Coolest Jack Skellington Costume

This costume was inspired by one of my all time favorite films so it wasn’t difficult to decide on a costume for this year. Every Halloween I like to dress up as something unique that I have not seen anywhere I have gone out for Halloween, also I hate having to explain to people who I am supposed to be so I felt Jack was the perfect costume to make this year.

I started this Homemade Jack Skellington Costume with a balloon and layered it with paper maché. I left it to dry for a few days then put another few layers. When it was dry I drew the eyes and mouth and cut out the mask to fit. To secure the mask I got a hanger and cut it and stuck it to areas that I felt were weakest like the ridge of the nose and chin area.

I dipped cotton wool in PVA clue and made Jack’s nose and made his eyebrows. I let that dry then put some paper maché over the cotton wool to make sure they were secure and easy to paint. When it was dry I painted the mask white. I painted the mouth and shaded gray around the eyes to make the eyes look stronger. I cut up a pair of black tights and covered over the eyes.

For the bow I looked at pictures of Jack and copied the bow. I drew the shape onto some thick card then stuck more cut up hangers to the back to make it more secure. I stuck cotton wool dipped in PVA glue onto the front to make the 3D bat shape, let it dry then put a layer of paper maché onto it, let it dry then painted it.

I painted an old black suit with white stripes, starting wide at the top and bring them in to the waist to make it look slimming to look more like Jack’s body.

Overall I was very happy with the result and it got some great reactions from people on Halloween night, I even ended up winning a dinner in a really nice restaurant. I think next year I might attempt to go as Oogie Boogie. I hope this helps anyone considering making a Homemade Jack Skellington Costume. It does take a while to wait for the paper maché to dry but overall this costume didn’t take a lot of time to make and was very cheap to make as I had an old suit to use. I bought a pair of skeleton hand gloves but everything else came from around the house.

Here’s what I used:
A balloon
Paper
Glue
Cotton Wool
2 Hangers
Sticky tape
Black and White paint
Black tights
Old dark suit



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