Halloween

The question came to my mind about 4-5 days before Halloween: what sort of costume can I get/make in a town that lacks a real Wal-Mart, has a Big-K and a soon to close Mervyns (the only real clothing store in town). The reason that I needed a costume was for a party that I wasn't really expecting. I looked a bit on e-bay, but shipping probably would have been to slow. I looked into Halloween stores; I would have pretty much had to drive to LA for that. So I just decided to go with a costume I had been wanting to do for a while - ninja.

Given I had nowhere to get the good parts of the costume (weapons), I figured I could at least get a long dowel at the Home Depot for a bo ... wrong, the biggest dowel was 1/2 inch and 4 feet long. Time to head for the plumbing section :) I ended up with a 10' section of 1" PVC. Once cut down and partially wrapped in tape it is nearly the dimensions of an actual roku-shaku-bo (rough translation: 6-foot-staff).

Next was the outfit. I had seen ads for Todd's Outdoors having costume stuff so I headed that way - not so much with the costume stuff really, but he did have 2 swords. I looked around the store and found some black pants that looked like they would be good and a few other small things. And no, I didn't get the sword, I didn't feel like paying that much for part of a Halloween costume. For the top I found a long sleeved shirt that looked like it had the right cut off at the arms and removed them. I intended to do more with it, but as it was i only finished the costume 15 minutes before I left for the party. I bought some black fabric at Wal-Mart for the other things - head band, face mask, belt, shoes.

All in all it came out pretty well, by the end of the night the pieces of cut material had all frayed at the edges, but it still looked pretty good.
This costume should get used again and I know several upgrades that I want for it.