Halloween 2014 (DIY style)

This Halloween is different than many of the others that have passed. For the first Halloween that I can remember, I was unemployed and had a lot of time on my hands. It’s my (and my wife’s) favorite holiday and we just love everything that’s associated with it, especially the costumes. Well, this year I decided to try and outdo my daughter’s Alien ‘Chest Burster’ Costume from 2013. For 2014, my goal was to make her into a zombie and here are the results…

First, I went to the thrift store and bought a cheap outfit that I knew was going to be completely destroyed (right alongside Lilah’s trust and faith in her father).

Then I found a skeleton at Target that was just the right size. Lilah actually carried the thing around the house and talked to it like it was one of her dolls.

I got to work on the pants and shirt with scissors, cutting holes in the knee and elbow areas. I hacked the plastic skeleton up, taking bones I wanted to incorporate into the costume. Really, all I ended up using were the leg and arm bones, along with half of its rib cage.

I cut small holes in the shirt so I could feed the individual ribs into them. Around the end of each rib, I cut a notch, just big enough for a piece of string. Once I got the ribs through the holes, I turned the shirt inside-out, then tied a long piece of string down the line of ribs and around each one. I made sure the string sat in the notches so it wouldn’t slip off and the rib cage wouldn’t just fall out. The string is what held the rib cage to the shirt (mostly).

The next step in the process was to take the plastic arm and leg bones and attach them to the outfit. I did this again by cutting notches in each bone and making small holes in the material to feed string through. I actually thought my wife’s elastic hair ties would work best, as they would give a little when my daughter moved her arm or leg, so I cut a few up and used those.

I ended up fastening the breast bone to the shirt with fabric adhesive, which worked quicker and a lot better than I thought it would. Then I cut a hole in the shirt behind the rib cage, to look like the shirt was torn open, exposing her ribs. Next up, it was time to make it bloody!

I had to make sure the hair-tie fasteners were covered with blood (red paint) in order to disguise them.

At each step of the way, I was always adding stuff like rips, wounds, and blood. Always more blood.

Finally I finished.

And here is the finished product, makeup and all…

I was pretty happy with her costume. A few days before Halloween, my wife and I took her to a ‘Halloween Carnival’ at a local park where the kids could trick or treat. A lot of the parents liked the costume and told us so. Some of the kids did, as well. There was a bunch to keep Lilah entertained at the carnival; a hay ride around the pond, games, candy, and also a costume contestwhere Lilah ended up taking third place.

Zombie Lilah was also the star of our family’s Happy Halloween Video Greeting Card for 2014.