The Hallowe'en Costume Thread

[hobocamp]

Oooh--fun! My boyfriend and I made a bet that whoever has the better costume this year gets to decide what the other person is going to be next year. I've already decided what he's going to be: the Chippendale's waiter from Bachelor Party that carries the tray to the bride's mom and has his, um, penis sitting in a hotdog bun on the tray. He won't actually have to put his penis in a hot dog bun, though. I'm not that cruel.

But I can't think of a single thing to be this year, and time is running out. I usually go with movie characters. I've been Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, Carrie from Carrie, one of the girls from Faster Pussycat! ... Kill! Kill!. Ideas would be appreciated.

[Deleted]

I used to have the best ideas for Halloween. One year my friend and I dressed up like cock-fighting roosters. We made boxing gloves and beaks and she made boxing shorts and I glued a bunch of feathers to a t-shirt and we kicked ass. Then we got drunk and had a fake cockfight. Good times.

A few years ago I was Harry Potter. That was an easy costume. I just wore my graduation robe from college, sewed a stuffed owl to my shoulder and borrowed a tie from my husband. I wore glasses and had short hair so the rest was easy.

I waited way too long to go to the costume store this year (went on Sunday) and the selection was very picked over. I'm going to be a witch. I bought a fairly cool witch costume and some green body paint and it should be fun.

It sucks that most women's costumes are so slutty. I'm married and getting old. I don't want to wear a sleeveless mini dress in Chicago in October. No thank you.

I was considering going as Katie Holmes--long brown wig, pregnancy belly with a "Scientology Rocks" t-shirt. But I wasn't sure if too many people would get the joke.

[foxyepicurean]

I wasn't big on dressing up for Halloween after I turned 10 or so. I'm just too lazy. But it was lots of fun when my brother and I were kids. My mom is a super-talented seamstress, so our costumes were awesome. The best one was a soft-sculture Oscar the Grouch (complete with floor-length shiny trash can) she made for my brother when he was about 4 or 5--the kids at the Halloween party actually thought he was the real Oscar. All he'd say all night was "Scram!" because he was enjoying the notoriety and he didn't want the other kids to figure out there was a kid in there. (Doesn't hurt that he was the cutest, sweetest little blond cherub of a tyke to begin with.)

When we were really little, Mom would make a tail and a hat and the rest of the costume would be our footy pajamas. One year I wore yellow pjs and a lion hat (just orange and yellow yarn with ears sticking out) and tail--I wandered around the school Halloween party (Dad was a teacher) tickling people's noses and basically charming the bejeezus out of everyone there. People still remind me of the costume, and it was almost 30 years ago!

[Persephone]

There's always a cereal killer. You take a bunch of those little cereal boxes and smear fake blood and plastic knives and stuff on them and glue them to a shirt.
Then there's the bunch of grapes. You wear a purple leotard and have purple balloons put all over you. Don't know how you'd get them to stick tho'.

[batmom]

Mom would make a tail and a hat and the rest of the costume would be our footy pajamas.

Batgirl's (originally Batboy's) costume is based upon a fuzzy cream sleeper. I made a cowl with ears, little feet to go over shoes and a tail and she's a wee little lamb. My mom found another of Batboy's cosutmes that went with a purple polar fleece jacket (that I better get back from my ex-sil): a dinosaur hood and tail.

Today's paper had instructions for creating a drowning victim:

Put blush around the eyes.
Dab on green-tinged zombie skin make up.
Press on parsley leaves (to look like seaweed bits)
Oodles of hair gel to acheive the wet look (including thick strands placed across the face)
Blue coolaid powder on the lips.
Strands of sewead type plants in the hair (limp green onions would probably look a lot like kelp).
Dirty nightgown or other raggedy, dirty ensemble.

The last time I dressed up for Halloween I was 21. I made an awesome flapper costume, got the finger curls perfectly adjusted and looked totally hot. But I'd just found out I was pregnant a couple of weeks before and the rumour mill had done its work so everyone else knew too so... not so much flirting action for moi. What a waste of a sexy costume.

An easy costume is a bumble bee. Use yellow reflective tape to make stripes around a black shirt. Wings seem to be pretty easy to find in dollar stores and antenae can be made with pipe cleaners.

[Deleted]

Last year when I was pregnant My friend painted my belly to look like a jack-o-lantern(thank god it was warm). One of my best costumes was when I was Yuffie from Final Fantasy VIII. This was before us hick kids had heard of cosplay and the crazy that goes with it.

I know a couple of people going as celebrities this year for Halloween, one is going to Paris Hilton(sans wonky eye, and free cooter flashes). And another is going as Hoe-Down Simpson. Everytime she gets some candy she will hoe down.A woman I used to work with is going as Lucy Liu's character from Kill Bill.

A creative Idea is to get some friends and go as the 7 deadly sins, incorporating the color correspondence, and animal with each costume.

[carrier76]

I was going to be 1995-era Courtney Love this year, but I don't have money for all of that. So I scrounged up my Girl Scout Junior vest w/ all of my badges and pins, and I"m going as a girl scout.

Last year and 2000, I dressed Madonna-era '80s (so fun); 2002, a St. Louis Cardinals cheerleader (short skirts can spell trouble...not BAD trouble, just embarrassing trouble...well, sort of bad. But not BAD bad. Ahem.); 2003, a flapper. Good times.

[JDub]

Anyone know of any stores where I can find some black tights for my one year old? I haven't actually looked yet. I got her pumpkin costume used from ebay, but I don't know where to go to find a long sleeved black top for her, some tights and some cheap black shoes. Though we'll probably end up just getting her fancy dress shoes a little early and have her wear those. I don't normally see black clothes for infants/toddlers.

[polygal]

My roommate is very excited about Halloween. She's going as a pregnant nun.

I don't know if I'm even dressing up, but Martha Stewart has a nice set of costume ideas. Some are more practical than others.

[Shalamar]

This is probably a bit lame, but my husband's going to be the Devil, and I'm going to be his evil angel. We're going to offer people advice (you know, like the devil and angel do on people's shoulders in cartoons). Instead of bad advice/good advice, though, we're going to offer bad advice/worse advice. Example: "Go ahead and sleep with your secretary!" "But make sure you videotape it and put it on the Internet!"