he should turn away and pee on something.
My original idea was to have the boy dress as a scuba diver and walk our Doberman puppy, who would have a shark fin attached to her back. I think she’d play her part very well. In keeping with the theme, we could sprinkle a little sand on our big gray cat, and presto! He’s a beached whale. Pretty hard to lug him from door to door though.
One of the easiest and most fun costumes we ever came up with is little old lady. There is so much room for expression as far as the clothing goes, and the thrift shops are busting with good stuff. When my daughter did this one, we also bought a hat at a craft store and put all kinds of flowers and ribbons on it, plus a fake bird. Looked great!
Inspired by my frequently shaved head, I’ll be going to a Halloween party dressed as Tank Girl. I’m more than a little excited because Halloween is my favorite time of year, and this is the first time since moving to Florida I have an event to attend.
Get a sweat suit or just put on jeans and a t-shirt. Stick a bunch of socks to your clothing using safety pins or something. Throw a sheet of fabric softener on too.
Voila! You’re static cling!
I need ideas for my two corgis, who will be participating in a fundraiser for dog rescue. I have done “clever” costumes in the past, and it seems the judges just don’t get them. Ex.: Last year my boy was a lobster and my girl was a cow, and I explained that they were “surf and turf.” No prize: the winners were* store-bought *costumes. So I need something cute and obvious. The boy will wear anything I put on him; the girl (who is tiny) is a little more skittish.
Help?
Where are you at. It helps with guessing what people might be able to understand the costume. I have no idea where Western Reserve is.
The Halloween Adventure Store is good too. It’s in the Village. B’way and 10th-ish.
My first idea was to be Carmen Sandiego. But I decided that a trench coat, wig, and fedora would not be that comfortable at a Halloween party.
So now I’m trying to think of something that takes advantage of my super-short hair. If worse comes to worse, I still have my cap and gown from graduating in May.
I dressed as a terrorist one year–ski mask, army fatigues, a toy gun and grenade. I pretended to take the kiddies hostage and made them “freeze” till they accepted candy. I think some of the kids were a little scared but the adults with them thought it was hilarious.
Another year I dressed as Nancy (Sid’s girlfriend). All the kids thought I was Madonna. The next year I dressed as Bill Clinton, complete with boxers and a cigar. A couple kids started arguing over whether I was George Bush or Al Gore and I started yelling “I’m Clinton! I"m Clinton!” Another kid mistook me for Richard Nixon.
This year I think I’ll get a dog mask and some alka seltzers or whatever you can find that foams when you put it in your mouth and I’ll be Old Yeller.
One of my roommates went as Carmen last year. She got mobbed in the university union. Someone stood up and pointed, shouting “I found Carmen!” Instant crowd. It was great. Other roommate was Alice (of Wonderland fame) last year, and I had a Starfleet uniform (classic, Command division, if anyone was wondering 
I’m so dorky).
This year we’re going as a coordinated set: Black mage, white mage and red mage from the original Final Fantasy game. We’re taking some liberties, naturally, since the original characters are only a few pixels tall. Someone always gets it, no matter how nerdy we get, so we figure we’ll probably make some gamer’s night when we go out for dinner. 
Well, they’re cute, but every year there are several hot dogs. And by “several,” I mean several dozen. I found a plastic Sherlock Holmes-style pipe at Target and was thinking about making my boy Sherlock Bones, because a cape is easy and I’d just have to make the hat. I’d just put the pipe on the cape with a twisty-tie or something. I’ve pretty much given up on having them wear “coordinating” costumes as the judges just don’t seem to get it. I could do salt and pepper and they wouldn’t get it.