Friday, October 23, 2015

5 Fandom Friday: Characters I Have Dressed/Will Dress Up as for Halloween

With Halloween around the corner, this week's 5 Fandom Friday prompt, "Characters I Want to Dress Up as for Halloween", is no surprise.  However, I'm taking it in a slightly different direction--here are my five favorite Halloween (slash Dragon Con) costumes I've already checked off my list:

1. Musketeer

I was seven when Disney's The Three Musketeers came out, and I was obsessed with Musketeers after seeing it.

The Three Four Musketeers.

I even got the Gene Kelly version for Christmas that year, though the Disney version remained my constant favorite.  I never did read the book, but Musketeers have nonetheless always held a special place in my heart ever since.  So I was ecstatic to stumble upon a ridiculously good deal on a [kids] Musketeer tabard on Ebay right when I started scrambling for a Halloween costume because I was four months pregnant, had a party to go to, and nothing fit.

Me as a [pregnant] Musketeer.

Fortunately, I already had a rapier hanging on my wall (as all the cool people do), so it was an easy costume to throw together with the yoga pants I was wearing exclusively in those days.  I just had to make the shirt for it--which has conveniently gotten a good bit of use with my next costume as well...

2. Pirate

I read Treasure Island for the first time when I was around seven years old, and I fell in love with it (this was a few months before the Musketeer phase).  I essentially trace all my geekiness back to that book--it started my obsession with pirates, and swords, and adventure, which took me on all the rabbit trails of history and fantasy and sci-fi that have come to hold my continued enthusiastic fascination.  At some point in early adulthood, I acquired a beautiful cutlass, and I've been collecting bits and pieces for an ongoing pirate costume ever since.

Other than a handful of times dressing up as a pirate during my college years, this costume made its debut for Kaylie's second Halloween--she was only eighteen months old, too young to really have much interest in choosing her own costume, so I decided we would both go trick-or-treating as pirates:

Pirates 2012.

We made it to one house--our kind, familiar neighbors across the street--and Kaylie fell apart halfway up their driveway, sobbing and screaming.  Hahaha!  So we walked right back home and handed out candy all night instead.

The next year, I'd just had Wil four months earlier and we'd moved into a new house just days before Halloween, so it was convenient that she very adamantly insisted that she wanted to wear last year's pirate costume:

Pirate 2013.

However, amidst all the craziness, I didn't end up dressing up with her.  But we made up for it next year, with family costumes:

Pirates 2014.

Wil was our pet monkey. :-)  Kaylie had finally outgrown her first pirate costume, but she shot down my every costume suggestion and demanded to be a pirate again, only this time she wanted to be a "boy pirate" so she could wear pants (I explained that girl pirates can wear pants, too, but she still called the costume a "boy pirate").

Pirates 2014.

While we're not planning to continue the tradition this year (she wants to be Anna from Frozen), we did get to break out the costumes again the other day to score some free doughnuts at Krispy Kreme for Sept. 19's "International Talk Like a Pirate Day"--though I left the cutlass at home this time.

Pirates 2015.

Most recently, I found a pirate medallion necklace, a miniature version of the Aztec gold pieces from the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, on our vacation to Disney World last week.  Ever evolving!

3. Zoe Washburne

With both my kids named after "Firefly" characters (Wil's middle name is Malcolm), it's no surprise I've dressed up as someone from the show, right?

Zoe Alleyne Washburne.

It was the perfect excuse for me to wear these totally awesome Star Wars-esque boots (most similar to Qui-Gon's) I'd recently found:

Me as Zoe Washburne.

But, really, the costume started with my very favorite baby shower gift ever, these adorable Kaylee coveralls a friend made for our Kaylie:

Kaylie as Kaylee.

It was perfect for her first Halloween!  So, naturally, I threw together Zoe and Wash costumes for my husband and I to match for our first Halloween as a family:

All we need now is a Firefly!

(I even went all-out that year and did a "Firefly" pumpkin carve--I posted the stencil I drew up for it here.)

