Astronaut Halloween Costume: Easy-to-Make, Clever Oct. 31 Costume Idea

Although Halloween is for kids, parents and adults can still take part in the fun by creating a make-it-yourself costume your child will love.

Finding out what your child is really into is key to making an original idea turn into a creative masterpiece. Maybe there is a special commercial your child really loves watching on television; turn that mascot into a costume. It doesn't have to be a living person. Objects to become are just as fun.

Being a stay-at-home mom for a good number of years, I loved Halloween with my kids and had lots of time coming up with awesome, original costumes my kids enjoyed wearing as much as I enjoyed making.

From the time I can remember, my son was fascinated with outer space. He knew all about each planet, his room had glow-in-the-dark planets, rockets, etc. I honestly thought he would become an astronaut. So when he was in the second grade, he wanted to be an astronaut for Halloween. Well, the Halloween store had a blue jumpsuit costume with the American Flag patch and NASA patch on it, but that was it. Not quite the costume I had in mind, so I set my mind to work. This was an incredible clever costume I am going to share with you!

Preparing for Countdown:
2 empty 2-liter soda bottles (preferably all clear without a black bottom) rinsed, cleaned and dried
6-8 white tall kitchen plastic garbage bags (store brand saves $$)
1 roll of duct tape (grey or white)
scissors
2 pieces of thin flexible coil, washed and dried, (old vacuum hose, flexible garden hose) about 2 feet each (more or less after measuring your child)
1 racing helmet or any helmet with a front clear window pane. (football helmet with the grid face protector removed will also work)
1-2 cans of flat white spray paint
Clothing your child needs for underneath - white gloves or mittens, white turtleneck, light grey or white sweat pants, sneakers

Ground Control Prep Time: You will need about a week of prep time for painting and drying purposes. A day for creating the "spacesuit" or just the day of Halloween to put it together. It is easy.

The Mission Begins:

Step 1: spray paint the 2 empty water bottles white and allow to thoroughly dry. If the helmet is not white, spray paint that white as well. You may need two coats. It is not necessary to paint the hose pieces white, even if they are garden hose green as it will harden the flexibility of the hose and it also may cause the paint to peel off. Spray paint the helmet as well, if you choose, otherwise you can cover it as described below in step 5.

Step 2: Making the top - Cut a few 4" strips of duct tape and have them readily accessible to grab when needed. Take a white trash bag and put it in front of your child, closed side up. Have him hold it to the top of his shoulders. Take another bag and you do the same, only from the back. With one strip of tape, tape the 2 bags together at one shoulder. Do the same on the other shoulder, leaving enough room to be comfortable at the neck area. It should now be hanging on your child. Tape the sides together from the armpit to the bottom with longer pieces of tape, one for each side. Take another bag, cut to fit, and wrap it loosely around your child's arm, covering it completely. Use a long piece of duct tape the length of your child's arm and tape sleeve together. Duct tape the top of the sleeve (seam side) to the body , making a circle of tape around the upper arm. Repeat other side. You may cut the bag in half it there is too much to wrap and use one bag for both sleeves. The tape down the top of the arm will also form a uniform seam as part of the costume. You now have completed the top of the suit. To remove, have your child raise his arms up and you should be able to pull it off over his head, being very careful not to rip the tape or plastic bags. If bags detach from the tape, you can always re-tape the day of Halloween.

Step 3: Making the bottom - This is basically the same procedure as the top. Take one bag seam side up and have your child hold it at his waist. Take another bag and you do the same from the back. Tape the 2 bags together at the sides. Extra bag can be folded inward, then tape sides together. This should now look like a skirt. Using another bag, wrap one leg loosely and end seam to outside of leg, tape the length of the bag down to the bottom, making sure to wrap over the top part of the pants. Repeat for other leg. Now, duct tape each of the leg panels at the top of your child's legs to the upper portion of the pant. (same as attaching sleeve to body) This will now look like your child is wearing parachute pants and the duct tape serves as seam decoration as well. The pants are now complete. You can duct tape the bottoms to your child's socks or better yet......

Step 4: The Space Boots - Wearing white sneakers is fine, wrap them in bags or step into a smaller white bag and duct tape the entire shoe up to and including over the legs to give it a boot look, or just put duct tape directly around a regular pair of old sneakers you may be getting rid of soon. Give details to the space boots by using permanent black marker to create buckles if you choose.

Step 5: The helmet - This is pretty easy. If you have a solid white helmet with a clear shield, you're already done, except for detailing with permanent marker if you wish. If you want to tie the helmet into the same appearance as the Halloween space suit, wrap it in white trash bags as well and duct tape where needed. Be sure the coil is securely taped to the side of the helmet after fitted and ready to go out for Halloween.

Step 6: Assembling the air tanks - take the two soda bottles, which are now the astronaut's oxygen tanks, bottoms up and lay them on a table . Duct tape the two bottles together, one piece at the top and another strip at the bottom just above the neck of the bottles. You can write U.S.A. in permanent marker down one tank and NASA down the other if you choose, or stars, the year, etc.

These tanks will be duct taped to the space suit the day of Halloween by wrapping tape around the tanks and body together, going over the same strips of tape already used to hold the 2 tanks together. This way you won't cover up any lettering you've already made on the tanks. Attach an end of one coil onto the bottom of one air tank, hold in place with duct tape. Bring the other end up to the side of the helmet, duct tape in place. This gives the "oxygen to the astronaut". Duct tape one end of the other coil to the other air tank. The other end of the coil can be duct taped to any part of the body, front, back or side.

Step 7: The summary - After completing the painting and drying process of the tanks and helmet, I put this entire costume together on my son when he came home for school for lunch on Halloween day. It took me a half hour or so to wrap and tape him up. It helps to have an extra set of hands measuring and cutting the duct tape so it goes quickly. As he ate a sandwich, I taped. This was also made right onto him, not to come off until we tore it off. So going to the bathroom FIRST was mandatory for him. Every seam was duct taped. Body to pant, pant to boots, sleeves to gloves, tanks to body and helmet. The bagginess is key for it to look like a real spacesuit and all the duct tape serves as air-tight seams on the costume. I recommend making it right onto your child that day. The plastic keeps him warm as well. Pulling the costume on and off may lead to portions of the duct tape to come away from the plastic bags. I suggest also, making a rough draft of the suit the day before so you know how long it takes to complete. If you are pressed for time, such as a lunch period from school, pre-cut strips of duct tape and let them hang from the edge of your kitchen counter so all you will need to do is just grab and stick when ready. Any bags you have not cut up or managed to tear can be used after Halloween is over for trash, as its intended purpose!

Step 8: Major Tom makes his GIANT STEP for Mankind!

Happy Halloween!