Oh no. Halloween is upon us and maybe buying commercially made costumes isn't your style or in your budget. Maybe you're looking to stand out in a crowd, or maybe you'd like some super easy arts'n'crafts with the kids. If any of that applies to you, well, I got a costume idea that literally takes maybe ten minutes (or five, if you got it all laid out beforehand) to assemble.
In this case, I had the navy blue sweatshirt and pants already. Also in my possession, a hot glue gun and appropriate sticks. Got a couple tubes of NECKLACE length GLOWSTICKS from the dollar store... so all in all, this costume was $2 to make.
Note : if you use low temp hot glue sticks, one can actually wear the costume as it's being made, which can be helpful if the subject is standing still. I suggest hot glue because it sets faster than most other glues, and when put on fabric, can be pulled off with little to no damage to the material (at least with sweats fabric)
So, on the assumption that you've got old sweats laying around, as well as a hot glue gun, let's get started.
The orange circles indicate where connectors are used.
Red circles indicate that those connectors are cut in half.
Step One : Get Them Connectors
In each tube of necklace-length glowies, there are small, hollow tubes meant to join the ends of the glowies to form necklaces. These connectors are the framework of our stick man.
For anchoring the ends of glowies, I cut the tubes in half (say, one for each wrist) -- that way it doesn't use up all the connectors (which can be a pain in the butt if scaling up to adult size)...which I did the first time around.
Step Two : Figure Out Your Needs
Join (BUT DO NOT ACTIVATE) the glowies, to figure out how many you'll need for each limb. For a third-grade aged kid, each limb took two glowies. Bigger the kids, more glowies are needed. If you find that three glowies is too long but two is too short, then you might want to get some BRACELET length glowies. Half the size of necklace, and they fit the same connectors.
Step Three : Glue, baby, glue
Anchor your connectors using generous dollops of hot glue. I like the low temp glue because it sets faster (but that means you have to work faster; high temp gives one more wiggle room, but can cause blisters on skin.) Once all your connectors are correctly spaced anchored, you're almost done.
Step Four : Activate the Glow
When you're ready to go out, just activate and insert the glowsticks into the connectors. For the head, I used a small length of ribbon threaded through the hoop as a headband. Super low-tech, but also effective.
Voila, that's it. You're done.
And for people trick or treating at night, they might think Mr Glow in the Dark Stick Man is actually that kid from Tron.