Jurassic World Halloween

Happy Halloween! A little early! You guys know I love Halloween. I love dressing up, and I love making costumes. It's a perfect match. But this year was a little weird because I am pregnant. It just makes Halloween costumes a little more challenging. A pregnant Disney Princess would be a wee bit awkward, no?

But over the summer when we saw Jurassic World I made a goofy Facebook post saying that for Halloween Brendon was going to be Owen and I'd be his chief velociraptor, Blue. So after coming up with zilch for costume ideas I said, what the heck, lets do it! And believe it or not, this is the first coordinated Halloween costume I think we've done in a loooong time. If not ever! Usually it's just like, "Well I'm making this for myself, you can be whatever you want!" ;)

Forgive the quality of photos! It gets dark so early these days, and we only managed to get one photo outside from the shindig we went to last night before the sun disappeared.

Brendon's costume was really easy. We found the blue shirt at a thrift store and I made the vest out of a huuuuuge suede long sleeved button up we found at the thrift store as well. I cut off the sleeves, took it in about 1000 inches, altered the neckline/lost the buttons and plackets, and made a bunch of little pockets on the front. Basically took it all apart and started over. I tried to mimic the real deal as much as I could. Just suede instead of leather. I actually really enjoyed making that vest? I want to say it was my favorite part of this whole project, my costume included. Weird!

LOL, I spy a Greg, trying to get some attention!

My costume was a whole different bag of worms. Everything is made out of poly knit stretchy fabric, because stretchy is my best friend these days. The dress is a really simple pullover shift dress, New Look 6298, and I just added a big ribbon as a belt because I needed some sort of waistline. For vanity reasons. I made gloves (Butterick 5370), which was a nightmare. As in way more work than I planned on putting into gloves. But it was a learning experience. The pattern I chose wasn't just normal gloves (like two hand shaped patterns sandwiched together), but historical fancy gloves. With gussets (bands of fabric) between each finger. It was insane. But I made them, they fit... like a glove... HA, and I hot glued blue felt claws onto them. Rawr!

THE HEAD. Omg, what was I thinking? I made this up as I went. Just totally winged it. And it mostly worked. I used all kinds of velociraptor photos as references, even a skeleton! This baby has the correct amount of teeth and everything. I started with the middle strip of the head piece and just added to it, sculpting the head. I channeled my inner art school student. Design 2 was all 3D wasn't it? I remember having to carve a piece of popcorn out of a 18"x18" or something cube of styrofoam. Those were the days. Bleh.

Sophie looooved it. She thought I was making her a big pillow!

The eye! I made little slightly puffy eyes out of felt and embroidery thread, then kind of shaded some red and orange onto them with sharpies to give them a little more dimension. They looked like coins from Super Mario at first.

The teeth are made from felt and I lined the inside of the head with red. Kind of looks like a tongue hanging out in that picture! I sewed a cheapo baseball cap into the inside so it would fit onto my head. The bill goes into the mouth to give the head a little more support.

The bottom jaw was the trickiest part. I made a sort of triangular jaw shaped tube, and then ran a coat hanger through it for support. I stuffed the back of the head, sewed it all shut, and called it a day! Oh and I added a blue bow. Since technically Blue the raptor is called Blue because she's covered in blue accents. I thought about painting blue onto the fabric, but that seemed too over the top. For a velociraptor hat...

Finished product! I am pretty happy with it. For it being a giant dinosaur head. I don't know how many times while making this costume I was like, "NOPE, eff it. I've got cat ears, I'll just be a cat." But I stuck it out and finished the damn thing. And now it's sitting in my living room as a cat bed/toy.

Human-raptor love is kind of weird. But you don't have to understand us!!

We wore these costumes early this year because our apartment complex was having a little party. (Brief note here, this is the nicest place we've ever lived. The people who run this joint are so awesome. They throw parties and events at least twice a month for everyone. They are so involved with all their residents, it's amazing. There's a very definite sense of community here, which is something we've never experienced at any place we've lived! Kudos to this place!) And we have like zero plans on Halloween now because of all the impending rain, so we wanted to make sure these saw the light of day. I'm pretty happy with how it all turned out! I think Brendon made a perfect Chris Pratt. Starlord next, or what?

So boom, there are our costumes this year! I definitely missed making something pretty for myself. Sewing with cheap grey stretchy fabric isn't quite the same as sewing with pretty colors and textures. I'm already planning on sewing myself a pretty dress to recuperate. Ha! I have problems.

Have a very Happy Halloween you guys! I hope you have fun celebrating, in whatever way you do! And if you're getting a deluge of rain like we are, stay safe and dry!

And for some Halloween throwback, here are a few of our costumes from the past! All our Halloween selfies from last year, Halloween 2013, Snow White 2012, Ace Ventura 2012, and Marie Antoinette 2011. AND JUST WAIT UNTIL WE HAVE THE SEAHORSE! Oh gosh, it's going to be a blast. Especially when she's tiny and get's no say in her costume. Mwahahaha!