6 Ways to Light Up Your Halloween Costume

Costumes, Cosplay, and Props Craft & Design Technology Wearables

When you were a kid, most likely you went trick-or-treating on Halloween with a costume made out of fabric and perhaps a bit of tacked on plastic. Now, with advances in electronic lighting and easy access to DIY technology, why not add a little color and brilliance to those otherwise dim costumes?

LED Stick Figure

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At night, you can clearly see lights, but a black suit is difficult to pick out. So if you put programmable LEDs on a black suit in the shape of a stick figure, you can make yourself a living, breathing, glowing stick person. As seen on this Make: overview post and in the video above, the build looks somewhat challenging, but it’s definitely doable.

EL Wire Suit

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For a similar effect, but slightly different look, you can use EL wire instead of LEDs to create an outlined costume. This tutorial shows you the basics of how to use EL wire.

LED Shoe Clips

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As shown in the video above, (or you can read the project tutorial on Make:), these shoe clips are proposed as more of a non-scary decoration, perhaps even for bridesmaids to wear. On the other hand, the same concept could be applied to any sort of costume footwear, perhaps as a red clip for Wizard of Oz-themed shoes?

[via BRIT+CO]

Robot Costume

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Although I’m not entirely sure what the lights on this little robot are made of, the look could be easily be recreated by strategically taping LED throwies around your robot costume. Made out of parts from secondhand stores, this costume illustrates that lighting and a shiny costume can go great together!

[via BRIT+CO]

Cyberpunk LED Eyes

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For a truly shocking look, especially in a dark room, these LED “eyes” should do the trick. Though they look very cool, I imagine it might be difficult to see people’s reactions through the glare! Also, they appear to require a decent amount of soldering skill to construct, which could be a barrier for some.

[via makeuseof]

Glowing 3D Printed Gas Mask

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Combining EL wire and NeoPixel rings, this non-functional gas mask should turn heads on Halloween. As an added benefit, it appears that you will be able to see clearly out of at least one eye while wearing this face mask! You can find a full tutorial on adafruit here.

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Jeremy is an engineer with 10 years experience at his full-time profession, and has a BSME from Clemson University. Outside of work he’s an avid maker and experimenter, building anything that comes into his mind!

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