Halloween is over, but this year I made my own costume for the first time, so I wanted to post about that.

A few days before Halloween I finally figured out what I wanted to be. I decided to make a piñata costume. Not just any piñata though, I was thinking of being a runaway piñata. I’d glue a string to my back, wear sneakers, carry a bag of candy and a stick. Then I could tell people that I ran away before they could stuff and beat me. It sounded like a great/cute idea to me, but making yourself into a piñata is pretty time consuming.

So before I finalized my costume plans I decided to go to the Halloween store in Sadang. I got a little lost on the way but managed to find it by asking for directions. I was hoping for some inspiration (or something less labor intensive) but I ended up just buying some rabbit ears and resolved to go ahead with the piñata costume.

I found some sparkly wrapping paper from a dollar store, then headed to Homeplus to buy a glue gun (which I had to ask for help to find). I bought more sparkly wrapping paper, some cheap sweatpants and a t-shirt at Homeplus and headed home.

I started cutting strips of paper on Wednesday night to attach to my shirt. A lot of the strips were curled up because the paper is in a roll. Even though I rolled it in the other direction to try to flatten it out, after cutting strips they still curled. I spent a long time straightening those out so I could glue them down later.

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Cut and fringed strips of paper ready to glue on, and the giant bag of glue sticks. Sorry about the bad lighting.

I ended up cutting a bunch the first night, and started gluing fringed strips the next day. I also cut tissue used to pack a gift box to make little fluffy bits for the rabbit stomach.

I’m pretty sure I spent well over 12 hours on my costume.

The first attempt at gluing on the strips of paper. These strips were too narrow (too time consuming). I made them much chunkier after that.

Attaching paper to stretchy cloth is pretty tricky. I ended up burning myself pretty badly a few times on the glue gun, and I made a huge mess on the floor of my house. I had to make a dash to my local stationary store Halloween afternoon where I bough entirely too many glue gun sticks. Now I have an extra bag! I was going through glue gun sticks like crazy though… One stick for one row, easily.

I really should have started the whole thing much sooner, then I wouldn’t have had to rush so much.

Btw, if you don’t know about this already put lavender oil on burns – it can prevent blisters and you’ll heal a lot faster. You might want to dilute the oil though, otherwise it stings like crazy.

My neighbor’s niece helped me glue-gun some of the last bits of my shirt, but then I had problems wiggling out of it (she pulled the shirt too tight, and the paper wasn’t very forgiving).
She was a huge help though, I really rushed to finish the costume. I wouldn’t recommend glue-gunning things onto clothes you’re wearing. It smarts a little bit.

Oh, so blah blah blah. All about my costume. Now I’m going to do something I don’t do on this blog. I’ve never posted a picture of myself here. There are pictures of me all over face book, and other people’s websites (*cough* Seoul Eats *cough*) but I’ve never put up a picture of myself on my blog before.

This has been largely because I’ve worried that my school might get wind of some of the less than loving things I’ve said here. I’ve never actually said my school’s name though, and honestly it’s really hard to recognize me in these photos.

So. Tah dah. Here’s me, as a runaway rabbit piñata.

Bad lighting again, but this is really the only full shot of my entire costume. See the string? And the stick? Yup.

It was fun making the costume, and when it was all done I felt really accomplished. It wasn’t the sexiest costume in the whole world (piñatas aren’t sexy!), but it was my idea and I made it happen. ^.^

After finishing the whole dang thing, I headed out to Itaewon to meet up with some friends, including Dan from Seoul Eats
. He took a bunch of great pictures with his new camera.

While I was waiting for everyone a nice Korean mom with a baby dressed up as a bumblebee asked if they could take a picture with me. It’s weird to think I’m going to show up in some random person’s photo album… I also got meow-ed at a lot. Rabbits don’t meow guys. Rabbit ears, rabbit face, I even had a rabbit tail. Guess they were already drunk. =D

I met Dan and we headed to Kabinett (too late for the costume contest) but I enjoyed seeing all the costumes anyway. Then we went to Bungalow to meet up with my other friends.

Bungalow had real jack-o-lanterns, which was a nice touch.

My friends Joyce and Mykian, a peacock and the Ramen King respectively.

Joyce, the peacock. She also made her costume.

We met a bottle of Soju!

Dan’s friend dressed up as Kimchi which was really clever and very cool.

Me and Dan. My makeup smeared a little bit.
Dan left for another party and I headed to Hongdae with Joyce and her friends after stopping at her place for some glue gun repairs (my knee was falling off).

Hongdae was packed, because it was Club Day as well as Halloween. I saw a lot of cute costumes in Hongdae too, but not as many as in Itaewon. I saw a few good ajumma costumes though.

I discovered that although Koreans aren’t familiar with piñatas, they love bunnies. I had a lot of people come up to me and chat, and got a few random smooches as well (for being a bunny apparently).

I had a great time with my friends, old and new, and got home really late the next morning. We waited in the KFC for the subway to open. I got a snack, but it was hard to find a table because everyone was sleeping at the tables and counters instead of eating.

Whew. That was my Halloween. It was a lot of fun.