When I was trying to visualize the costume, I searched the magical internets for other people's costumes (which was mildly terrifying when I realized why these 50 year old men had fuzzy full-body cat costumes) and gathered ideas. I also decided to play around with an avatar creator, which I think was the most helpful thing I could have found.
I'm sure you've seen obnoxious flash ads for Zwinky and the like, but I decided to give one a try after I saw an avatar created with cat ears. So after a search or two to find a completely free avatar site, I found a whole bunch of distractions, and finally . Add a few more distractions, and tada!
That's a cute little version of what I wanted my costume to be. And I totally ripped the avatar off for my shirt. I was debating a few options, but knew I wanted black and white (I'm going to be a calico, and I'm already red). It's rather hard to see because of the small size, but the black tank on the avatar has a school of skeleton fish on the bottom side. Or possibly octopi.
So off to Walmart for me to try and budget up this shirt.
I found a simple ribbed black tank that fit surprisingly well and hid the bra straps (a must!), some puffy paint in white, stencil sponge brushes, and a plastic school folder. Most places with a craft department do sell stenciling sheets, which are flexible clear or white plastic sheets that come in an 8x10 sheet for about $1.50. While those work wonders if you're not into budget-crafting, the plastic double pocket school folders (about $0.80) offer about three times the surface area and are just as workable. I got mine in hot pink, because, well, why not? Be sure to get a color that will mark easily when you're tracing.
So back to the Bat Cave (cat cave for this? no, we'll stick to bats) and I found a stencil for a fish which is apparently part of the flying spaghetti monster religion. Regardless, it's a skeleton fish with the added bonus of pirate-y eye patch! How much more Halloween can a stencil get?
After painstakingly (not!) cutting out the paper stencil, tracing, and then cutting out the plastic stencil, I ended with two sizes of my pirate fish skeleton.
Add painter's tape, cardboard under the shirt, and puffy paint, and my fish tank is complete!
As you can see, I haven't stenciled in a few years, so it's not the crispest fish shirt ever. And the white puffy paint didn't really want to be friends with the black tank. But hey, they look ghostly. I didn't check the placement of the fish before I stenciled, which may come back to bite me, but I'm fairly certain I avoided the fishy boob conundrum. We shall see!
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