My Halloween Traditions:
I haven’t gone trick-or-treating for years; instead, I go over to a family member’s house and do scare acting at his haunted house. He has one of those houses on a few of the published lists of the scariest houses in the neighborhood that you can visit. He does a lot of work on it, and there are several family members and neighbors who join in the scaring fun! My costumes have changed a lot over the years for scaring.
I have gone from little “dead” riding hood to now being a pumpkin clown demon. It rolls right off the tongue, right, “pumpkin clown demon,” but my character is completely homemade, and it is inspired by several different people and things.
Finding My Inspiration:
One of the inspirations is Bobbins from Knott’s Scary Farm. I saw her on Instagram and loved her vibe and costume and just everything she puts into it. Her interactions with guests appear constantly on my TikTok and my Instagram, and they are great. She is scary, but she is also very funny, and her costume is just perfect. Everything goes together even though you might not think it would at first with different patterns and textures.
Another inspiration is Fryboy from Decayed Brigade. They are a group of “haunt sliders,” which I only discovered a few years ago. If you have never seen haunt sliding, I highly recommend looking it up; it is so fun and shocking. Some sliders use spark gloves or sparkers on their shoes that make sparks appear when they slide. Last year I got a set of the sparking pucks to put on my gloves, and they work great for night scaring. I have the knee pads, but I don’t slide; I just use them so I can go down to the ground hard. The sparks really add something different; when I run my hand across concrete, it looks like my hands are sparking. It really makes people jump.
Other inspirations came from random places; I wear a set of demon horns that I made one year for the Renaissance Faire. I wear a black corset that I have been wearing for years. I was actually on stilts for two years in this costume; unfortunately, the driveway is uneven and cracked, and stilts became unsafe to wear.
Building My Costume:
I wanted to go more for a clown vibe, so I handmade a collar and skirt out of tulle a few years ago. Every year I pull them out, they smell like the bonfire we have every Halloween. This year, I made a few changes to the skirt; it was very flat because all I did was layer black and orange tulle and sew it around an orange ribbon. I did the same thing for the collar. I also added some tacking to the top of the skirt to give it more dimension, and did the same for the collar. Basically, I put a few stitches in different spots to bunch up the fabric and give it more depth. I also tore up the bottom of the skirt some more, and I added more tulle to make the skirt look fuller. Less ballerina and more full skirt.
Making and Re-making my mask:
I got my mask several years ago. Everyone else who does the scaring on Halloween is in full masks; I realized fairly quickly that I like to have my peripheral vision completely there for when I am using my spark gloves or running after someone. There are too many kids and bumps and curbs that I need to be able to see.
My mask started off as a plain wolf bone mask I got off Amazon. I painted the bone orange, and I tried to do the teeth dark. I also added some different elastic to it and a black backing so you can’t see my mouth (I laugh too much sometimes when I am scaring). I used this version of the mask for several years. This year, however, I redid the mask; I added shading to the orange, shading to the teeth, and made clasps and new elastic. I also made it so I can adjust the elastic without just tying it in knots (which I had been doing for years).
My 3D Printer Saved Halloween:
I love my 3d printer so much; I used it to create the clips and the adjusters for the mask. This year I also used it to make two blades for my costume that I can use, and I made claws to put on a set of black gloves. The claw gloves turned out amazing! They are my favorite new thing for the year. The 3d printer also made my horns that I wear; I made them several years ago for the Renaissance Faire, and they just work so well with this costume. The 3d printer turned out to be the big winner for this Halloween season.
The gloves give an amazing silhouette at night when the lights hit them. It looks like my hands are unnatural and have claws growing right out of the tops of my gloves. They up the fear just a little bit. Unfortunately, I don’t use the 3d printed claws with my sparking gloves. I have two sets of gloves, one with the claws and one with the sparking puck. I don’t want to risk breaking all the claws off after my first sparks!
The Finishing Touches:
I am adding a few new things this year besides the claw gloves. I’m also going to have arm warmers. I already wear knee-high striped socks that are orange and black, and for this year I bought a set of the same things in arm warmers. It just gives that little bit of color to the otherwise black arms/top.
On to the makeup. I have always loved doing makeup for Halloween; there were some years I had big gashes across my head, or I was covered in blood, or I had claw marks down my eyes… now my makeup is more clown-based. I love the eye accents that clowns use; I have done them big for a few years. This year I am doing them just above my eyes, and I am doing them small. Under my eyes, I am doing lines of black, like black is smeared, and I am doing a dark orange eye shadow with black on the edges. I realized after a while that with too much makeup it ends up smearing and, if it rains, dripping off. It has rained several years on Halloween (and even snowed!), so any makeup I have on better stick GOOD!
What I’d Do Differently:
If I had to make this costume again, I would make the skirt bigger from the start. I love my skirt, but I won’t say it’s without its problems. I would be more detailed in my sewing (I have had to resew a few times for certain sections), and I would make the tulle much longer so I could have more of a silhouette to play with. Instead, I am having to add it later, and let me tell you it isn’t easy.
The Final Reveal:
I absolutely love how my costume turned out this year; the gloves were such a hit, and I had a blast!
Leave a Reply