Rocket Ship

My son asked to be a spaceship for Halloween/birthday, so I got inspiration from clipart of a vintage rocket ship—I thought it would be cute to have my son’s head peeking through the ‘window’. I discovered that, once I figured out how to work everything, this turned out to be a very easy costume to make (and the best part is that it looks like it took tons of hours and money, but didn't!)

Cone head: I cut a cone pattern out of foam core and scored it frequently with a razor blade on one side (careful not to cut through the paper on the other side). I rolled it up to make the ends meet, then cut a circular piece of foam core to form the bottom of the cone. I cut a hole the size of my son's head in the middle (I also wrapped it in black fabric for comfort), hot-gluing everything together. I then used the same cone pattern for the silver fabric, making it 2” larger. I sewed the two ends together, hot glued it over the foam core, and stuck a strip of Velcro on the extra fabric hanging over the bottom (reserving the other half for the ship body).

Body of ship: For the body I sewed a tube of silver the width of the cone (the length was the top of my son's head to the floor). I stuck the other half of the Velcro strip on the top to attach it to the cone. I cut holes for the arms and sewed a seam, but left the fabric pieces on to make it look like his arms were busting through the ship.

Window: I took an embroidery hoop and put the outer hoop on the inside of the body, cut a hole inside, and wrapped the fabric around and hot-glued it on the inside. This stayed fine as is, but for added effect I spray-painted the inner embroidery hoop silver and glued selvage mesh fabric around it. I could fit the inner hoop back in for pictures, or take it out so he could eat.

Fins & Fire: I took more silver fabric and wrapped it around foam triangles like a present, using spray adhesive to keep it in place. It only took a few hand-stitches to put them on the body at the front, back, and sides. For the fire I took very narrow strips of red, yellow, and variegated sheer fabric and randomly cut 'flames' in the center, then layered both pieces under the bottom of the ship body and sewed them into place.

Price: About $17.50: 2 yards of silver fabric @ $2/yard, 2 yards of black ‘lining’ @ $1/yard, 2 sheets of foam core @ $2/each, 1 yard of upholstery foam @ $4/yard, $2 for 'flame' fabric remnants, $1 for Velcro, $.50 for the embroidery hoop.

Oct 11, 2006