Last year was our first “scary” Halloween costume.  My daughter wasn’t asking to be a princess or anything else cute.  She wanted to be something a little different and I wanted her to be something a little easy.  Medusa was our perfect solution.

She really pulled out the acting skills for this quick pic.

But really she’s a cute and happy teenager.  Yes, I wish we could go back to cutesy costumes.
I’ll just have to settle for the cute version of Medusa.

There really wasn’t much to it.  I bought some silver fabric that was almost twice as tall as her.  Then I hemmed the ends, folded it over and scrunched the fabric.  Then I sewed the scrunch together to sit on her shoulder.  Then I sewed the sides from her waist down.  It was a makeshift Toga.  She wore an old angel costume underneath for modesty and warmth.  Then we tied some silver rope around her waist and the costume was almost done!

I bought 17 snakes from the dollar store and sprayed them silver.  I originally planned to glue a clip onto the snakes, but it didn’t hold.  So I used some craft wire to wire the snakes (at the middle) onto the clip.  Then I used a bit of glue to hold that down so the wire wouldn’t slip up and down the snake.

You could hardly tell the clip was there.  I just curled her hair, ratted it at the roots, then layered the snakes throughout.  The snakes did get heavy on her head as the night went on so maybe 17 was a little too many.  You can practice with your child to see how many they want to tolerate!

I’m a fan of making costumes.  And I’m also a fan of buying costumes.  It just depends on what the child wants to be, my motivation levels, and how long I’ve procrastinated!  Last year this was the only one I made, I bought Anakin and Cleopatra. Here’s some links to some Halloween costumes I’ve made in the past: cupcake costume, queen of hearts, pirates, fortune teller, and cute witch.  Check out Kathryn’s great ideas for last minute costumes too!

Whether you are a DIY costume maker all the way, or you pick one up at the store on the way to the Halloween Party, we all know the only thing that matters is…THE CANDY!  🙂

p.s. I think Anakin was tuned to stone in this pic.
          (Or he couldn’t take one more picture).