4. Rose Tyler

This year, I'll be accompanying my little Princess Anna while dressed as Rose Tyler.

Ninth Doctor & Rose Tyler.

I have the costume all together already, since my hubby and I cosplayed as Nine and Rose at Dragon Con this year (I'm so behind on life, I haven't even posted about DC yet!).

Hubby and me as Nine and Rose.

I figure it's a nice, subtle costume--that other Whovians will appreciate, but other parents won't give me funny looks for. :-P  Not that I mind the funny looks.

Me as Rose Tyler.

Allons-y!

5. Steampunk Leia

All right, so this one isn't a past or planned Halloween costume...

Princess Leia.

...but it was my first-ever con cosplay, which I wore to Dragon Con last month:

Steampunk Princess Leia (I didn't notice till later that my necklace was backwards...).

I had this idea for a steampunk version of Princess Leia a few years ago, and I'd actually been working on it ever since we found out four years ago we'd be moving to Atlanta (making Dragon Con a possibility for me to attend).  This summer, after officially being done having kids and finally shedding most of the baby weight, I decided it was time to pull the whole thing together in time for DC.  I'd bought the corset and boots, but I made the rest--I used a pattern for the shirt, heavily altered a pattern for the skirt, drew up my own pattern for the functional utility belt and detachable holster, added a Rebel symbol to a pocketwatch, made my own Rebel resin-poured necklace, and made the steampunk gun out of a water gun and a pirate pistol (tutorial for the gun here).

Me as Steampunk Leia.

I was extremely pleased with how the whole thing turned out.  Except maybe for the hair...besides accidentally dyeing it orange the month before (long story), I have super thin, fine hair, but I hated the idea of a wig.  My hair was actually twisted into two steampunk-ish messy buns, but they don't really show up in head-on shots....But the costume, I was enormously proud of.  I intend to continue working on it to wear again next year--and I'm debating wearing it to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens in theaters.  And maybe sometime it'll be see use as a Halloween costume, too. :-)

So those are the five "Halloween" costumes I've most enjoyed wearing.  Next on my list: Lord of the Rings' Eowyn!  What has been your favorite Halloween costume you've worn?  Who would you like to dress up as next?

10 comments:

  1. Oh my gosh, those Kaylee coveralls!! So adorable. I love all of these costumes, but especially that steampunk Leia!

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    1. Thanks so much! I really need to look into making a set of the coveralls myself sometime--she's four and a half now, but I'd love to add a bigger set to her dress-up box since she outgrew the other before she was one! :-)

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  2. OMG your pictures are too cute!! I'm having a family pic cuteness overload atm!! I love the idea of pirates :D Lately I've been fangirling all over Hook (Once Upon a Time), so it makes all the sense to me ... now LOL

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    1. Aw, thanks! :-) I really need to watch OUaT--Hook seems awesome, from what little I've seen of him! :-)

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  3. Your costumes are so great! Love that you dress up as a family together. It's definitely something we want to do one year!

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    1. Thanks! It's been fun, though we're breaking tradition this year since the kids want to be Princess Anna and Buzz Lightyear. :-)

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  4. I love all of these, but I think little Kaylee has to be my favorite. I don't usually do cosplay, but this year I'm thinking of going as Zatanna from DC/Vertigo. My middle daughter is Wasp from Marvel, so that will be a bit of a clash ;)

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    1. I think that year will always be my favorite family Halloween--unless we try to do another Firefly family with my son, too, some year! :-) I love seeing parents dress up with their kids, even if the costumes don't "coordinate"--one of the best things we geeky parents can do for our kids, I think, is reinforce the message that they are okay being themselves and loving what they love, by setting an example of being okay with ourselves and the things WE love, too, or by getting excited with them about THEIR things--Halloween is such a great opportunity for that! :-)

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  5. Oh my word, I love your Steampunk Leia! And your daughter is ADORABLE as a tiny Kaylee!

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    1. Thanks! :-) Yeah, she totally stole the show that year! :-)

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