How to make a headless costume!

How to make a headless costume!

Scary Halloween Costume Idea

Here is Jaiden's Halloween headless bride costume!

We had so much fun making this and 

she won the costume contest at her school - mission accomplished!

It took a few days of work but here is how I made it:

First, I found this tutorial on Instructables and went out

to find a dress. Just our luck, we found one at Goodwill within one minute of walking in the store - easy!

It fit Jaiden just a little big, but I think it worked out for the better. 

Next, we made a cast of her upper body using 3 layers of duct tape. She wore an old long sleeved shirt that she didn't want anymore. With it on, I covered her upper body with strips and layers of tape. She wriggled out of it after I cut one long opening through the back, then taped the cast back together once it was off of her.
 The torso could have been a little shorter, 
but the length did seem to give extra support to the bamboo sticks that held up the costume later. 

We then stuffed the cast with newspaper and added two layers of 

paper mache to harden and hold the shape. I found several recipes

for paper mache but ended up using one with a glue base and waited for the first layer to fully dry before adding the second.

Next, we spray-painted the cast with a white primer and

then brushed on two layers of acrylic paint: 

I didn't take pics of the rest of the process but it was very easy after we completed the cast!

We placed our torso into the dress, making sure it fit. We then cut a small hole in the front of the dress, near the middle front part of the waistline. We cut along the seam just big enough

so that Jaiden could slip her head through. 

Once we knew it was a good fit we secured two bamboo sticks 

to the inside of the backpack and to the inside of the torso with duct tape (we bought one bamboo stick at Lowe's & cutting it in 1/2 happened to work perfectly). 

We used wire, plastic bags and napkins to fill a pair of white

opera gloves (also found at Goodwill!) and filled the fingers with 

white folded pipe cleaners. 

We secured a coffee can into the opening of the neck using hot glue - it fit perfectly! I soaked a few napkins in fake blood

and let harden. 

The final step was adding the rats, which I couldn't resist 

when I spotted them at Goodwill! I also secured these with hot glue. 

Jaiden received so many compliments and had a blast wearing this. 

If you plan to do this project I suggest devoting at least two or three days to it. 

The end result was worth it and  we hope to keep this costume in our closet for years to come!!

Jaiden and her cousins ready for the Halloween carnival:

One final touch: a knife through her head - so creepy!

This costume may be a little gruesome for some 

(we held back on adding more blood)

but Jaiden loves all things scary on Halloween and

wanted to go all out this year. 

It was a fun project for the both of us and she was able

to wow all of her friends!

Happy Halloween to all!