Seasonal & Holidays
Montclair Family’s Dragon Halloween Costume: How Was It Made?
(VIDEO) When your kid tells you that he wants to be a "dragon rider" for Halloween, some might balk. But not this Montclair resident.
MONTCLAIR, NJ — Years in the future, when a grown-up Montclair’s Connor Sherwin looks back, he can remember his “crazy mommy” and how they built one of Essex County’s coolest costumes for Halloween 2017.
The reptilian costume – which has working wings and can “breathe fire” – was a labor of love between mother and son, according to Ali Sherwin.
“The time we spent making this costume and the resulting success is something that he will never forget,” Sherwin said. “All his life he can remember how his crazy mommy and he would spend months working together on these giant creations to wow friends and strangers on Halloween.”
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- See related article: Essex County Halloween Costume Photos: 2017
- See related article: Livingston School Makes Ninja Turtle Halloween Costume For Ailing Child
It took 12 weekends of work to construct the dragon costume, which proved to be a huge hit when Connor hit the sidewalks of Montclair on Halloween.
“Every step we had to demonstrate the costume's functionality to an oohing crowd of other trick or treaters,” Sherwin recalled. “Houses that were out of candy raided their childrens' caches for candy to give us.”
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Here’s how the costume came together, according to Sherwin:
“We built this out of spray insulation foam over two pop up hampers for the body and pool noodles for the neck and tail. The wings, which open and close, we bought on Amazon, and then cut in half and attached one to each side. The fire that comes out of his mouth are three of those party favors that you blow into and they unroll. They are attached to several straws that I taped together and made to look as if they were his reins. When he raised them to his mouth to blow, the dragon breathed fire. The fake legs on the side were just a pair of his old jeans that we cut in half and duct taped to sides. We stuck pencils in right under the knee for support, and when he walked, the feet swung like he riding.”
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Photo: Ali Sherwin
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