Halloween Steampunk Style Family Costume

Hi, I’m grandma. I have been making my granddaughters costumes for the last couple years. Halloween is my favorite holiday. Right after last Halloween the girls started talking about this year. We looked online at lots of pictures. They liked the idea of having a flying umbrella and a jet pack so we went with the steampunk theme. Grandpa even agreed (reluctantly at first) to dress up (I think he like his hat). I started in February gathering things to make the props and searching for the right articles of clothing to use in creating the costumes.

For the granddaughters’ costumes I started with finding some used clothing that would create the look. I then dyed the items and hand painted them. I also painted and added some skull buttons to finish the look (they’re sky pirates, you know). I added some lace and netting to their boots and painted them as well.I redecorated an umbrella we used for Halloween 2 years ago (Victorian vampires) with sheets of foam and a plastic bottle, a little wire, a refrigerator magnet, and more foam. The wings were made with clothes hangers and foam. The propeller was made from plastic butterfly net frames from the dollar store, lace, and foam. I then painted it all to look like metal. The jet pack was made from a cardboard box, 2 plastic bottles, grandpa’s pressure gauge, plastic pipe, clock gears, 2 more little boxes and more foam and metallic paint. I bought cheap plain hats and goggles and trimmed and painted them myself (saved a lot of money that way and it was much more fun).

For my and my husband’s costumes I started with all used clothing (except for his shirt) to which I made some alterations and added some decorations. I altered the corset and then I painted it (before it was a little big and a lot scary). I also painted and decorated my shoes. I made our props. I painted and decorated our Nerf guns (creating a pearl handle on his), made his cane, and made my skull billy club thingy. I made our holsters out of pieces of an old belt that I had and added hooks and decorations to our belts. His belt and pouches were plastic so I painted them to look like leather. I bought hats and decorated them with feathers, gears, and foam “pipe”. My hat can shoot noxious gas (not really but I put the proper warning label on it just in case). I made my necklace and his badge out of clock parts. I used lots and lots of metallic paint, foam, and glue.

I spent a lot of time on these costumes but I enjoyed almost every minute of it (there were a few do overs and my sewing machine had issues).My husband was not so enthusiastic about the process (my kitchen was my work area, all parts of it at times…since February), yet our marriage survived. What’s he going to do after 36 years anyway? Besides, we all had a wonderful time on Halloween. We went uptown for the Halloween celebration, we received many compliments and a lot of people we don’t know have pictures of us now. The girls got lots of candy and I even found grumpy grandpa chatting it up with the lady from the newspaper about our costumes so, I think he ended up having a good time too.

Well, I can’t think of anything else to tell except that I am looking forward to next Halloween. Thank you!

PS the brown photos were done with a setting on the camera, not touched up afterwards, hope that’s okay.