Halloween Costume Ideas
From Tonia Brown
Hello there! My name is Tonia Brown and I am
the author of several novels ranging from humor to horror to steampunk. My
latest horror novel, Sundowners, just hit the interwebs. It’s a backwoods
southern horror, all about the importance of family, the dangers of gossip and
the nature of the artistic muse.
Halloween has always been a favorite holiday of mine. I think one of
the reasons—aside from horror movies appearing on every channel and zombie
themed decorations all over the place—is that it is the only acceptable time of
the year for us to wear costumes. Sure, we can wear costumes any time we like,
but Halloween is the time folks don’t wonder what is wrong with you when you
do! Hell, my friends and I dress up for Ren Faire, or sometimes just for the
hell of it, bit when we do we get asked the same question. Is it Halloween
already?
I usually make my costume, as well as my husband’s. What? You always
buy yours? Why on earth would anyone want to buy a costume? I know your
thinking you can’t sew or perhaps you aren’t the least bit crafty. That’s okay.
You don’t have to be crafty to be creepy. Put down the store bought costume and
make something of your own this year. Here some ideas for a few simple and
cheap costumes.
Spider: get a black
vest, three pairs of black tube socks, some stuffing and some heavy-duty
thread. Stuff the tube socks and stitch the open ends along the seam under the
armhole of the vest, three socks on each side. Then stitch the toe ends together
with a little space between each one so they move as one on each side. Sew the
last ‘arm’ to a pair of gloves or an extra pair of socks and wear them on your
hands. Between the six sock ‘arms’, your arms and your legs, you have eight
legs! Button up the vest and instant spider.
Six Shooter (from the Puppet
Master series): Same as above, only use two pairs of white socks and be
sure to wear a white button down and white gloves. Sew toy revolvers into the
toe ends of the socks and carry one in each hand. A red bandana and black
cowboy hat completes the look.
Zombie: it is a
common misconception that you have to have fancy pants special effects makeup
and weird assed contact lenses to do a good zombie costume. To this I say
poppycock! The true basis to a good zombie is your clothes. Get a hold of an
outfit you have no intention of ever wearing ever again in the history of ever.
Rip it up a bit here and there, and then bury it. You heard me right. Bury it
for preferably a week ahead of time, a month if you can plan it. Dig up them
clothes, shake em out and enjoy the super aged and dead look. A little pale
makeup to wash out your color, a touch of black under the eyes, a little green
around the hairline and you will look all zombiefied in moments. You don’t even
need buckets of blood. Just be sure to moan a lot and you should be good to go.
Titanic Victim:
Similar to the zombie, only soak the clothes in salt water and leave them out
in the wind and rain to let the elements tear them apart. Don’t worry if your outfit
is period enough or not, just stick to a simple straight-line dress or a button
down shirt and slacks and you should be safe. Opt for green, purple and blue
makeup for that drowned, bloated and frozen look. You can dampen green crepe
paper for seaweed, and drape it across your costume. Extra points if you can
manage to make a life preserver that says Titanic and drag it around all night!
Little Dead Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf: This is a great couple’s costume. She should
wear a white outfit (because white always shows up blood the best) with lots of
blood down the front and if you can manage it a good sized wound around the
neckline. (Liquid latex is pretty cheap and easy to work with.) If she can get
a red cape then that’s good, but with all the blood, she is plenty red enough.
He doesn’t need to do anything more than a little facial hair, some blood
around the mouth and down the chest from where he’s been feasting, and lots of
growling. After all, a werewolf isn’t a wolf all of the time. (Feel free to go
whole hog and do some wolf makeup for him!)
There you have it, a few simple and cheap ideas that work wonders. You
get a homemade costume you can be proud of, and your friends will be amazed by
your ingenuity. We won’t tell them you read it here first.
Happy Halloween, and happy haunting.
Tonia Brown's short stories have
appeared in a variety of anthologies. She has cranked out several books,
including Sundowners, Badass Zombie Road Trip and the weird west series
Railroad! Tonia lives in North
Carolina with her genius husband and an ever
fluctuating number of cats. When not writing she raises unicorns and fights
crime with her husband under the code names Dr. Weird and his sexy sidekick
Butternut.
You can learn more about her at:
www.thebackseatwriter.com
Cool ideas! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteTonia, I loved your costume tips. Also, I downloaded the sample of Sundowners. The blurb sounds right up my alley, but EVERYBODY (even Todd) has to pass my sample test.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I appreciate the love. :)
ReplyDelete