DIY: Halloween 2015

Trio of minion costumes, Instructables

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It's time again to troll the web for Halloween ideas. And there are some good ones. Group costumes appear to be big this year.

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Mario Kart (Image Imgur, ShadowmanJack), Mashable

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Here are links to 3 lists with images: 35 Fun Group Halloween Costumes for You and Your Friends; 20 Genius Halloween Costume Ideas You Can Whip Up Last Minute; and 11 Halloween Costumes No One Else Will Have. The slides in this last list also serve as comments on current social trends and perceptions; one of the slides--Unemployed Dov Charney--links to a background article about the former CEO of American Apparel.

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Costume: Unemployed Dov Charney, refinery29

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There 20,000 ideas at Coolest Homemade Costumes.

If the minions in Despicable Me have caught your fancy, here's how a number of people have adapted them to costumes: 21 DIY Minion Costumes from Despicable Me for Halloween. If you have the time and patience, this article will explain how to build a costume true to the original minion form: Trio of Minion Costumes (Despicable Me). The instructions are fairly complicated, but the description walks you through them well.

Instructables is sponsoring a Halloween Costume Contest (the minion costumes above are an entry). There are 33 days left to submit an entry and the prizes are described thus:

Ready your sewing machines, fire up the glue guns, and charge your battery packs, it's Halloween again! Enter your DIY masterpieces in the Halloween Costume Contest for a chance to win some awesome prizes including an iPad Mini, a Petcube Camera, a Leatherman multitool, Samsung digital camera, and more, provided by HalloweenCostumes.com and Petcube!

-- Marge

Cartoons: sour drops for Halloween

For today, here are some cartoons playing on the Halloween theme and some that caught my attention.

The GOP base may be alive, but is it aware?

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John Cole, The Week

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According to the Wikipedia article on low information voters:

Some low-information voters' views are more moderate than those of high-information voters, they are less likely to vote, and are looking for a candidate they find personally appealing. They tend to be swing voters, and they tend to vote split-ticket more than well-informed voters do, researchers say because they lack a coherent ideology.

Seems to me this Wikipedia article sounds biased. Voting a split-ticket may be a good thing; it might help to break up some of the partisanship in Washington.

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David Fitzsimmons, The Week

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A hazmat suit is a costume, too, just a hopefully well-functioning one.

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RJ Matson, The Week

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Creationists aren't going to like this one.

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Chan Lowe, The Week

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This cartoon depicts its environment beautifully well. But it begs the question: does anyone have faith in the reality television genre?

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Rick McKee, The Week

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--Marge

DIY: Halloween costumes using ideas from costume designers

Flowing fabric holds an inexplicable appeal for me. For examples see Getty Images Flowing Fabric page.

So when considering what types of Halloween costumes to suggest today, my thinking came round to focusing on how designers use fabric and what shapes and silhouettes they present. Also, local theaters, as opposed to well-endowed big-city ones, often costume the actors on a shoestring. Materials to consider for your own Halloween creation are cheesecloth, muslin, cotton lawn, light canvas, drapery lining, and such.  Nick of Time Textiles discusses costume and dancewear fabrics and has a nice selection. Five yards of 60-inch wide fabric will go a long way and at $4.50 a yard costs, uhm, $22.50 (example is Aqua Pongee Woven Fabric).

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Draped Fabric Costume, Belle Clara

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Some designers to draw ideas from are Belle Clara and Gwen van den Eijnde. The FIDM Museum in Los Angeles has an interesting exhibition of Outstanding Art of Television Costume Design.

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Gwen van den Eijnde, Unusual Costume Design, Culture Vixen

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In my search of costume design I came across this excellent DIY article for a Cheesecloth Ghost Costume, posted by Cathi at her blog scratchandstitch.

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Ghost Costume, scratchandstitch

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Also you might consider incorporating unusual materials like newspaper, cardboard, and bubble wrap. Above all, have fun.

-- Marge

DIY: Spirited Halloween decorations

Here's a small, but tasty, collection of sites with ideas for Halloween trappings.

The Halloween Howl-to at DIY Network has pumpkin-carving templates, fright-night projects, and more.  The Green Gelatin Shots With Spiders pictured below were found there.

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Manvi Drona, "Green Gelatin Shots With Spiders," DIY Network

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If your taste runs to the darker side of life, try the collection offered in mental_floss' DIY Halloween Decorations.  (Some are not so dark, just different.)  Two of the projects found there are below:

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Windell Oskay, "Cylon Jack-O-Lantern," Evil Mad Scientist

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Derek Greenwood, "Head in a Jar," Madhauscreative

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Sara W. posted the "Giant Spider in Spiderweb" shown below with full instructions on her blog Mom Endeavors. I like that it uses inexpensive parts you can find in a hardware store.

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Sara W., "Giant Spider in Spiderweb," Mom Endeavors

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'Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and hell itself breathes out
Contagion to this world.
                   ~William Shakespeare

--Marge

DIY: Halloween masks and face casts

How about something truly original for your Halloween costume this year.  A mask that's hand-made by you, for example. As an added bonus, some of the pieces shown below can be used for wall art.

Instructables has a collection of "40 DIY Halloween Masks." Here's a "Scary Mask" by scoochmaroo.

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scoochmaroo, "Scary Mask," Instructables

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For something more modern how about Low Poly Mask at MakerBot's Thingiverse by kongorilla.

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kongorilla, "Low Poly Mask," Thingiverse

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More in the girly realm is this Fabulous DIY – Make Your Own Masquerade Mask from Scratch, at DIY & Crafts.

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DIY & Crafts

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This minimal mask, called an "Ice Queen mask," is demonstrated by Klaire de Lys:

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Klaire and a number of other mask makers suggest using a face casting for the basis of a mask.  This video shows you how to make one.

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If you have questions about materials, try the Smooth-On site. There are other companies online that offer these materials, but the Smooth-on site is well-organized and has good information.  There's a page on Life-casting materials and much more.  Take a look at the materials for Special Effects and Propmaking page.

Keep in mind that, if you and your friend try a face casting but it doesn't go well, you can always laugh about it in the years to come.

-- Marge

Halloween DIY: frou-frou tutus and other whimsy

While there are happy accidents, most creations start with an idea and proceed to a plan. Here are some ideas for this year's Halloween costume.  Mostly I'm offering parts of costumes for you to mix-and-match as you choose.  My idea of a cool costume is a black unitard (or tights and leotard) with some cover-up for eye-appeal 'correction' and an outrageous hat.  Maybe add an angel wing shrug ($26.80) depending on the theme of the outfit.

At weebly.com there are frou frou tutus--ready-made, custom-made, and kits.  Prices average from 15 to 30 dollars.
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frou frou tutu, weebly.com

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Relache's lens at Squidoo, "Make Your Own Fairy Wings," has advice and instructions on making and embellishing wings and links for buying them.  You can use stuff often found at home (provided you usually have duct tape and pink stockings on hand) in these instructions from DIYnetwork.
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Relache's fairy wings, Squidoo

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Here are "30 Outrageous Hats Designed By The Guy Who Made Princess Beatrice’s Hat," offered by Matt Stopera at BuzzFeed.  I like these two:
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An outrageous hat by Philip Treacy, BuzzFeed

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Another outrageous hat by Philip Treacy, BuzzFeed

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My best find of the day, though, is Savers Thrift Stores, a network of thrift shops.  There's a store locator (Anchorage has, count 'em, 3 stores listed!) and some really good costume ideas.
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Bad Fairy costume, Savers

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Have fun creating and more fun partying.

--Marge