Sunday, November 4, 2012

Meet Sam



Today I give you a little Halloween treat!  My husband and I created this costume and all of the props for our oldest daughter Kaitlyn.

Sam is a character from the movie "Trick 'r Treat" and he has been deemed the Halloween Mascot.  His job is to enforce the Halloween traditions; such as dressing up in costume, giving out candy and to NEVER blow out your lit carved pumpkins before midnight on Halloween.  If you don't follow these Halloween traditions Sam will find you and kill you.  You can read more about Sam: The Spirit of Halloween here.

This project was extremely difficult.  I began looking for orange footie pajamas for my daughter months ago.  With NO luck in my search, I opted to buy white footie pajamas.  My next challenge was to dye the pajamas.  Not ever dying  a single thing my entire life, I did not know that RIT dye is not recommended for 100% polyester.  Plus I didn't relize the pajamas were 100% polyester either.  So after searching the internet I did find out that there are some tricks to using the RIT dye and dying polyester. So the first orange RIT dye we tried was too light, almost a peach color. So we tried a darker RIT dye and it worked!!!  Once the pajamas were washed and dried I sewed on 2 yellow patches of felt.  The orange footie pajamas were complete!

For the head of Sam we used a technique I had found on the internet HERE!  BTW, this guy did an amazing job on his costume too!  We started off with 2 yards of burlap, cut it to drape over the shell of the head then began the stitching (a long process) and finishing it off with the button eyes.  Finally after debating how to get the burlap to lay flat on the shell, we applied a spray glue to the shell and then laid the burlap over it...it worked!!! 

We used the left over burlap to create the gloves and sack. 


Lastly I created the lollipop prop, Sam's chosen weapon.  I used George and Basic Shapes Cricut cartridge to cut out 2 circles in orange cardstock.  I hand cut the black pumpkin pieces.  I attached the black pieces to the orange circles (front and back), then hand cut the bite mark in the lollipop.  I applied Glossy Accents to both pieces and let dry.  I used a wooden dowel to create the lollipop stick.  I painted it orange and wrapped black ribbon around it.  Once the lollipop pieces were dry I used 2 thickness of foam squares between the two lollipop pieces and attached them together with the stick in the middle.

My daughter was thrilled...we pulled it off!  She told us the costume head of Sam was very hot, but since we live in Arizona that is to be expected, it might not be for someone living in a cooler climate.  On Halloween we were stopped by other parents who knew who Sam was and they asked to take her picture and another person told us she was the best costume of the night!  All of our hard work paid off and the future of this costume will become a lifesize Halloween prop. 

I am entering this costume in the following challenge:
  • Haunted Design House - HDH #157 - Hammer House of Horror - You are to ctreate a dark, Gothic, or Halloween-based art piece that is a tribute to Hammer Films.  Now I know a Sam costume may not be a tribute to Hammer Films but my love of horror films came from the many Sunday afternoons as child watching those Hammer Films.  My love for horror films still lives with me today and continues to grow every year.  
Thank you for stopping by and checking out my Sam costume and I hope you enjoyed it!