Halloween Costume Ideas

 Every year, my bar hosts two super-busy Halloween parties - our mission is basically to encourage an entire weekend of nonstop binge drinking and costuming. It's the one weekend a year our whole staff comes together and "wows" the pants off our patrons with themed costumes. Historically, something has always gone wrong: we've chosen themes that weren't universally loved, shift changes have thrown wrenches into the plans, or the planning and enthusiasm just weren't there. This year we rocked out. We took our costumes seriously and we were able to pull off a well-planned theme or two.
So today I'm going to show you our costumes in the hopes that they set off a creative lightbulb for you and potentially keep you from poking two holes in a sheet (you call that a ghost)? Or throwing on a cat-eared headband and running around in black underwear. (Lame. Possibly the lamest.)
Here are few individual costumes that the servers came up with and they're pretty self explanatory:

Here are a couple of costumes designed for two people. Since we're bartenders, we thought a drink name-themed costume was appropriate... so we bring you "Captain & Ginger". We used the Captain Morgan mascot and Ginger (the movie star) from Gilligan's Island, although the barely 21 year-old "kids" that frequent our bar don't even know what Gilligan's Island is - let alone who I was supposed to be! The barbacks are pictured here in their Shaggy and Scooby Doo costumes (Scooby looks especially cute)!

This was the big one. Our big bartender/barback Saturday night group costume:

 The Good Cast:


The Evil Cast... and the costumes I personally made:


We all looked awesome! For my Wicked Witch of the West costume, I went completely green! I mixed about 12 pumps of an oil free body lotion with 1 compact of green shimmery eye shadow smashed to bits. Then I mixed in about a tablespoon of green acrylic paint and spread it on. I stood in front of a fan for about 5 minutes to dry, then brushed on a coat of the same green shimmery eyeshadow with a Kabuki brush. It worked really well and didn't come off much during the busy night. The best part: one shower and it was gone! I accented my green complexion with a heavy black smoky eye. I was quiet the sultry witch, if you ask me...I also made the barbacks their Flying Monkey costumes. After all, they are my minions.  I started with 2 of Ignacio's old button-down shirts. One was short sleeved and one was long, so I cut the long-sleeved (olive green) shirt to match the short-sleeved (blue) shirt. I then cut off the collar and carefully removed all buttons and pockets from the shirts.I used a chevron stencil to paint the front and arm designs onto to the shirt with acrylic paint.
For the wings:

I gathered one black feather boa, some extra dark gray microfiber, and a bunch of all-black fabric. Take two wire shirt hangers and mold them into heart shapes.

Using old newspaper and a mixture of 1/2 water and 1/2 Elmer's Glue, I paper-machéd the wire hangers. I applied about 3 thick layers to make the wings nice and strong. Then I let them dry thoroughly.

Next I cut out a ton (in total, about 30 in small, medium, and large lengths for each set of wings) of "feathers" from the black and gray fabrics.

I found that cutting one side from a rectangular strip, then flipping the fabric over and cutting the other side got the best results.

Once the paper mache dried, I began hot-gluing black feathers onto the wing forms.

Then I hot-glued on some gray feathers..

Then more black feathers.

I cut the boa in half and used one for each set of wings. I hot-glued the roping of the boa onto the top side of the wing set. I recommend leaving extra on the ends so the feathers from the boa drape down the sides of the wings.

I hand sewed the wings onto the back of the flying monkey shirts using doubled-up black thread. You can use hot glue as well but definitely sew them on, going under and over the back of the wings to secure them tightly to the shirt. The thread will be hidden by the feathers.

For the fezzes I hand sewed navy blue felt around a pint-sized Chinese food container (the one you get your soup delivered in), using it as a form. Then, I copied the design from the shirts onto the felt. Once they were dry, I took a hole puncher and punched out a hole on either end of the little hat.

Using whatever string, ribbon or twine you have, and any sort of embellishment (I used hemp twine and little silver hoops from an old bracelet),  attach them through the punched holes on either side. Use extra long twine so that they can tie the fezzes on however tight they like.

These little hats were super cute. Everyone loved the Flying Monkey costumes and knew exactly what they were (which makes Halloween much more fun)!

Have a Happy Halloween everyone!