A lot of people have asked me how much it cost me to make these costumes. And honestly, I hadn’t kept very good track. I went into the project estimating that it’d cost me between $300 and $400, and planning to enter as many costume contests as I could to hopefully recoup the amount I’d spend.

Such was the plan from the beginning. Such is still the plan.
As luck (and last minute timing) would have it, I wasn’t finished in time to enter 2 of the costume contests I’d hoped. Both with $500 prizes. Those will have to wait for next year. Alas!

At any rate, since the inquiries were coming, I thought I’d look at my bank statements for the last 3 months and figure out just how much I did spent. The figure was a little bit shocking, even for me…

Here is the breakdown. Each entry represents one trip to the store (in person or online). Listed are the store name, the amount spent, and as estimated list of items purchased in that trip. I may have overlooked some smaller items in my listings, and I may have mixed up some of my Wal-Mart shopping trips – please forgive me.

STORE	AMT SPENT..	FOR WHAT?
Smith/Edwards	$83.54	Foam
ZIMS	$15.38	FUR (SALE: 2 yards, blue)
JoAnn’s	$18.40	Green Fleece
Shopko	$19.09	Exercise Ball
Wal-Mart	$15.47	Brushes, Contact Cement, corn starch
Kmart	$6.37	Hula Hoops (never used them)
Wal-Mart	$8.63	Acrylic paint
JoAnn’s	$15.96	Felt, Vinyl
Wal-Mart	$43.95	Purple fabric, black fur, acrylics, foam balls
Wal-Mart	$22.05	Acrylic paint, thread, velcro, yarn, needles
JoAnn’s	$13.57	Foam balls, white fabric (Boo’s arms)
Mendel’s	$125.66	FUR (blue/purple)
Lowes	$6.90	Toilet hoses (Boo’s eyes)
Home Depot	$10.02	Hard Hat, spray paint
Lowes	$38.83	Green Paint, Roofing sealant, brushes
Wal-Mart	$1.96	Brushes
Wal-Mart	$16.57	Elastic, paint, thread
JoAnn’s	$38.67	Fabric Paint, Batting, Pillow forms
Kmart	$18.50	Ball (Mikes Eye)
We Love Colors..	$49.00	Tights
Lowes	$5.19	Brushes
TOTAL	$573.71

If the word “Ouch” comes to mind, I completely understand. I knew that the foam and the fur were pretty expensive, but its amazing how all of the other smaller purchases worked together to add up to so much. *Sigh*

Maybe I shouldn’t have looked up the total. Ha. At any rate, if I banter you all for votes on costume contests, please understand. I’ll have to win quite a few of these things before I’d be MAKING any money. So, I do appreciate your assistance in that regard.

As a reminder for the contest that I mentioned before, http://www.sugarloot.com/entry/953760721, voting ends today at 12:00 p.m. Eastern. So please vote if you haven’t. Also, a second contest begins voting on the 10th of this month. If I am among the finalists for that contest I’ll probably be hitting you up for more votes…. sorry, and thanks in advance.

NEXT… materials.
In addition to asking how much these costumes cost, I’ve had a lot of people ask HOW I made them. Since I was flying by the seat of my pants most of the time and since aside of the massive number of pictures you’ve seen I didn’t document anything, and since there are DEFINITELY things I’d change/do differently should I do this again… the “how” of the whole process is a bit vague.

But I can tell you WHAT I used. (Note: This list is only mostly comprehensive, I reserve the right to forget something)
Boo Costume

• Foam Rubber
• Contact Cement
• Chip brushes
• Purple Fabric
• Spray Adhesive
• White blanket fabric with raised dots on it
• Hot Glue
• Black Duct Tape
• Popsicle sticks
• 2 toilet hoses, 6 inches in length
• 2 3″ foam balls
• Paper mache (water and corn starch)
• Newspaper
• Acrylic paint (White and black)
• Purple yarn
• Elastic
• Velcro
• Suspenders
• 2 dollar store mops
• Black permanent marker
• Tacky Glue

Mike Wasowski Costume

• Foam Rubber
• Contact Cement
• Elastomeric Roofing Sealant
• Chip brushes
• Paper mache (water and corn starch)
• Newspaper
• Green latex paint
• Exercise ball
• Kids bouncy ball (approx 12″)
• Spray paint (white, black, blue)
• Primer
• Lime Green Fleece
• White felt
• Acrylic paints (lime green, white, black, blue, dark green, toffee, turquoise, yellow)
• Elastic
• Velcro
• Neon Green opaque tights (2 pair)
• Hot Glue
• Super Glue
• Spray Adhesive
• Black Duct Tape
• Aluminum screening
• Nylon rope
• Black pantyhose, leotard

Sulley Costume

• Balloons
• Paper mache (water and corn starch)
• Newspaper
• Spray adhesive
• Foam Rubber
• Contact Cement
• Chip brushes
• Turquoise Shag Fur, 1″
• Purple Shag Fur, 1″
• Black Fur, low pile
• Masking Tape
• Black Duct Tape
• Acrylic Paints (Turquoise, white, black, dark blue, sky blue, yellow)
• Dark Brown shoe polish
• Brown felt
• Fiber-Fill batting
• Aluminum screening
• Pillow forms
• Elastic
• Velcro
• Vinyl
• Blue t-shirt
• Pillowcase
• Standard size pillow (approx. 20×26″)
• 3″ foam ball, cut in half

Of course all of them required the use of a sewing machine, scissors, electric knife, needles, etc… The items listed above are all consumables.

I started building these costumes on Labor Day, with the help of my sweet father. We spent 9 hours that day alone. Through most of September I only worked a few hours a couple of days a week. By October I knew I wouldn’t make it if I didn’t pick up the pace. So it was 2-3 hours daily through the beginning of October… then 3-6 hours a day… By the week before Halloween I was easily spending 8-10 hours a day.

That week was sheer chaos, and I owe a lot of people a huge debt of gratitude.THANK YOU!!! Thanks Michelle for taking my daughter more than once and for helping with the paper mache. Thanks Sandra, Emily, and Andrea for letting my girl come play so I could get stuff done. Thanks Dave, Alice, and Chris for letting me put you to work on various parts of the project. Thanks Dad, and thanks Dixie for coming up to help me. And thanks to everyone else who put up with me, my lack of blogging, and my over abundance of stress.

My house is almost put back together again… we are almost back to normal life around here (if we ever were normal that is). So plan on hearing from me soon on other blog-worthy topics that have otherwise been pushed aside in all the mayhem.

Until then here are more costume/Halloween related pictures.