What a selection of creative costumes our facebook fans have had the pleasure of viewing and judging these last two weeks! Over a month ago we started with sixteen Halloween costume entries that made it into the 3rd Annual J&O Fabrics ‘ Most Creative Handcrafted Halloween Costume Contest ‘ voting bracket, and after all was send and done, we ended with four. Check them out below!
1st Place Winner: Dorthy Lafferty's Fox
As Halloween draws near, most people assume that the bumps they hear in the night are a result of a restless monster under their bed. However, too often there is a real life culprit responsible in the form of a robber. Now, thanks to a partnership between Scottish police and their forensics department, our favorite medium can now be used to fingerprint and identify the bad guys: fabric.
The above video does a good job explaining the basics of how the process works and is definitely worth viewing (plus the man doing the tutorial has a wicked accent).
A great Halloween costume is only half of what makes up the full look on the big day. The other (and arguably the more important) half is the bag that you carry around candy in while trick-or-treating! Why go through the trouble of finding a totally awesome costume if you don’t bother to complete the look with an equally awesome bag. To help you out, we compiled our top ten favorite Halloween fabrics that can be made into trick-or-treat bags.
#1: House of Haunts Fabric
Every year from age eight to age twelve, I insisted upon being a which for Halloween. I got to paint my face green, run around pretending to ride a broom, and make ‘potions’ in my back yard using everything from sticks to my dad’s hair gel (he just loved that). Looking back on it, I wish that someone had shown me all of my options! If I had known how cool it would be to put on some boxing gloves and a long brightly colored cotton robe and be a kick butt boxer, I totally would have done that. In that spirit, we compiled our top five favorite kid’s Halloween costumes:
As with our Top Five Women’s Halloween Pop Culture Costume Ideas, we tried to pull as much inspiration for our top five guy costumes from what is happening in the media. Our favorite idea for this year is the classic pilot look inspired by the new show Pan Am. We can’t think of a guy who wouldn’t get a second glance in a well fitted pilots uniform. And the best part is, this costume can easily be achieved by attaching some thin gold trim to an existing suit jacket.
#1: Pilot
Inspiration: ABC’s Pan Am
If there is one thing that being in the fabric industry for over 45 years has shown us, it’s that despite the change of seasons and passing of generations, Halloween is one of those celebrated holidays that continues to beckon the creative imagination and stirring a parade of popular tv and movie characters, ghoulish monsters, funny faces and exotic personalities hidden behind extravagant costumes to take to the streets each time Oct 31st comes around. With this little known fact in mind, we at J&O fabric store vow to continue to play our part in conjuring the creativity of our customers with not only awesome fabric, but the opportunity to get it for free just in time for the festive parties! From scary looking Halloween themed novelty prints and fancy dress fabrics, to versatile felts and funky retro’s, bringing the bizarre into existence is just a click away! And what better way to showcase them than thru our 3rd Annual Most Creative Handcrafted Halloween Costume Contest!
Pets are much more than the fuzzy things that keep our feet warm in bed at night, they are members of the family! As such, they should be able to participate in one of most exciting days of the year: Halloween. Here are some pictures of fantastic home made dog costumes to inspire those of you who are so inclined to dress up your pooches for the holiday. Our favorite costume (paws down) is the Raggedy Ann Dog. The hand-made jumper made with flower novelty fabric is beautifully done!
Raggedy Ann Dog
Pug-Cake
Every year, we at J&O get over excited for Halloween. It is the one time of year when we can galavant around in crazy get-ups that we create from off the wall fabric. However, every year when we are looking for inspiration, it is always hard to find somewhere to begin. That is why we have compiled this group of photos to glean inspiration from. After all, when it comes to Halloween costumes, the bigger and bolder, the better.
Princess and Prince Charming
When compiling our favorite costume ideas for women this year, we tried to tap into what is popular right now in the media. For example, our favorite costume idea for women this year is the Black or White swan from best picture nominee Black Swan. Now, we aren’t expecting ladies to run out and get replicas of couture designer Rodarte’s unreal tutus, but there are certainly ways that you can pull this look together yourself using some well placed thick feather boas.
#1: Black/ White Swan
Inspired By: Black Swan
The only thing scarier than the witches and goblins that appear on the streets during the Halloween season is how fast October 31st is approaching! Between getting kids settled at school and everyone returning from summer vacations to buckle down at work, this month promises to be a hectic one. In order to create an adorable costume in no time (and with minimal cash), we collected these down and dirty ideas that require nothing but colorful felt, a headband, a glue gun, and clothes that you already own.
Black Cat
