Every Halloween, we challenge ourselves to out-do the costumes we made the previous year. For 2022, we decided to be Fruit Flies! My husband, Steve, was the Orange Fruit Fly, my friend, Judy, was the Grape Fruit Fly, my friend, Dan, was the Banana Fruit Fly, and I was the Watermelon Fruit Fly.
The fly heads were made by molding chicken wire around our heads and then covering it with layers of paper mache. Eye holes were cut out and replaced with screening. The fly eyes were costume face masks purchased from Five Below that were spray painted a brick red color, then wired to the paper mache heads. Prior to be taped on, we glued a set of LED fairy lights that were operated by a battery pack, thus allowing us to be seen in the dark. Black pipe cleaners were attached to the heads to act as antennas. The masks were held on to our heads using elastic bands. The fly wings were created using a heavy gauge wire that was shaped into that of an actual fly wing. We then took a hot glue gun and glued tulle to the edge of the wing, followed by a layer of clear cellophane on each side of the wing. Fairy lights were run along the edge of each wing and attached by wire ties. The orange and banana were both made using foam board for the frame, which was then covered with EVA foam. The watermelon was created from insulation board and foam board. Glittery paper was used to make the watermelon seeds. The grapes were made using purple balloons attached to foam board. Leaves were made from green construction paper. Grape vine tendrils were made with black pipe cleaners. We wore black hoodies, black leggings, black gloves, and black shoes to emulate flies.
All of our costumes had some degree of fragility, but Dan The Banana was the worst. The banana was supposed to strap on his back like a back pack, but at the start of the first party, one of the shoulder straps had already broken loose. By the time the prizes were awarded (we won first place!), he was cradling the banana under one arm. Hence, the decision to build the banana costume from scratch, knowing we had a big contest in four days. This time, the banana was made as two pieces, with one half attaching to Dan’s back and one to his chest using Velcro patches. The resulting costume got a lot more attention when he entered the next party.
This was a really fun costume to wear! We received alot of laughs and compliments at the parties we attended! We were nervous that people might not know what our costumes were, and, we did hear “Fruit of the Loom” on occasion, but most often people guessed it right away. Particularly when we entered a party in a group. We won or placed in eight out of ten costume contests that we attended.
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