This year Jack decided he wanted to attend to his gym’s annual Halloween party. The theme was Night of the Jumping Dead, so obviously he needed to dress up as a zombie. Love it, because this is an easy costume to create at home. It is also a bonus because you can teach kids about upcycling, research and doing things for yourself.
We have been watching quite a few videos by Wicked Makers lately, so we already had an idea of how to create some great halloween creature clothes. They are also big on using treasures from Goodwill to create their incredible designs and makeovers. We did a little more research and landed on an old school video by Undercover Monsters that really broke down how to get the zombie look. I suggest you watch a few of their videos to get an idea of their techniques.
Once we finished our research, we created a list of supplies and headed out. Goodwill was our first stop. We picked up a plain t-shirt and some comfortable pants and then headed to Walmart. The dye, spray bottles, makeup applicator and makeup remover were the only items we were missing and those are cheap at Walmart.
Here is the entire list of what we used to create Zombie Jack:
- Protective gloves
- wire brush
- 2 spray bottles
- green dye
- brown dye
- old shirt and pants
- cardboard (to protect surfaces)
- black sharpie
- hangers
- zombie makeup
- makeup applicator
- gentle makeup removal wipes
We started with the alteration of the clothes first. Jack wanted to write RUN on the back of the t-shirt so we put down some cardboard on the table. I then placed a piece of cardboard inside the t-shirt that was a bit wider than the width of the t-shirt so he could write on it. It is easier to write on a shirt if it is stretched a bit. I gave him the wide point sharpie and let him go to town.
After he finished I let him try the wire brush to rough up the t-shirt, but it was a little hard for him so I ended up finishing. One word of caution, the bristles are very sharp. In hindsight, I should have worn work gloves to protect my hands. I ended up with several cuts on my thumb. Fortunately we had cardboard down on the table from the previous step.
Once the clothes were destroyed enough for Jack’s liking, we moved operations outside. Zombies are dirty creatures, so we needed to add some mold and crud to the outfit. We achieved this with green and brown dye in spray bottles. I added approximately 2 parts water to 1 part dye into the spray bottles and shook well. We donned protective gloves, put down cardboard and Jack then sprayed the mixtures onto the clothes. We left the mold spots as is but smeared the crud around with our hands, especially on the hems. Once done, we put the clothes on hangers and left them outside to dry. It was a sunny day with a breeze so the outfit was dried within an hour. I would not recommend putting newly dyed clothes in the dryer or laying them on something.
While the clothes were drying, we played a few games and eventually got around to putting on the zombie face. We kept it simple, with blotchy face, sunken eyes and an elongated smile. I find that with kids, simple is better. They don’t like to sit long for makeup and quickly become antsy. Also, at the end of the night it is easier to remove, especially if you have makeup wipes. For too many years, I have forgotten to pick up some makeup removal clothes and ended up with a screaming child and a destroyed washcloth.