My Halloween Costume - The "Stranger Things" Alphabet Wall

It's almost Halloween and I've had the dilemma of trying to figure out which costume I wanted to wear...

I originally wanted to be two other characters...

First choice was "Coraline".

Followed by Leela from "Futurama"


I do have almost all of the costume components for both, but am not comfortable enough to wear the blue wig (for Coraline) or the purple wig (for Leela) without fear of it falling off. Plus, since Leela is a cyclops, it would require some craftiness on my part to make the "eye". So yeah, too much work even though I have the clothes and props already.

Then last month I saw a few photos of folks who had cosplayed characters from the hit Netflix show, "Stranger Things" during recent comic conventions. If you don't know what it's about, just know that it's one of the best shows of 2016 so far. I loved the homage to the 80's as evidenced by the music, the perfect period clothing (circa 1983) and the film "Easter  eggs" or hidden references to John Carpenter, Stephen King, Steven Spielberg, plus comic books, StarWars, the Goonies and so on.

Anyhow, I saw someone who didn't cosplay a character from the show. Rather, this guy cosplayed the ALPHABET WALL itself complete with battery operated Christmas lights.  It was different but pretty funny and best all, easy to execute.

Over the fall break, I found this floral sweatshirt at Thrift Trader in PB (pay no mind to those shorts, ha ha). Total cost, $7.99.

I bought a couple of Sharpies, one very thick and the other, with a normal tip.

I studied the alphabet font, complete with "paint drips" and practiced it first before committing my shaky hand onto the sweatshirt itself.  TC did the tape placement while I was wearing the top, which I then laid flat to try to plan out the alphabet placement.

I had to make sure the letters didn't disappear under my armpit region, ha ha.

I needed to make sure I got the letters as close as possible without messing up.

The spacing towards the end of the last row wasn't exactly perfect, but it was close enough.

Next I bought a multicolored string of battery operated LED lights ($1.99 at Grocery Outlet). The string of lights was doubled up and taped in intervals.  If I didn't double up the string, the effect of the lights would have looked more sparse and the end would have been too long if that makes any sense.  Lastly, I used safety pins to pin the light strings from underneath.  The battery case fits in my pocket and I can turn it on and off whenever I want. There are two settings as well, one with the lights "flickering" and the other with the lights just "on".

Looks better in the dark, eh.

The floral pattern of the sweatshirt was pretty damn close to the wallpaper in the TV show.

No wig required either.

You can also check out Mary's awesome rendition of the "Stranger Things" alphabet wall (using a floral bedsheet from a thrift store) for her work's Halloween party (check out her Instagram, linked on her blog, This Tasty Life).

Articles:
"The Best Costume this Halloween is going to be the wall from "Stranger Things" BuzzFeed, Oct. 12, 2016 (this was the article shown in the first photo with my laptop)

"You can dress up as the Wall from Stranger Things for Halloween" GlamourMagazineUK, Oct. 13, 2016

Other costume ideas:
DIY Stranger Things Costume Ideas HalloweenCostumesBlog

And for those you don't get the reference/haven't watched the show on Netflix (so do it NOW damn you!), here's that scene:

Oh, Winona, you were a hot mess, but I do love you so as Joyce Byers!

Trailer 1 for Season 1:

plus Trailer 2 (the alphabet wall can be see at the 1:46 mark):



Plus EVERY REFERENCE and EASTER EGG Explained:

You're welcome.

Only one of my co-workers will get my costume since the rest are not pop culture savvy and have not watched the show (wut!), but I'm pretty sure students at my work will know it right away, ha ha.