Becoming Wallace & Gromit - Maker Parent Handmade Halloween Costumes

Last year, about a week before Halloween, Jack announced that he knew what he wanted to be for Halloween 2021. This isn't unusual for my kids, they both pick their costumes well in advance, but I make them wait until May before we begin talking about costumes for the following fall, particularly with growth spurts and changed interests in mind.

Jack is really into claymation, and as such he's a big fan of the British cartoon Wallace and Gromit he decided this is who he wanted to be. We talked a great deal about whether he'd want this to be a group costume (as in would one person dress up as Wallace and the other as Gromit), but he was insistant that he alone wanted to be both.

Image Courtesy of Pinterest

This is how we made his Wallace and Gromit costume and how much it cost.

This summer I began scouring thrift stores, closets, and our dress up box for an outfit to transform Jack into Wallace. We decided that Gromit would likely be a stuffed animal that he carried.

From our supplies we found a dress shirt, black pants, and a bright red tie. The shirt and pants were hand me downs from a cousin, and the red tie came from something Chris used to wear with a black suit about 15 years ago, so that cost us nothing! The major problem was finding a green vest. After searching thrift shops since July I decied in early October that the green vest wasn't going to happen. Instead I purchased a sized small women's V-neck green shirt for $4.99 from Value Village and cut the sleeves off.

Outfit Complete

Once that was settled we needed to find our Gromit. Since it is a British series that was most popular 25 years ago our pickings were slim. We managed to find a Gromit Puppet perfect for the job on Ebay for $20 Canadian plus shipping from a seller who specialized in vintage toys. 

Next we picked up a wig net from Dollarama for $1.50, a plain white mask from Spirit Halloween for $2.49, and a bald cap from Spirit Halloween for $8.99.

The big problem we had with our mask was that it wasn't  even close to matching the shape of Wallace's face

Since I am better at costume construction than I am at mask painting, I outsourced Jack's mask to my niece A (the same person who painted Jack's amazing Pennywise masks from last year). She used light weight clay from the Dollarama to glue on a prosthetic nose and teeth to create a profile that matches Wallaces. She mixed paints she already had on hand to match his skin tone to the bald cap.

Wallace Face

This afternoon we put it all together for a dry run to see how it would look.  Below is the grand reveal....Enjoy!

Wallae and Gromit can't wait to go Trick or Treating this year!

The total cost of the costume, costume supplies, and shipping was roughly $45, plus Jack has a Gromit puppet he adores as a Halloween keepsake for years to come.What are your kids going as for Halloween this year? Happy Crafting! Happy Halloweening!

Maker Halloween Costumes: Teen Titans Go! Raven

Molly has wanted to be Raven for Halloween for nearly a year.  While I've yet to have a year where the kids change their minds on a costume at the last minute (fingers crossed it remains this way), we don't allow them to officially decide on their costumes until summer.

Because I usually piece our costumes together, like to buy used, recycle etc. it takes some time to put a costume together, but with growing kids it doesn't make sense to make something for them until closer to the time.

Raven has always been Molly's favourite Teen Titan and who can blame her - Raven is awesome. She's half demon, half human, and makes my teen goth heart melt.

Most costumes online for Raven range from $40 to $50 and there's no way we were spending that, plus it's a lot more fun to build one myself.  Here's how we did it.

Raven showing a typical look of disapproval of other Titan antics 

Raven Unleashing her power

Molly already owned a long sleeved black gymnastic suit so this was free to us (however I saw some used at Value Village and Once Upon a Child for around $4-$7 depending on the condition and size).

Since Molly knew she wanted to be Raven for Halloween and loves playing dress up, she asked for a purple crushed velvet cloak for her birthday and was kindly gifted this by friends and was no cost to us.  Hers retailed for $16.99 from Amazon (and qualifies for Prime shipping if you need it quickly).  The best thing about these cloaks as they have different sizes so you don't need to worry about anyone tripping on their cape come Halloween.  The cloak does a lot of the work for 'making' the costume.  

Next we bought a black stretchy belt at Value Village for $1.99 and a necklace for $1.99 (also from Value Village) so I could break it apart to glue gun the red gems for her belt.  You can also glue gun a broach as a closure for the cape if you want to be especially authentic.

Raven has a gemstone on her forehead.  We just raided our craft centre, but you can get several sheets of these at the dollar store for $1.25.  

The other new item we bought for the Raven costume was a pair of purple Halloween socks, adult size so they go further up the leg and are more noticeable.  These cost us $2.99 at Value Village. She is wearing these with a pair of black jazz dance shoes that were hand-me-downs from her cousin, but really any dark coloured shoes will do.  On Halloween she will wear light grey or white leggings under her leotard because it's Canada and will be chilly at night.

Total cost of costume to us: $7.36 (Tax included)  Total Approximate cost to anyone who has to purchase every item for the costume: $33.00 (Tax included) - still significantly cheaper than getting a box costume.  So: Azarath Metrion Zinthos And Happy Halloween!

To check out our maker Anne With An E, Anne of Green Gables Costume Click here