Halloween 2008
Last night was Halloween! Halloween is always an awesome night in Athens, because everyone in town gets dressed and goes downtown to people watch. And people are very. serious. about their costumes. Warning: picture heavy post below!
Jacob decided about a month ago that he wanted to dress up as Daft Punk for Halloween. We were going for this Daft Punk, but Jacob also wanted to do these lights because he is a crazy man. But hey, I'm all about some crafting, so we decided to go for it!
Here's the finished product:
That's Jacob on the left and me on the right.
and here's what we look like with the lights on:
you can see our helmets better in this one.
I was responsible for the jackets and Jacob did the helmets - we are a good crafty team! The lights on our jackets are electroluminescent wire - each jacket/helmet combo has 40 feet of wire. I hand stitched all the wire to the leather jackets using fishing wire (and I had to buy a special leather needle to sew with. it was a pain, but really secure once I finished). This tutorial was really helpful.
Working on Jacob's jacket.
My helmet is made out of a baseball helmet. Jacob cut out the lower visor/mouth/chin part using an old stiff cardboard box and used beer can bottoms for the ears. He used bondo on the whole thing to make it one cohesive piece, and then he sanded it.
Helmet in progess.
His helmet was an old motorcycle helmet. He covered the entire thing with window tint, and then cut the gold parts out of some gold thin paperboard that he picked up. He also superglued all the EL wire to both of our helmets. We could see and hear with the helmets on, although it was harder in a crowded bar.
Back to back
The EL wire runs on a battery pack, and there's an on/off switch, which makes it easy to blink the lights (if you were so inspired while listening to some awesome 70s jams at a bar. Hypothetically.) The battery packs fit in our pants pockets.
Speaking of pants - Jacob wanted some shiny pants for this costume, so I offered to make him some. He originally wanted leather pants, but I was afraid to make my first pair of pants with pleather, so I opted for satin (which is still a bit of a pain to work with, but seemed like a better option than damn pleather.)
I made pants for The Pants!
I hemmed them a bit too short, and it was my first fly front zipper, so I wasn't sure about the whole extra material hanging over part of it. I'll know for next time!
It was so much fun, y'all. We got stopped a lot downtown to get our pictures taken, and people actually recognized who we were! (Although we did also get a lot of "are you guys from Tron?") We decided that our little group had some of the best costumes around:
Cathy as creepy headless Marie Antoinette
Wes and Alison as Barf from Spaceballs and a skeleton
Wes as Cousin Eddie from Christmas Vacation
So much creativity in Athens on Halloween! My friends Kate, Courtney and Sarah as Carol Burnett Show characters:
Nora Desmond, Scarlett O'Hard, and the Charwoman who mops up the spotlight.
I could go on and on. Check out Courtney's blog for some more awesome Athens Halloween costumes, and here's my Flickr photo set: [ Halloween 2008 ]
Yay for DIY halloween costumes! I've spent all day trying to recover from our late night (including a 2:30 am Waffle House trip - BAD IDEA), but I'm already starting to think about costume ideas for next year.
So this post was all Halloween crafty! I still have to tell you about SAFF, including all the yummy yarn I got, and some knits that are close to being done. Next time, I might even have a finished knit to show off!
Comments (24)
Whoa!! My friend has forever wanted to be Daft Punk but we had NO idea how to make a costume for him that would actually cut it. These are amazing.
Posted by Lauren | February 3, 2010 12:21 AM
OMG these costumes are amazing! I love the Daft Punk outfits - you two TOTALLY hit it spot on. Awesome!
Posted by erika | December 2, 2008 5:07 AM
Wow. What awesome costumes.
Posted by Trina | November 11, 2008 9:18 PM
I was astonished at the fantastic costumes you made! WOW! What teamwork and execution of a great idea! Wow! Wow! Wow! I'm at a loss for words!
Posted by Ande | November 7, 2008 10:42 PM
DUDE - so awesome. The Pants's pants are great! You guys are a great team.
Posted by anne | November 6, 2008 8:52 PM
I adore your costumes -- so crafty! And the lights were AMAZING. Love your blog by the way -- maybe I'll see you at Stitches East?
Posted by Ann | November 5, 2008 2:37 PM
If I were giving out awards, you'd EASILY get best costume ever. SO RAD! I heart DP, we saw them at coachella a few years back. SO MUCH CRAZY FUN.
Posted by nancy | November 4, 2008 11:40 AM
You guys are amazing. All of you. The whole town. I bow down to your Halloween skillz.
Posted by alison | November 3, 2008 5:12 PM
Those are some amazing costumes. That looks like so much fun!
Posted by Cassy | November 3, 2008 11:32 AM
Awesome! I think that hand made costumes are so much more fun than store bought ones.
And I still can't believe you made pants!
Posted by Veronique | November 3, 2008 8:57 AM
I can't believe you made pants. That actually look like pants. That fit. I'm so impressed. Beyond that, these may be the coolest costumes I've ever seen, even though I have no idea who Daft Punk are because I'm lame.
Posted by Liana | November 3, 2008 7:42 AM
I left athens in '94 after a 6 year stay and miss my halloween adventure every year! Thanks for bringing back the good memories.
Posted by bhays | November 3, 2008 1:54 AM
I'm moving to Athens -- you guys always have such great Halloween fun.
Posted by Gina | November 2, 2008 8:58 PM
Damn...you guys are creative :) And Cathy's costume kicked ass too!
Posted by Stacey | November 2, 2008 7:01 PM
you guys are awesome and so crafty! i wish i was this creative when it came to costumes.
Posted by mai | November 2, 2008 3:32 PM
You all look fantastic! What a great bunch of costumes.
Posted by Kathode Ray Tube | November 2, 2008 2:16 PM
Your costumes were so great! And please pass on to your friend how much my husband and I enjoy his Cousin Eddie costume. That had us on the floor laughing!
Your sister's costume is fantastic, too! But was it comfortable enough for boozing it up?
Posted by Maggie | November 2, 2008 1:12 PM
Those are the COOLEST costumes ever.
Posted by Lulu | November 2, 2008 11:29 AM
whoa, those are the best costumes ever! you and the pants make a great team :)
Posted by gleek | November 2, 2008 10:54 AM
Those are awesome costumes, even though I'm so popular culture-deficient that I don't get the reference. :)
Posted by Janice in GA | November 2, 2008 10:04 AM
did you see this shot I got at the Glowdeo?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/scoutj/2929450411/
can you imagine how long THAT took!
Posted by scoutj | November 2, 2008 9:18 AM
You sewed men's pants? Two words for you: PROJECT RUNWAY. :D
Posted by Jenn | November 2, 2008 8:41 AM
Those are some awesome costumes.
Posted by Kat | November 2, 2008 7:40 AM
dude. i am totally BLOWN AWAY. you and jacob looked amazing and so exactly like what you were going for. and cathy kicked butt as well. WOWZA. YAY!Y!Y!Y!Y!Y!
Posted by carolyn | November 2, 2008 1:59 AM