Sam - Trick 'r Treat



Cost: $118
Time to Make: 35 hours
Timeline of Construction: September - October 2010, Costume update in October 2011
Awards: Photo by Stillvisions was chosen as a Daily Deviation on deviantART on October 12th, 2012 & a photo by Stillvisions was featured in the Youmacon 2013 calendar for the month of October


Pictures




Information

I've been dreaming of making this costume since the summer of last year when the movie Trick 'r Treat was finally getting release plans for the fall. I've made a lot of different costume styles in my Cosplay career, but I've never attempted anything in a mascot style. It's something that I've been interested in trying for a long time. I absolutely love Halloween and I thought the Trick 'r Treat movie was an amazing creepy tribute to all things Halloween. I take Halloween pretty seriously as I get really into the holiday so Sam was an easy costume choice for me.

Sam didn't seem like that difficult of a costume. I decided to make it for the summer and fall cons of 2010 given that it's a perfect costume for the fall season. I bought materials for the costume back in July, but with work and planning and going on a trip to Disney World, I didn't get a chance to work on this costume until the fall.

The pjs weren’t that hard to make. I ended up buying a Halloween costume pattern meant for animal full-body costumes. I forgot to alter the pattern, though, since I’m very petite so the proportions were a little off (although that worked well for the kid look that I was going for). Sam actually has full-footed pjs, but I decided to sew shoes to the pjs instead of using slipper padding because it gave me better and more comfortable support. I was originally planning to wear this costume on Halloween night so having proper traction was important when I was planning this costume out. I think my favourite parts of the pjs were my butt flap and burlap patches. The butt flap was just ridiculous looking and the patches looked really neat thanks to the fast sewing of my mom who embroidered the black stitches that hold the patches to the pjs.

I actually ended up having a lot of trouble getting this costume to work out. Most of the problems stemmed from working with the burlap. No burlap touched my skin. The gloves were lined, but the mask turned out to be a beast to make. Finding something to use to form the signature round shape of Sam’s mask took several weeks of experimentation and brainstorming. At one point I was even considering butchering a craft pumpkin to use as a base. In the end I started sewing together a plastic canvas base since plastic canvas is bendable and can hold shapes and I had a ton of it in the basement. By the time I figured out the canvas structure, it was nearly Youmacon and given Youmacon’s proximity to Halloween, I was determined to debut the costume at that con. My mother helped me cobble together the burlap and broadcloth covering. Even my dad chipped in by adding wire to the top of the mask frame when I was at work one day. The wire wasn’t very helpful, though, as it didn’t hold its shape that well and jabbed my head a bit when I was trying the mask on. In the end I had a mask that was a bit lopsided and frumpy. The round shape got lost in translation so I wasn’t that happy with it. I finished the mask literally 15 minutes before jumping in the car to leave for Youmacon. My mother commented that I kind of looked like Kermit the Frog when she saw me in the completed mask. (~_~);;

The eyes for the mask were made from foam which I cut into a round shape and sewed to the mask with placement help from my mother. My mother did the quick stitch hand sewing on the mask for the big seam and smile using wool since we couldn’t find a proper colour of embroidery floss to use instead. The seams on the mask were made the morning that I was leaving for Youma so I can’t thank my mother enough for her help. Without her I would never have been able to place the seams and smile!

The burlap sack I had for this costume was a surprise for me made by my mother. I told her I was going to make one and she whipped one up for me one day while I was at work. It’s a fitting prop for Sam! The lollipop Sam carries, which is a signature of Sam’s, was a real pain in the butt to get. I brainstormed for months trying to figure out how to make one and enlisted help from all of my friends. I toyed with the idea of making one out of resin and even considered commissioning a friend of a friend to make a real candy one. All of these options were a little too pricey and too time consuming. In the end I managed to find a nice eBay seller called 1234models who had been making and selling Sam’s lollipop prop out of resin and I ordered one just three weeks before the con. Although he didn’t have any for sale at the moment, he offered to mail me a lollipop minus the stick for a reduced price. I got it just a week before the con. I ended up attaching and painting the lollipop stick myself using a dowel that I had purchased for the lollipop and it worked nicely. It’s not the transparent-like lollipop I had originally hoped for, but it was a great prop nonetheless! After debuting the costume I was eventually able to order a 2nd lollipop from the same seller and this time it was made to more closely resemble the lollipop in the movie. It was a transparent resin and looked awesome. I'm glad that I could upgrade my prop.

A lot didn’t work out properly with this costume. The gloves turned out to be a bit oversized. They were super basic since Sam’s gloves don’t have fingers. I ended up cutting half an inch from the thumbs at the con and re-sewing them to make them smaller. The mask needs to be totally re-done. With my rushing it turned out lopsided and I wasn’t happy with how it turned out at all. It needs to be much rounder. I plan to re-do it in the coming months and do a proper photoshoot of the costume next fall. I fully intend to wear this costume on Halloween next year to scare and entertain kids in my neighbourhood. :3 A lot of people at Youmacon recognized my costume as being from Trick ‘r Treat and I received quite a few nice compliments on it (even though I know it needs a lot of work). The mask was challenging to see through so my wonderful friend Ammie helped me maintain my mask when I needed to take it off and was my eyes and ears as we walked around the con on Saturday afternoon. I can’t thank her enough for her help! It was great that she was Cosplaying as Alice from American McGee’s Alice at the time so we were both from the horror genre. (^^) It was a neat experience wearing this costume and hopefully the next time I wear Sam I’ll be able to manoeuvre in it a bit more easily.

In October 2011 I revised this costume. I adjusted the size of the gloves a little bit and I redid the mask. This time I created a paper mache base using an inflatable beach ball as the structure. There are about 15 layers of paper mache on the base. I painted it brown so it would blend in with the burlap. The burlap is reused from my original version of the mask. It had to be refitted and the big seam stitches and mouth had to be re-sewn. I found nice buttons to use for the eyes that I purchased and painted black. I'm really happy with my costume update. The mask looks a lot more accurate and has a much nicer round shape. I'm not sure if I'll wear this costume again to another con or major event. My vision is a lot better in the new mask, but it's still challenging to wear this costume and actually function in it.

On October 30th, 2011 I finally got to do a dream photoshoot that I had in mind for this costume. I co-hosted a party at Stillvisions' house and the group of us (about 15 or so people) took 7 hours to gut and carve 32 pumpkins. :3 My friends helped stage me so I could be surrounded by pumpkins for photos care of Stillvisions. It was a dream come true and the photos turned out so well! Best Halloween ever! :D

In October 2013, I was able to do a daytime forest shoot and a nighttime shoot of my Sam costume. This time I was able to pair up with my friend Ammie who made a Laurie costume from the movie. She did a great job recreating her Little Red Riding Hood costume. We got some fun forest photos in which I hide in the background as a homage to the way Sam popped up in the short stories within the Trick 'r Treat movie. It was awesome Cosplaying from the movie with my friend Ammie. I never thought anyone would Cosplay as any of the other characters so it was a really cool experience doing a shoot with her.

Events/Conventions this costume was worn to
Youmacon 2010 (Saturday daytime), Halloween Party Photoshoot on Sunday, October 30th, 2011, on Halloween 2011 & to a private photoshoot in October 2013.

Photo Credits
Stillvisions


Back