Jack and Sally were pretty easy to sort out. I got hold of a Sally dress on Amazon for Zoey, used her red Ariel wig and face painted her using Snazaroo face paints mixing blue, green and white to get the right color for her face and then added giant eyes and stitches to her face.
For Jack Skellington Ben wore a black and white pinstripe suit over a white top, I made him a felt bat bow tie in the style Jack wears and then facepainted him.
How to make an Oogie Boogie Costume
The PlanZachary's costume was not so straightforward however and could not be found online or in store so I had to get crafty. I ordered 3 meters of an olive coloured hessian jute fabric and drew out a rough plan of how to make the costume.
Making the Oogie Boogie Boday
I started by measuring Zachary's height from his shoulders to feet to get an idea of how long I need the pieces, this measurement came out at 80cm but I cut two pieces at 84cm each so I had a bit of extra fabric to work with. Top tip for cutting the hessian straight is to roll it out on a tile floor (if you have one) and use the lines of the floor tiles to keep it straight.
I then used safety pins to keep the pieces together and popped it over Zachary's head to see how it looked.
Once I did this I got a feel for how I would make the body and hands look Oogie Boogie like by holding it in at the waist and padding him out a bit.
Using a thick black thread I then stitched all the way around the two long edges and across the top leaving a hole big enough for Zachary's head to fit through and his hands to poke out. I reinforced this stitching by going back over it with an olive coloured thread that matched the fabric.
How to Make an Oogie Boogie Mask
Next up was the Oogie Boogie mask which I knew would either make or break the costume. I needed something that not only looked like Oogie Boogie, but was easy enough for a 4 year old to wear Trick or Treating while also safe enough for him to see through and run about in. To get a base for the mask I used a toy builders helmet Zachary had and wrapped some hessian around it to get the shape. I used safety pins to work out how much material I needed for the mask and what shape I wanted it to be in. Once that was worked out I cut the end bit into a triangle shape and stuffed it with plastic shopping bags to give it some shape.
The next step was to make the facial features including the mouth, eyebrows and eyes. I wrapped some rolled up kitchen roll in pipe cleaners and shaped the mouth and eyebrow area pinning everything in place before trying it on Zachary and adding cut out paper eyes to figure out where I needed to draw them on.
Once that was done I sewed everything in place and drew on the eyes and inside of the mouth using a black Sharpie. The great thing with the hessian fabric is that you can see through it so there is no need to cut holes for the eyes which adds to the effect.
Finishing Touches
Oogie Boogie wouldn't be complete without spiders and bugs crawling out of him so I sewed in a variety of spiders all over the costumes especially along the seems.
The End Result
I have to say I was pretty pleased with how the costume turned out in the end as were the kids, especially my little Oogie Boogie who loved all the attention and comments he got this Halloween.
