Vampire Nagas Costume

Our picture is of me and my three granddaughters. The idea for our costumes came from an online game that I sometimes play with the two older granddaughters when they visit. We were “Vampire Nagas”. The Naga is a character in the game and we added the vampire part for Halloween.

I had made their Halloween costumes for the last two years so, as soon as last Halloween was over we decided what we would be this year. I started then planning and looking for items to use in making the costumes. The chest pieces and bracers began as items purchased from the dollar store. I decorated and painted them. The tridents that we are carrying are inexpensive plastic toys that I also decorated and painted.

I decorated everything using paint, wire, cut foam sheets, pieces of costume jewelry, and assorted other items and fabric that I collected throughout the year. I bought rubber/plastic snakes and bats from the dollar store which I painted and used for decorating most everything and I cut up an old medusa headpiece and used it to decorate the girls’ chest pieces, my crown and belt.

The tails began with hoop skirts which I adjusted and I shaped the length of tails with wire. I covered the tails with light weight snake and crocodile skin vinyl. I left the gray/black and dark turquoise snake skin as it came with the exception of shading/highlighting. I painted the blue snake skin as well as the green snake skin on the stroller. Because I was using wire and vinyl, I had to make sure the tails would be light-weight enough for the girls. I added small casters to the tails so it would be easier for them to walk.

The stroller is my favorite piece. I had to make sure it would still roll and my granddaughter would be comfy in it. It did and she was. I lined the seat with soft material and used silver netting on the back of the seat to look like chainmail. I hung pretty green glass for her to look at which was a piece of costume jewelry. It came in gold so I had to paint the chain silver to match everything. The canopy on the stroller was decorated with cut foam sheets and artificial flowers. Her outfit was an onesie to which I added bat print sleeves and I used silver fabric paint to create armor. Her prop was a stuffed bat.

I worked on the costumes intermittently throughout the year, doing a little bit at a time. It was a lot of fun and a great after work stress reliever. I have always enjoyed Halloween and more importantly I love being able to create special memories for my granddaughters. The girls won first place in our small Uptown Halloween costume contest this year. They were very excited. So many people stopped us at the event to take our picture. Afterwards, the girls brought me their First Place ribbon and asked me, “What are we going to be next year?” It was definitely a happy and fun Halloween.