Hallowe'en Projects: Wreck-It Ralph and Steampunk

So, my children LOVE the movie Wreck-It Ralph.  Li'l Miss, who is two, wants to watch it ALL THE TIME.  Fortunately, since my husband and I are vintage game literate, it's nostalgic for us, so we don't mind.  To that end, we thought it might be fun to all dress up for Hallowe'en as the four main characters in the movie, as seen here:

So, obviously the 2-year-old girl will be Vanellope Von Schweetz, the 4-year-old boy will be Fix-It Felix, the 9-foot-tall dad will be Wreck-It Ralph, and the US Army Veteran mama will be SGT Calhoun.  Works out great for everyone, right?  Yeah, except for the fact that Veteran Mama has NO IDEA how to craft armor.  In two months.

I DID, however, stumble upon this AMAZING tutorial for Halo armor out of EVA and craft foam (cuz sculpting fiberglass and/or metal is totally everything-prohibitive for me) here: http://www.405th.com/showthread.php/35790-KAT-ARMOR-BUILD-with-custom-undersuit.  Not only is it a build from the game I believe Hero's Duty is emulating, it's a FEMALE build from that game!  SO AMAZING!  This gal builds her entire suit, including a custom undersuit FROM SCRATCH!  And she takes photos every step of the way, so it's very user-friendly in terms of re-creating her work.  "So?" you ask, "Why haven't you started yet?"  Well, my friends, this gal took ELEVEN MONTHS to make her suit.  So, since I have no idea how EVA and craft foam reacts when you try to build with it, I can't cut any corners, so it'd reasonably take me that long.  And I just don't have the time.

I had to make my peace with giving up Calhoun, because I'd really LIKE to learn foam armor crafting.  But perhaps another time.

Then, I was cruising around Pinterest and found that a friend of mine pinned a contest for Steampunkery.  Now, this contest is mostly fabric manipulation and THAT I can do.


For this contest, you must create an amazing costume using the very distinctive jacket from this Simplicity pattern.  She says the bustier and skirt are totally optional (as they're not particularly interesting in really any way) and you can modify the jacket as much as you like, so long as it's still recognizable as the 2172 pattern.  The deadline is November 1, which means that I have to get it done for Hallowe'en... and that gives me my replacement for Calhoun!

Now, I just need to decide what shape I'll do (I'm thinking Persian/Turkish or Moroccan Jewish), and ask my husband if he'd prefer to go as Wreck-It Ralph or as my Steampunk Sweetheart.

Ciao!