Making Our Dinosaur Costumes

Last Halloween Brian came up with beat-up hockey player costumes which were the boys' hockey pads and jerseys plus some fake blood and messed-up teeth and scars-- which the boys loved. We considered making ourselves into some sort of joint penalty box, but didn't quite make it. The years before that were the more time-consuming astronaut and ceiling fan costumes.

This year Cal and Clark both decided they wanted to be dinosaurs-- T-Rex dinosaurs, to be exact. I tried to dissuade them from that decision because I had no idea how I would make a dinosaur costume without a ton of time and no sewing machine or sewing machine skills. They wouldn't budge though. That's what they wanted.

So I looked up some ideas online and got a good idea for a head and made up the rest. They came out better than I thought they would. I hope this is helpful to anyone making dinosaur costumes!

I used the boys' plastic baseball helmets, but I didn't want to
ruin them, so I first covered them with foil.

Taped it underneath

Duct taped some cardboard on the front

And on the top and sides

Blew up balloons about the size of my fists and taped the tied spots down

Taped it all together so the surfaces could be covered in paper mache

Two dinosaur heads!

Here's where the boys start helping: ripping up newspaper for paper mache

Paper mache explosion! I don't measure anything, just add flour and water
until it's a goopy but spreadable paste.

Requires parental involvement :)

The messy hands are the best!

Done! They dried for a couple days.

We spray painted them green and I trimmed out holes for eyes.

I wedged in Styrofoam balls in the "eye sockets" and the boys' painted
the fronts of them yellow.

And added a black pupil in each.. ta-dah! Wide-eyed dino heads!

For claws: I hot glued brown "claws" that the boys cut out of brown foam
onto some old gloves we had. I eventually also put some foam
green and brown spots on them.

For teeth- poster board-- tape it in a few places underneath

I found a pair of women's camouflage tights and cut the legs out for
the tails. 

Unwound clothes hanger and put stuffing inside

I glued the ends almost-closed and let the hook part of the hanger
poke out a little bit so it can attach to the little dinosaur's pants.

For feet: I bought large gray women's fuzzy socks, put them around
the boys' shoes, and hot glued the same brown foam as claws.

I had to trim the toenails several times to make the dinosaurs happy.

Add one exuberant 5 year-old and a pair of $9 camo jammies
and you've got yourself a T-Rex!

...times 2!

Ready for candy!