Introduction: Tiny Gargoyle of the Night
I used my son's PJ's as a pattern. I cut out grey stretchy material and sewed it as a one-piece with Velcro on the back. I put a $3 bald cap and $3 elf ears on my son. I made his wings out of light weight wood trims that builders use on the walls. The "bones" of the wings were made of very small sized dowels. I cut the trim into two pieces. One was 1/2 the length of the other. I drilled a hole to join the two pieces and tightened with a screw and nut. This provided the "hinge" of the wing. I hot glued the grey fabric over the wing "skeleton". This had to be light weight enough for my son, who only ways 33 lbs,to wear and maneuver. I used small picture frame hanging triangle things (don't know what they are called) as the "pulley" system to tie the string through. I duct taped it onto the "elbow" piece of the wood trim. When he pulled the strings, his wings opened up to about 3 ft on each side. His wings were attached to his Dora the Explorer backpack suitcase, which was covered in the same grey fabric. To open and close the wings, i tried a piece of cooking twine to where the picture hanging thing was taped to the elbow of the wing. I crisscrossed it for better pull. I took and old strap from a gym bag that had two clips on each end. I resized it so it would fit as a belt on my son, duct tape the two ends together (as the front of the belt) so that each clip was facing the other way. I tied two small pieces of dowels to each string so that my son could easily grab the ends to pull open his wings. If he wanted to keep his wings open, he could clip them to the clips on the belt. This kept the wings expanded open and his hands free. I had him put his hands over the grey fabric and traced it for his gloves. I only gave him 3 fingers. For the tail, i just cut a long piece of fabric and sewed it down the side, getting smaller at the end. I inserted a piece of bent 16 gauge wire into the tail so that it would keep its shape and I could bend his tail up. I used grey cream makeup to cover his face, bald cap, and ears. Then I drew in the face with black cream makeup. I used my kid's old paintbrush who's bristles had been glued stiff (from the kids not cleaning it after they used it) to dab on white cream makeup. The stiff bristles created the stone look. I drew in fangs and traced it with the black paint to make him look more sinister.
Runner Up in the
Halloween Contest
17 Comments
9 years ago on Introduction
Oh my gosh, this is great. The first thing I thought of was that creepy movie from the 70's called 'The Brood'.
9 years ago
Hilarious
10 years ago on Introduction
myyyy precious
12 years ago on Introduction
That is terrifying! =D
12 years ago on Introduction
AWESOME he'd be welcome in our haunt anytime !
12 years ago on Introduction
aww that's awesome! I remember when I was younger I had a gargoyle costume. Had seamonster flippers converted to hawk feet, a skull with horns for a mask, and some cool "stone" armor.
Your wings beat me though. Mine were just armature wire, and they kept falling apart so I didn't even were them when trick or treating. lol, I remember I had brown strips to act as a lower tunic, but they kept unraveling XD
looks like the lil guy had fun, and congrats on making your families costumes from scratch.
12 years ago on Introduction
Creepy costume, no offense, but he looks possessed in some of the pics...
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
It was Halloween, and he was a Gargoyle, so that was the point. He loved the costume and makeup. He truly enjoyed being scary looking. On the other 364 days of the week, he is the sweetest, cutest little 4 year gentleman you'll ever meet.
12 years ago on Introduction
The family went as Mythical Creatures of the 4 Elements: He was a Gargoyle for Wind, my husband was a Fire Demon for Fire, I was a Mermaid for Water, and our daughter was a Forest Fairy with light LED wings for Earth. I was so overly ambitious and made Everyone's costume from scracth. I only functioned off of 4 hours of sleep per night til Halloween was over. (I made my daughter giant butterfly wings with pink organza fabric and LED lights but I didn't take enough pictures to enter her into the contest also)
12 years ago on Introduction
creeepyyy
12 years ago on Introduction
That is the creepiest child costume I've ever seen! He acts the part too!
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
My sister said for us not to send him to her house on a dark night or else she would not be responsible for karate kicking him and running as fast as she could to get away. He crept out quite a few people on Halloween.
12 years ago on Introduction
That is very cool! I love the wings. Awesome job!
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
When his wings were first put on, he was very frustrated because he kept trying to open and close them with his "brain". He started crying and said his brain didn't work because his wings wouldn't open. We had to explain that these were not "real" wings and that he had to use the string pulleys to open and close the wings. We also told him he absolutely could not jump off of anything because the wings would not actually fly after we caught he planning to jump off the kitchen counter.
12 years ago on Introduction
love it! And he's very convincing. Also I like the gloves idea, the 3 fingers makes it much better.
12 years ago on Introduction
Wow, that is one awesome costume! I love the expressions your boy is making, he's having a blast!
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
Thanks. He did love being a Gargoyle. He kept trying to "eat" our dogs for dinner and he wanted to stay up all night because he said that's when Gargolyes come to life.