Friday, September 23, 2011

Creative Halloween Costume Ideas

Homemade Venus Flytrap Costume
Homemade Venus Flytrap Costume
I made this Venus Flytrap costume for my 7 year old son. He has his own live Venus fly trap plant and that gave him the idea for his Halloween costume.

I started with 2 rectangles of 2" thick foam and cut them into the shape of a Venus flytrap with a neck slot on one. Then I cut pieces of green material (with an extra inch on each to allow for the thickness of foam)and pinned them together. Then I cut about 40 yellow teeth shapes and stuffed them with pipe cleaners. I pinned the teeth facing into the middle of the pieces of green material; after I had sewn them together, I simply inverted it and the teeth were now on the outside and the pipe cleaners were securely sewn inside. I then slipped each foam piece into the green material and bent the teeth accordingly.

The top part of the head piece had a longer extra piece of material down the back onto which Velcro pieces were sewn. This Velcro attached to the back of the lower piece of the head. I also attached snaps on either side to close the "mouth" a bit more. Finally I glued plastic flies inside the mouth.

For the body, I braided strips of green material to look like vines and cut out leaves; I then attached them (by sewing) to a green sweatshirt. To finish off the costume, my son wore green gloves, green pants, and a "camo" slip on runners.
 
Homemade Venus Flytrap and Fly Couple Costume
Homemade Venus Flytrap and Fly Couple Costume
I started out making my grandson a fly by just using a black furry coat vest and sewing on the front and the back a shell like a turtle and attaching black wings covered with multi-colored saran wrap. I sewed a black cone on the back so that it looked like a flies' body. 
 
Homemade Venus Flytrap Halloween Costume
Homemade Venus Flytrap Halloween Costume
My daughter wanted to be a Venus Flytrap for Halloween this year. This costume can be hard to find in stores.

We made her Homemade Venus Flytrap Halloween Costume out of crafting foam used for cushions. We made a round pot that would allow her to walk around without being too constricting, and hot-glued some fake vines along the "pot" edge. The pot was spray-painted brown. A simple shift was sewed together and glued into the pot; a few fake leaves were also glued all over the shift.

Her hands were made into baby flytraps by gluing foam pieces to gardening gloves and then overlaying them with felt to disguise the gloves. We spray-painted the foam green color on the outside and used red spray paint in the "mouth" of the flytrap. Water bottles were cut up and glued to the "mouths" and painted a light pink to resemble teeth! The head piece was constructed the same way; green and red spray paint and water-bottle teeth. It was glued at the corners for a slip over head. We did have to use Velcro under her neck to stop the Flytrap from closing up on her when she walked. And she wore brown pants and brown shoes for her "roots".

The only thing we were not sure about was how to transform her face into a "fly" that has been
trapped. However, in the end, she decided to tint her face green and pretend it was a Man-Eating Venus Flytrap! Happy Haunting!