sheribombThis was another pregnant Halloween for me! At almost seven months pregnant, I felt like my belly was big enough to rock a proper belly-busting maternity costume. I was only about five months along for my last pregnant Halloween, so I went another route that time.
I was trying to think of some kind of hilarious thing to do with my belly that I hadn’t seen before. Inspiration struck one day in the shower (doesn’t it always?) and I couldn’t stop laughing at the idea, so I knew I had found THE ONE: The Eye of Sauron. I decided that I’d frame The Eye with a Tower of Mordor-like outfit.
Since I was going to be The Eye, my husband decided to be Saruman the White and we dressed our toddler up as Smaug the dragon. We were Tolkien VILLAINZ!!
The whole thing was totally cheap and relatively easy. I spent about $10 on Sharpies and probably about four hours on crafting (and half of that was for the Nazgul necklaces, which I forgot to wear at the kids party). The details on how I made the costume are below. (Eric also made his Saruman staff out of cardboard, black tape, packing tape, a styrofoam ball, and an old Jesus costume staff, but I don’t have any details on that one!)
Materials I used:
- Fine point Sharpies: Black, Yellow, Orange, Neon Orange and Red
- Pencil
- Belly Band in white, or a similar product
- Black tunic
- Laser-printed Nazgûl glued to card stock + scissors + black embroidery thread
- I also wore a gray long-sleeved maternity top (gray like the skies or Mordor), black leggings and black boots.
Crafting:
There are really three items that required crafting: The Eye of Sauron belly band, the Tower tunic, and the Nazgûl necklaces, so here goes:
Eye of Sauron belly band:
First, I’d like to say that I’m not really into painting my belly, as is done in a lot of maternity costumes. For one thing, it’s cold here in October. Plus, I can’t really see the underside of my belly and maternity pants aren’t known for staying up. Not to mention that I’d probably end up getting paint all over the place. So, I was planning to color a tight shirt or something, but then a friend of mine was giving away some maternity clothes and I acquired this white belly band that was just perfect.
If you’ve never heard of a belly band, you should know that it’s a relatively pointless item to cover a pregnant belly in case one wants to wear non-maternity clothes while pregnant. Pretty much every pregnant woman gets one, but no one I know actually ends up using them because regular maternity are just more comfortable. Meanwhile, the belly band market thrives.
So, I put on my belly band and drew an outline of The Eye (shown below) on it in the mirror using a dull pencil. It looked like I got it a little crooked. But then, my belly is pretty round.
Then I put the belly band around one of my son’s cheap rubber balls and a big board book (ah, the spoils of having kids). I started by coloring the yellow parts first. Then I filled in the orange and red. Then I did the black pupil. I was surprised at how well I was able to blend colors with the Sharpies — the shading turned out better than I thought it would.
Next, I took the belly band off of the ball and filled in the edges with black. It turns out that black is the smelliest Sharpie color. I tried to get this done as fast as possible since I am, as I mentioned, almost seven months pregnant. I was pretty pleased with the results.
The Tower Tunic:
The tunic was really easy. I had a black short-sleeved tunic that I cut in a low U-shape, so that The Eye sat at the bottom of the U. I safety-pinned the tunic to the top of the belly band to give it a little shape around the eye, then I cut off the sleeves. I didn’t take a good picture of the tunic, but you can see the effect in the photos of the completed outfit.
The Nazgûl necklaces:
The necklaces were easy, but time consuming. I printed out a few Nazgul in black and white that I found on Google Image Search. Then I glued them to card stock and cut them out. I filled in the weird parts with black Sharpie so that they’d look less like photocopies around my neck. Then, I used an embroidery needle and black embroidery thread to make them “necklaces”. Again, I don’t have a great photos of these, but you can see them in the photos of the completed outfit.
Getting dressed:
The great thing about this costume is that it was really comfortable. I just put the belly band over a fitted gray maternity shirt (I chose gray to mimic the sky of Mordor) and wore it with black leggings and black boots. I put the Tower Tunic on and safety-pinned it to the top of the belly band to give it some shape and to keep it on. Then I tied on the Nazgûl necklaces. I had planned to wear some dark makeup and blow out my hair a bit, but I have a toddler running around and it just didn’t happen. Such is motherhood!
Overall:
This costume was super fun to make. I think colored belly bands should be the next big thing in maternity Halloween costumes. They’re reusable and easy, and most pregnant women have one lying around that they’re not using. Ladies, are you with me?
Here are a few more photos of our costumes — I hope you like them! What are you dressing as for Halloween?
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