To start of sorry to anyone that was expecting something great here but my initial costume failed to materialise so I was forced to go to plan B on the morning of the fancy dress ball and so the “Head on a Plate” costume was thrown together in a few hours with help from my brother.

The idea is simple, a large monster type creature holding a plate with my head on it. The monster is created by putting an old mask on a stick straight above my own head. Then create 2 arms which hold a plate that fits around my neck. The monster and I would then be covered in one long black cape/dress thing.

To start, a frame was made that sat on my shoulders and had a piece of wood attached that would hold the head. The frame was made using a back plate to which 2 lengths of black water piping was fixed to. The 2 pipes were bent over and tied to the back plate using some washing line rope. A piece of pipe insulation was put around the rope so it wouldn’t dig into my sides. The piece of wood was screwed to the back plate and newspaper was wrapped around the top to fill out the head.

Next a length of fencing wire was attached to the upright wood and this was bent into the shape of the arms. When the wire was the correct shape it was filled out using newspaper and a pair of rubber gloves was put on the end to save time on trying to make hands. The right arm wouldn’t stay in place so it had to be propped out plus a black bag was wrapped around the head as the newspaper was showing through the mask.

To dress the creature was easy. I used an old scream cape to cover the main body and an old mask for the head. To cover my own lower body I’d wear an old long black skirt. A hole was made in the chest area of the scream cape for my head to fit through.

The plate was simply just an old tray which was sprayed sliver and some padding put on the cut edge so I didn’t cut myself during the night. An addition to this was a piece of elastic to hold the plate tight to my neck as I found that the plate tended to slip out when I walked.

And that was the costume completed. All in all it only took a few hours, was simple, light and comfortable to wear and in the end it won 3rd place which just shows sometimes the simple things just work better.

The “Davey Jones” costume on the left was the overall winner and well deserved as all that was real seaweed!