Family Nightmare Before Christmas Costumes

Since my husband and I got married and had children, I have always wanted to do a group Halloween costume, and this year, I finally got my wish, family Nightmare Before Christmas costumes!

It started out with my son wanting to be Jack Skellington and then my husband decided he wanted to be Oogie Boogie. When my daughter heard, she just had to be Sally! I was thrilled, but I also knew I had my work ahead of me. It did pay off in the end and we got a major reaction out of all people we saw, especially my husband; he was extremely popular with the kids, and a little scary to some of the smaller children (whoops! 0_0) I set out doing my son’s costume first, it was pretty easy. The hard part was finding the right fabric and luckily, I found some at Joann’s sale and what had been $10 a yard, was $2 (whoo!) I made his pants using a pair of his old ones as a pattern, and then I made a jacket using one of his shirts to help make another pattern. Jack’s tail coat looks ripped and torn, so I cut it to make it look like his and left the edges raw. I made the bat bow tie with some black foam from hobby lobby and white painters tape and some ribbon to tie it on. Add some makeup and you’re done.

My daughter’s Sally costume was the hardest because it was so time consuming. I made a dress pattern out of an old tank top with some plain white fabric and then I took the other color fabrics and laid them on the white fabric and cut them to shape. Then I sewed all the pieces together and finally attached them to the white fabric, added some Velcro and sleeves and cut the bottom to make it look ripped and worn. I also drew on the polka dots and swirls with a fabric pen because I could not find fabric to match Sally’s exactly. My husbands costume was so simple, I draped the burlap in front of him and cut out two rectangles, and then cut a neck, hold and sewed together at the shoulders. Then I marked where his arms would be, and sewed up the side, leaving the space for his arms. I made the arms and hand-sewed them on with burlap colored thread and added the black stitching with yarn. I also gathered the burlap at the bottom and sewed in the middle, leaving foot holes and giving the big Oogie Boogie belly effect. I cut straight down the back so he could get in and out and added Velcro. The mask was pretty simple as well. I marked where his eyes and mouth would be, and then colored in the eyes with black Sharpie. I took burlap and rolled it in “tubes” and tied it with burlap. Then I used it to shape the mouth and eyebrows, and then used black yarn to hold in place for the mouth, and the burlap colored thread to hold in the eyebrows. I then folded some black fabric under to hide the raw edges and stitched it in for the mouth. I added some burlap and Walmart bags to give the ghost tip its pointy shape. My costume was definitely the oddball. I did a steampunk version of Jack Skellington because I love steampunk and have never seen cos-plays of it. I made mine by taking an old shirt and making a bolero pattern. The fabric was super thick, so it didn’t need lined. I added lace and bias tape to the raw edges. I then added a ribbon to tie it. My leggings were bought at Walmart as well as my boots and white undershirt. The corset was made with plastic boning and lace. I made my goggles with safety goggles from the dollar store, spray paint, and old canning jar lids e6000 together. My bustle skirt was made from crocheted elastic and tulle stacked on top of each other to give the bustle look. It sounds like a lot of work, but it really wasn’t that bad and I had such a fun time doing it, and of course seeing us all together and looking amazing made it so much fun!

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