Halloween...in March?

I love Halloween.  I love dressing up, I love decorating my yard.  I love seeing what creative things other people come up with for costumes and decorations.  And I really love trying to create my own costumes.

Ichabod's Fate

The above was a pumpkin I carved a couple years ago for the first Halloween in my new house.  I found the template online and thought it was fantastic.  Once the pumpkin's cleaned out, it only takes about an hour to carve (depending on the thickness of the skin).

I mounted the pumpkin on a fence post, right next to my headless horseless horseman.  I also created a banshee to hang from the roof of the front porch.  (Good thing I didn't get any trick-or-treaters - I can't open the front door when she's hanging there!)

Last year I built a much better horseman, and created a scarecrow much like the one in the movie Sleepy Hollow (starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci).  I didn't carve the pumpkin, though, this year, because the scarecrow had a pumpkin for his head.  I also made a much better head for the banshee - the first one was a Halloween mask spray-painted white, over a head I made from papier mache.  This one is a wig head I bought at Goodwill; I painted her eyes green and added glow-in-the-dark paint, glued on a pair of (purple) plastic false eyelashes from an old Halloween make-up kit, and painted her face pale grey and her lips flesh-tone.  I mounted a flickering light inside the base of the head and left it on; it had a strobe effect that was really cool at night.

New, improved horseman

Face of the banshee

Horseman, banshee and scarecrow

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was rather costume spoiled when I was younger - Mom made all my costumes.  I never had a store-bought costume, and rarely wore a mask.  (Zorro, of course, needed a mask.  So did my lamb costume.)  My first costume was a black cat, and the last one Mom made was my Starfleet uniform (captain's rank, of course) from the first season of Star Trek: the Next Generation.

She helped me make the robe for my Ringwraith costume, and I've been adding to it over the years.  At first it was just the simple black robe, and I wore black jeans and a black turtleneck under it.  But that wasn't enough.  Ringwraiths have armor.  And so I fashioned some passable armor from craft foam and cardboard, tied on with suede lacing, switched the jeans out for a pair of black leggings, and added a cheap witch dress and a child's vampire cape with the collar cut off and scraps of material sewn to the front for the cowl.  That was good for a while, but I wanted the WitchKing's armor.  And that...is an ongoing project.  I've got bits and pieces built, but nothing's close to completion yet; I intend to build it with cardboard and papier mache, but that's going to be challenging now that I have a cat...with a taste for cardboard.

The first costume I've ever bought was a fantastic find at a local Goodwill store - a handmade Renaissance gown.  Not only was the price hard to beat ($15!) but it fit me almost perfectly.  It was fully laced up the back, but Mom took the lacing out and installed a zipper to make it easier to get into and out of.  Unfortunately the zipper blew, so it's relegated to my old bedroom closet until we both have enough time to rework it.

Gorgeous, isn't it?

My most recent costuming project was making the Death Eater mask of Bellatrix LeStrange from the Harry Potter movies.  I found a terrific reference picture online of a replica prop someone had bought, and did my best to turn a Halloween mask into a Death Eater one.  Not bad for my first attempt, if I do say so.  And since I bought a black velvet dress and black velvet cloak for my Halloween costume last year (I was Morrigan, the Irish goddess of battle) I'm all set.  I even have a wand - a twisted piece of driftwood I found on the shore of Lake Michigan.

I wonder what I'll make next?