Family,  Life

How to Make a Planet Costume

September 10, 2020 /

“How to make a planet costume” was something I never even thought about googling before last October. However, when space loving L decided she wanted to be the planet Uranus (her favorite planet) for Halloween, Google, Pinterest and I spent a few hours together. I discovered that there are very limited planet costumes for purchase (especially if you don’t want to be Earth) and there aren’t too many how-to posts on making a planet costume; therefore, I found some inspirational pictures and turned on my creative brain to figure out how to make L her costume! I figured I would share my process with you, just in case you have a space loving kiddo, as well.

This post contains affiliate links. Purchasing through them helps to support this website.

planet costume

After searching for a bit, I came across a Saturn costume that gave me some inspiration. I started looking for something that L could wear that would give her the shape of a planet and I came across inflatable body bumper balls.

Inflatable Bubble Buddy Bumper Balls - Bbop Wearable Bumper Body Balls 36" - Giga Sumo Zorb Suits (Set of 2)

Luckily, they came in blue, the color of Uranus, because L is particular about costume accuracy. (I also saw some in red, if your kiddo wants to be Mars or another reddish planet.)

To make the rings, I used a big piece of cardboard. I didn’t have a box big enough at home, so I found a presentation display board. Then came the challenging part – figuring out how to get the rectangular display board into the big circular ring to fit over the ball. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t done geometry in a while!

So, first I blew up the ball, put it on L, and measured around the outside of the ball (circumference). Then I googled and was reminded that the formula for a circle’s diameter is d=circumference/Ï€. I figured out what the diameter was and then divided it by 2 to get the radius. I found the middle of the presentation board, made a mark and then measured out the radius. Luckily, the kiddos have a chalk compass, so I stole that and attached a pencil to it! I plopped the point of the compass on my middle dot, lined up my pencil with the end of the radius line, and created my inner circle.

Make a planet costume

Next, I stretched out the pencil end of the compass to the edge of the board (keeping the point on my center dot) and drew the outer circle. I cut out the middle of the inner circle and the outside of the outer circle and BOOM! I had a ring.

planet costume v1

Just, as an FYI, Uranus is tipped on its axis, so that is why the ring is at an angle. 🙂

Next, we tried covering the ring in aluminum foil and using marker to make the individual rings.

planet ring v1

We didn’t like how this looked, and it was hard to work with the foil, so we went to plan B. I painted both sides of the big ring black and then we created the little rings with glue and glitter.

making planet rings

I originally tried glitter paint for the rings, but it wasn’t sparkly enough and it was tough to get thin lines. Uranus technically has 9 inner rings, but L agreed that I could just fit as many as I could since 9 wouldn’t fit. As long as I clearly had the blue and red outer rings, L was okay with a slightly inaccurate inner ring system. 😂

I ended up drawing the ring with clear glue, sprinkling glitter over the glue, and then gently shaking off the excess (kind of like coating a cake pan!). This glitter worked really well. This is NOT a clean activity…ha. I had glitter everywhere and I even had an old plastic table cloth under the project.

planet rings

Once I finished the rings, I sprayed it with this crazy, super strong, like glue, freeze hairspray that we had from a dance recital. This helped keep the glitter in place and had the added benefit of protecting the ring a little from the misty rain we had on Halloween. I sprayed it out in the garage so that my whole kitchen wouldn’t be sticky…

planet ring final

To complete the costume, I made a little headband sign so that everyone would know that she was Uranus (not Saturn). (I also sprayed that with the freeze hairspray.)

planet headband

Finally, we paired the costume with black sparkly leggings, a sparkly black top, sprayed her hair with glitter hairspray, and off she went to trick-or-treat with her brother!

halloween trick or treat

L was so excited to be her favorite planet for Halloween! She received TONS of complements on her costume and only a few people thought she was Saturn. 🙂 I guess all of that math was worth it… and now I know how to make a planet costume!

I fully expect Little Man to request a planet costume in the coming years, so I have saved the ring. Although, he’s probably going to want to be Jupiter…

What fun costumes have your kids requested for Halloween? Let me know in the comments!

I hope that this costume inspires you to make your own original costume!

You May Also Like

10 Best Board Games

The 10 Best Board Games for the Whole Family

October 23, 2020

Unique Pumpkin Carving Ideas to Inspire You

September 22, 2020
Loon Summit view

Loon Mountain – Beautiful Views, Gondolas, and Glacial Caves

August 27, 2020

41 Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *