Throw Back Thursday - Halloween Edition

I am a huge fan of Halloween. I think I like it so much because we get to dress in costumes, and I just LOVE costumes. Costumes, cosplay, Halloween....any excuse to get out my sewing machine and show my skills, and have some fun. Dress me up!

I don't have the mad costuming skills some of my friends have - friends who are actually professional costumers, and even have degrees in costuming - but I can hold my own, and I'm generally pretty proud of what I manage to come up with.

These are some of the costumes I've created in the past:




Steampunk Airship Pirate





Steampunk Airship Pirate (note: I did NOT make the corset. Just everything else).




Steampunk Airship Pirates




Lightning McQueen made completely from scratch




He was happy to wear it even though it was a bit heavy.





Sonic the Hedgehog (I didn't make the headpiece, just everything else.)



Quick Renaissance garb from pirate wear.




Old skool Robin (the taller one, natch)



This was a dress I made myself for New Year's Eve one year.




Arrr! A pirate!



We be pirates!



The Honey Tree and Owl (from Winnie-the-Pooh).



It was a group theme costume - the kids were Winnie-the-Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and Christopher Robin. They were adorable!







One year we did Charmander when the kiddo was particularly into Pokémon. He was pretty knackered in the second photo after trick-or-treating through the mall in a warm costume.

This one is the piece de resistance. I sculpted this Freddy Fazbear Costume from foam, a medium I had never worked in before. The jaw moved and everything. It wasn't easy to move in, but he wanted to do it. 

I am so crazy proud of this costume. I even made a video of the making of it:

FNAF Cosplay - The Making of Freddy Fazbear

My son is a serious gamer - he plays games across all platforms: Xbox 360, Wii, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS XL, PC, online. One game he and his friends seem to be crazy for is called Five Nights at Freddy's. His favorite character is Freddy Fazbear, who as I understand it, is an animatronic bear who is filled with the bodies dead children. Lovely, no?

It's not my cup of tea, obviously. The whole game is pretty creepy, but the characters have somewhat of an almost cult following - among its fans: many many children. Don't ask me to explain that, as I cannot. Despite the game's growing popularity, companies have yet to mass market any costumes of the characters. So when he said he wanted to be Freddy for Halloween, that meant, "Mom, you are making me a Freddy costume."

His friend, who we are trick-or-treating with, is going as Bonnie (the blue rabbit). In my mind that meant her Mom and I were going to collaborate and make (simple) coordinating costumes. But my son had other ideas. He said, "I don't want a mask that just goes on my face. I want to be Freddy. I want a head." And that turned into my making not just a head and hands, but the entire costume. Because my son likes detail and realism

Let me tell you, this costume took me a full month to make. I mean really, a full month plus a couple of days. I didn't work on it every day. Being a Mama with chronic illness means sometimes I just can't, and when I can't, I take those days off and just rest - because it's all my body will allow.

I had to learn new skills - I had never before made a foam anything, other than using craft foam in occasional 2D craft projects. I'd never sculpted foam, or built armor-type body pieces, or made giant foam feet. So I went to The School of YouTube and DeviantArt, and found several tutorials, which I watched (and read) over and over and over again until I felt sure of my understanding of the techniques.

But I did it! I actually managed to make a full body Freddy Fazbear costume, with ALL of the pieces, as realistic to the photo as I was able. The head even had a movable jaw.

It wasn't the easiest costume to wear - the head made seeing a bit difficult, as it stole away my son's peripheral vision. And it was hard to walk in because of the big feet - he wasn't able to run house to house as he's been able to do in past years. My son learned a little bit about how important freedom of movement is to him in a costume, and how sweaty foam makes a person, even when it's cold outside (that's why we use it in houses and furniture for insulation!). But he LOVED how it looked, even if it wasn't practical. And yes, I DID try and let him know in advance what it was going to be like to wear, but sometimes you just have to experience a thing for yourself to get the full effect of it. 

But I sure did home my skills and I learned that hey, I can sculpt from foam, and I  CAN make things like this, and it isn't really as daunting as it seems....well, it IS, but then as I went, I realized I could DO it, which was the important thing. I feel really really proud that I MADE THIS BY MYSELF, and that I did such a great job at it, too - especially considering I've never ever made anything even remotely like this before.

That's him in the full costume, although we did change the gloves after this photo was taken, and they looked so much better. I can't get him to wear the suit again so I can make videos or take more photos, so this one photo is going to have to represent my month of work.

*** No! I made a slideshow of my month of work on YouTube! You can view it below:

If you happen to be reading this because you're also interested in creating something like this, I made a playlist of the tutorials I used on my other YouTube channel, here:

Fursuit Tutorials