Make a weird unique costume from bits and pieces of weird junk!

This is my Halloween costume this year. The original idea was a a sort of World War II era Airplane Gremlin, but it's really just a weirdo lookin' monster thing.

This is my first Instructable, and when I made this costume I didn't have any intentions of taking a lot of in-process steps, but hopefully I took enough photographs for you to get the idea of how to do something like this.

Step 1: Design and Materials

Materials
- Chunky knee-high boots (from Goodwill)
- Two ram horns (from World Wide Wildlife Products)
- Ten springbok horns (from World Wide Wildlife Products)
- Two rabbit pelts (from Hobby Lobby)
- Wire
- Velcro
- Aviator Hat (from Target)
- Aviator goggles (present from my sister)
- Scarf (pilfered from my grandmother)
- Werewolf Fangs (from VampFangs.com)
- Big Sky Riding Pants pattern from Folkwear.com
- Child-sized bomber jacket (from Salvation Army)

This costume started with the hoof boots. They were made by a gal named Briana Barber, who made the hooves out of a chunky pair of knee-high boots I got at Goodwill for 6 bucks. I really wish I could show you guys how she made these, but for all I know she made them out of magic. I was able to work out an art trade with her to get a good price on the boots. They're a pair of those big clunky high heeled boots you see in thrift stores all the time with the heels cut off and the hooves screwed into the bottom. They're amazingly easy to walk in, too.

After I got the boots I had to decide what I wanted to do with them. At this point I didn't really know what kind of costume I wanted. I remembered that I had drawn a monster a few years ago that was kind of like an Aviator Gremlin, so I thought I would adapt that drawing into the costume. I looked around the internet trying to find pieces, and after I found what I thought would work for the parts of the costume I made a sketch of what I eventually wanted the thing to look like.

Step 2: The Claws!

I didn't manage to take a photo of the claws before I sewed the rabbit pelts onto it, but this first photo was taken very early on. I sewed the springbok horns to the rabbit pelts. If you have a problem with using real horns and real rabbit pelts, you can buy reproductions and fake fur online as well. I'm using them because they are light, fairly inexpensive, and give a very strange and interesting look with little effort. The pelts were too fragile to support the claws on their own, so I had to make a support structure out of wire.

They're not terribly pretty, but they don't have to be. I wrapped a wire around each horn and threaded it up the length of the pelt, then criss-crossed wire to give it shape. I sewed velcro to the top and across the palm so I could tighten it when I put it on. Now there's no weight on the pelt!

Step 3: Horn Hat and Fangs!

I tried forever to find a costume aviator hat at a local costume shop to no avail (I guess looking for one in May is not the best time of the year), but then I remembered that my winter hat that I had bought at Target a few years ago looked like what I wanted. I used the knife and the rasp off my Multi-tool to trim off the ends of the horns (the side that will go against the head), so they won't poke me in the skull at weird angles. I took the wire and just went to town on the thing. The cap has buttons and snaps that I ran the wire between to keep it in place, and I just kept reinforcing it and reinforcing it till they stayed put (this entire costume could also be called "Messing Around Until Something Works" since I'm making this up as I go along.

As for fangs, I bought a set of Scarecrow Werewolf fangs from VampFangs.com. They're supposed to be worn with one pair on the bottom and one pair on the top, but I couldn't talk that well that way, so I put them both on top.

Step 4: Clothing!

I don't have many good pictures of the pants, I'm afraid. They were made over a weekend when I didn't have my camera, but they're pretty straightforward. My mother helped a lot with these, since I'm not the greatest seamstress and she's a fantastic sewer. The biggest tip I can offer for sewing is to buy good fabric. If you use cheap poor-quality fabric, it doesn't matter how great of a sewing job you do, it won't look that great. So buy decent stuff!

It took me forever to find a decent shirt. At first I wanted to use another Folkwear pattern but I had already spent about as much money as I wanted to spend, and I figured I could find something cheap at a thrift store. It took me about five thrift stores, but I finally found a child-sized bomber jacket for a buck fifty at a Salvation Army. I dressed it up with a scarf (I still haven't decided which scarf to use yet). And we're done!

Step 5: Wear and Enjoy!

And the costume is done! Half of it is in Vancouver, Canada at the moment, as I'll be celebrating Halloween there this year and didn't feel like taking horns and claws on an airplane with me. So I'll have a ton more pictures after Halloween, and I'll update this with more when I have more!

The only setback to this costume is that it's a little warm (winter hat, leather jacket, fur arms, jeeze), which hopefully shouldn't be that big of a deal since I'll be primarily outside during fall in Vancouver. Everybody asks if the boots are uncomfortable, and no they aren't. They're actually much more comfortable and easier to walk in than my high heels.

This costume was easy to make, very laid back, and if you want to spend a few weekends in front of a TV messing with wire and sewing pants, try something like this out!