I love coming up with unique, handmade costume ideas, and they’re almost always inspired by movies. Last spring, I saw a cheap 50’s style model car at a drugstore and was inspired to make this “Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman” costume. Usually when assembling costumes I go for complete accuracy, but I thought it would be more fun and cheeky to add elements to make me really seem giant, like the small plane in my hair and the city skyline around my ankles.
The base of my costume was a white, retro-style one piece bathing suit that I already owned, and had this white gathered mesh material over it: I thought it believably looked like a shrunken dress (like I was growing out of it), even if it made going to the bathroom a bit annoying. Most of the elements of the costume I was able to borrow from my 4-year-old godson as well, which made it a pretty affordable costume–always a plus! It was super easy to put together with the exception of, believe it or not, the tights. That was the hardest part, but you can do it!
Retro-Glam Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman Costume
The airplane hair piece
I bought a model airplane for about $5. I went for one appropriate for the time period of the movie, but it happened to have wheels on the bottom–not exactly comfortable to stick in your hair. So I just yanked them off, bent the plastic bits over and over until they snapped off, then glued down a metal hair pin to the bottom of the plane with hot glue. I used those hair pins that stylists use at salons to section off hair: I got a whole bunch at CVS for quite cheap, and the plane stayed put the whole night.
Army guys attack!
Unfortunately, the majority of my army guys had fallen off by the time this picture was taken, but that was entirely my fault–I was nervous about ruining my fancy bathing suit. Regrets.
Originally, I had a whole line of army guys snaking up my left side, as well as the couple that are still hanging out at the top of the costume. I rummaged through my godson’s army guys to find the ones that were laying down so that it would look like they were climbing up my body. I just used a needle and thread and had I been a bit bolder and really dug into my bathing suit, I would have been golden. They are so light and spindly you really don’t need much more than that. This was the part of the costume that got the biggest response, I have to say. Everyone thought it was so clever!
City skyline tights
This was by far the most complicated part of the process for me. There probably are many ways of doing this, but I found this was the best method for me.
-First, I found a pair of tights without any reinforcement. Since I was wearing a bathing suit, I really didn’t want that awkward line halfway up my thighs that you’d get with most panty hose. Believe it or not, it is really difficult to find tights without any reinforcement. Many trips to many Marshall’s later, I finally was successful
-I did a google image search for silhouetted city skylines, printed one out, then mounted it on some thick cardstock. I realized that if I were to trace the skyline onto the tights while I was not wearing them, then they would get all stretched out and funky looking once I put them on. So, I put on the tights, wrapped the cardstock around my ankle, then traced the shape of the buildings using a pencil. The pencil will remain on the tights, but don’t push too hard and hurt yourself!
-Once the whole skyline was traced onto the tights, I took some puffy paint from Michael’s (the cheapy kind in a small squeeze bottle that has a pinpoint tip) and traced the outline of the building to start. Then I let them dry.
-I was going to leave it at that and call it a day, but when I put them on, I thought they needed more pop–they just weren’t standing out enough to be really noticable to me. So, I squeezed a ton of paint out of the tube and filled the building in using a little sponge. They didn’t come out perfect–it’s tricky to get consistent coverage on the material of the tights–but nobody will examining your ankles closely enough to judge you for it :)
Glam it up!
I had my friend give me a retro-vibe, finger-wavy hairstyle, painted my nails red, found some killer red lipstick and a pair of red wedge pumps, and viola! Super easy, fun, conversation-starting costume that nobody else at your next Halloween party will have. Enjoy.
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