DIY lego vader & leia halloween costumes

Sorry I haven't been around lately. Had my tonsils out last Friday and I spent the week before that getting things organized in case I was out of it for a couple weeks. Good news though, it's been a week and I feel pretty much back to normal. Just have some soreness in my throat (duh) that I imagine will linger for a couple more weeks.

One of the projects I wanted to finish up before surgery was the kids' Halloween costumes. Last year I was pretty lame (ghost and a princess) so I wanted to do something fun for them this year.  I found this tutorial on Pinterest (click picture for link).

Her instructions are great and the supplies cost me about $25. Emily wanted to be a "lego princess girl" and I managed to convince her to be Princess Leia even though she has no idea who that is. I wish I had taken pictures of how I made them but I was in a rush to get them done before the surgery. Feel free to ask questions if you want to know more!

I finished up painting the boxes and doing the detail work yesterday. It took me about 8 hours to do both costumes not including Leia's hair. The yarn hair gave me so much trouble! I really wanted to do the buns but couldn't figure out how to make the hair coming down on each side gather and lay flat enough to hot glue yarn covered foam buns on top. I would have had to hot glue every strand of hair and for something she is going to wear once I wasn't going to invest that kind of time.

Still have to take a trip to the goodwill for some black sweats to go under Vader's costume. Actually, scratch that - - Vader can have navy sweats. And black hi-tops with red laces. Bless you Halloween darkness.

I love how they turned out!

Carson is seriously in character here. See that clenched fist? He's also making excellent heavy mechanical-faux-breathing sounds and light saber effects (mom didn't spring for the sound and light version)

Darth Vader's lego head is staying in place really well because I used matte black acrylic paint for the body and it has enough grip to keep the head from sliding around. I think I need to hot glue Leia's lego head to her lego body because Emily was struggling a little bit keeping that huge head from moving around. Just noticed she is puckering her lips for this picture above. Adorable.

You making any costumes this year? Happy crafting!