For many of us here at GeekDad, Halloween is a great time of year to show off and share our favorite geeky pursuits through costuming. Here is the Halloween round-up of some of our costumes from this year for you to enjoy.
We were on a non-Halloween related trip to the fabric store a couple of months ago when our son saw a pattern for dinosaur costumes. He immediately decided that he wanted to be “Triceratops Boy.” We bought the pattern and went home. He said he wanted to be red and orange so my wife put all the appropriate fabric in our cart on Fabric.com. She wisely waited on submitting the order and, over the course of several days, asked him to confirm his choices. It was a good thing we waited as he changed his mind to green and blue (Go Hawks!) and then stood firm. We ordered all the fabric, and after several days, many hours, and a few fittings later, my wife completed his Triceratops Boy costume.
The parents at Casa Bryant were very understated. I went as a scary book, wearing my Haunting at Hill House t-shirt. The husband went as a Miles Davis album, Kind of Blue, in his blue hoodie. Our girls are far more creative. The elder daughter and her boyfriend were Waldo and Wenda, which, of course, made them difficult to find. The younger daughter was a being of her own creation: The Merry Reaper. Merry because she’s not very good at Grim. She reaps stuffed animals and wheels them to a Halloween party in the afterlife, which is why they are also in costume. The Merry Reaper also prefers a good axe to a scythe. It’s easier to use, and just looks much cooler.
To give myself enough lead time, every year I start asking my kids two to three months before Halloween what they want to be. It usually takes a few rounds of ideas to get them to zero-in on a costume. It was looking like we were going with a T101 Terminator and a Klingon from Star Trek, but they both backed down when they heard those costumes would involve prosthetics. Final choices were Connor Kenway from Assassin’s Creed 3 and Scotty from Star Trek TOS. I rejoice when the costumes are readily available for purchase, but no such luck this year.
Scotty is my oldest son’s favorite Star Trek original series character. I don’t know if it’s because he’s really into Scotland right now, or if he’s really into Scotland because he likes Scotty. In any case, the costume involved some simple modifications to a red shirt and black pants to get a working suit, and my oldest is at that age where his Mom’s shoes fit him, so original series boots were covered. I purchased a phaser as well as a tricorder and communicator set and was surprised to discover the badges on the original series all had a different insignia.
Connor Kenway, on the other hand, involved a great deal of custom work. After a month with a borrowed sewing machine, no prior sewing knowledge, and some excellent patterns and instructional videos from AssassinsCostume.com, I was able to create a pretty good facsimile of Connor. His one big costume purchase was the working hidden blade. I really think the hidden blade mechanism was the catalyst for the whole costume when my youngest son saw it at PAX 2015. I enjoy making these costumes as I love the final results and the joy they get wearing them. As an added bonus, I learn so much as I have to acquire new skills such as sewing or leather-work.
My daughters are huge fans of Star Wars Rebels. I created a Sabine Wren costume for my oldest, and a Hera Syndulla outfit for my youngest. Unfortunately, the green makeup and long lekku (head tails) were not feasible for their school Halloween party, so she opted to go as a cheerleader. Notice Sabine reaching for her non-existent guns, because you can’t have guns in school!
“Because I had made the Minecraft costumes last year, making the pig head was pretty easy. I just made a cube out of corrugated cardboard to fit over Christopher’s head, cut out eyes and a mouth, and covered it with pink felt. Christopher wanted a nose that stuck out, so I just cut some more cardboard rectangles, covered with felt and glued it in place. He was okay with the body not being “square” so I found a generic animal costume pattern and made his in pink.
Grace’s costume used the same sewing pattern as Christopher’s, just in bear colors rather than pig color. I thought about making a giant bear head but figured it would be more than I wanted to handle, so Grace agreed that I could make a headpiece and use face paint. The hat and ears are sewn onto a regular headband. Finally, Grace wanted a microphone, so it’s just a light bulb and toilet paper tube covered in duct tape and felt.”
