Halloween in Korea: DIY Style

When we were packing our stuff to come here, I didn't figure that Halloween was a holiday that was celebrated in Korea, so I left all of our Halloween costumes and decorations in storage.  The year before though, I had decided I wanted a dress form for Christmas and I wanted to try to make a Steampunk costume for Halloween.  I had bought the patterns already.  So, I did end up packing my sewing machine, dress form, and the patterns, just in case. 

After arriving in Korea and making friends with moms of students at the same international school as my kids, I discovered they did celebrate Halloween and I would have to come up with a costume for each of them.  There are no costume shops and the only options at the dollar store (Daiso) were some fairy wings, some scary masks, and a few props. 
Willow decided to be a ghost, wearing just the white cloak that her grandmother had made Maya last winter.  Maya decided to be a broken doll, which would require just finding the right dress and then some face paint to complete the look.  Charlie went a little more ambitious and decided to be Toothless, from How to Train Your Dragon.  He said, "Mom, can you make the costume?" 
"Uh, sure?"
I had the sewing machine, some craft and sewing supplies, but no fabric.  My good friend Barbara offered to drive me into Seoul, to a district called Dongdaemun where all the fabric stores are.  I had no idea what to expect, but I needed material and notions to make these costumes, so off we went.
Dongdaemun has this huge building, several stories high, with vendor after vendor selling something very specific in each booth.  One would just sell buttons.  The next would just sell lace, and so on.  It was a maze.  The ones selling fabric might only have swatches; the idea being you'd place a bulk order and come back later.  I didn't have time for that.  I had to find the guys with actual bolts of fabric.  I needed black sweat pant material for the dragon wings, a pin-stripe material for my skirt, fake leather for my corset, more than a dozen grommets, with the punch to make the holes, some buckles, some hooks, thread, cord, dragon skin, black, white, red, and green felt, and batting.  Each item I bought from a different vendor, all cash only.

Finally I had everything I needed, or so I hoped.  I started with Charlie's costume first.  I used the pink styrofoam used to protect apples at the grocery store to create the ribbing in the wings.  Just a little Scotch tape to keep it rolled up.

The head of the dragon was the hardest part.  I used Charlie's baseball cap as the base on which to build on top of.  More styrofoam packing material was used to create the brow line and the eye sockets.

Then it was time to work on my costume.  I wasn't sure if having a pattern for this would help or hinder me.  I am inexperienced working with patterns.  The entire dragon was made completely free of pattern or a picture to go from.  I was actually quite nervous to use the pattern, since I knew it would use sewing jargon that I would have to look up the meaning of in books or by googling.  I was so nervous honestly that I took a whole day just to pin the patterns to the fabric.  I was too afraid to make the first cut.  

Then my hardware wasn't the specified length.  So, the pre-marked lines of where to create the folds in the skirt were way too low.  I had to start doing MATH to create new fold lines to get it to work.  

Then I hit a snag when it said to use interfacing for the waistband.  First, I had to google interfacing.  Then I realized I had none, so it was time to improvise.  I put thick elastic inside the waistband to make it firm.  Then I realized I hadn't bought a zipper.  A quick run to a local shop and I found a suitable zipper.  I had to borrow the hardware for the clasp at the waistline from a neighbor.

With the skirt done, I started work on the corset.  Thank God I had the dress form and could adjust it to my size. 

I again had to improvise.  I had no lining, interfacing or boning.  I ended up using craft felt for interfacing, the leftover skirt material for lining, and zip ties for boning.

I had loads of trouble getting the thick layers under the foot of the sewing machine.  Then I ran out of thread.  I had stupidly only bought one spool in Dongdaemun.  I couldn't find an exact match here locally, but I found something close enough.  I had to hand sew on all the buckles and straps. 

 

With the corset and skirt done, it was down to the accessories.  I used old swimming goggles and gold tape to make welding goggles.

Then I made a top hat out of cardboard.  I made the mistake of assuming my head was a perfect circle.  That was dumb.  Although I had the circumference measurement correct, the cardboard hat still didn't fit on my head.  I ended up having to just balance it, perched on top of my head. 

 I covered it with the leftover black material from Charlie's costume and stretched the goggles on top.
 The red wig was the icing on the cake.  I borrowed it from my neighbor, who happened to be Ariel, the Little Mermaid, a few years earlier.

Then, with precious days left before the Halloween events began, Eric said, "Can you make me a vest so I can go as Hiccup the Dragon Rider?" 
"Uh, sure?"
So, I pulled together all the scraps of material I had left and made him a vest.  Fake leather in the front and fake fur in the back.  He built his own Viking helmet out of cardboard.

The first Halloween event was at the kids' school.  They had a costume parade followed by a haunted house and a carnival.  The kids looked so great in their costumes.  It was so fun just to watch them with their friends.  Charlie's dragon tail ended up being a little too long and it literally swept the floor behind him.  The principal dressed as Batman.

Charlie's teacher was a scarecrow.

Charlie's class

Willow's class

The haunted house characters.

 

The second Halloween event was at our church.  They called it a Fall Festival.  Everyone wore their costumes and played games for candy.  Because it was at the church though, we had to change Willow's costume to something less scary.  She went as an L.O.L. doll.

The Fall Festival and the party that followed coincided with my birthday!  It's one of the reasons I love Halloween so much.  The late-night party, for adults only, was a potluck.  We all had to bring Halloween-themed food items.  I may have gone slightly overboard, but I brought 3 dishes.  Why stop at one?

Scrambled skulls (upside down deviled eggs)

Dracula's dentures (cookies with marshmallows and almond fangs)

Spooky spuds (roasted vegetables)

 

The party was so much fun.  Not only did I win a prize for my Dracula's dentures, but I also won best costume!  And then they brought out a birthday cake for me.  Everyone with an October birthday gathered around to blow out the candle.  

The next day we went to a Trunk or Treat in a parking garage.  We had to ride a bus to get there.  Riding the bus in full costume brought quite a few stares.

And then, after all those festivities, it was finally Halloween!  Trick or Treating is not something Koreans do.  At least yet.  But the teachers at their school, who all live in the same apartment complex, will hand out candy on Halloween night to all the kids who ring their bell. 
All in all, I'd say we celebrated Halloween harder this year than in any previous year!  I certainly did not expect that!