I knew that meant less people would recognize what I was, but thought it would be worth it! Here’s a bit about my process, pictures of the final product, and a bit about our night at the NYC Village Halloween parade.

One of the most important parts for me was that the suit be one piece. It would be easy to buy a hoodie and sweatpants as the base of the suit, but I had my heart set on the look of that complete suit with a front zip. So I located online and ordered a pair of hooded footie pajamas. Unfortunately, those did not come in that beautiful green, so I went with light blue and crossed my fingers that I could dye the jammies. While waiting for those to arrive in the mail (yay, backordered) I constructed the rest of the parts of the suit:

Cactus "ears": foam balls, felt, stuffing

Star hair bow: foam sheets and sharpie!

Logo zipper pull: foam and silver nail polish

For the “ears” and the large cones on the body I sewed felt pieces over foam spheres and cones, respectively. The ears were particularly difficult – I found a beach ball-like pattern online that I followed to make the felt fit really smoothly over the foam balls. Before sewing it on, I added small felt cones stuffed with regular stuffing. The star hair bow and logo zipper pull were made from colored foam sheets. Sharpie and silver nail polish added accents. Though it was a lot of sewing, and hand sewing at that, it went relatively fast!

The real problems happened when the footie pajamas arrived. They were late (backordered), and 100% polyester. Though I had no experience with dyeing fabric, I knew polyester would be a problem. I gave it a go anyway with some trusty RIT, but no dice. None of it was being absorbed and the PJs remained light blue! With less than 24 hours until the parade, I made an emergency craft store trip. Two options came home with me: neon green fabric spray paint and real deal forest green spray paint. The rest of the evening was spent a) freaking out and b) spraying down the suit in the dark and wind on the roof. Whew!

By morning the PJs weren’t looking too bad. They were definitely more green than blue, so I got to work furiously sewing on the “ears”, spikes, and hair bow. I finished just in the nick of time and am pretty happy with how it turned out!

Cactus girl!

Fangirl pose!

Does she pose like this?

Extreme closeup!

The parade was fun – this was my third year walking in it. It is a beautiful thing, that anyone can dress up as anything and be in the parade. While the rain, the crowded-ness, and the waiting for our turn is not my favorite part, it was totally worth it to see my fellow New Yorkers of all ages and races out and braving the rain to see the spectacle. There were some cute, funny, and crazy costumes. My favorites were the numerous Mario groups, a Kate (of Jon and Kate plus 8), and a couple: woman in a fur coat with red paint on it, man carrying bucket with fake red paint strands. He mimed paint throwing all through the parade.

A handful of folks recognized my costume – mostly girls and all under 30 I imagine. Some even posed for pictures with me

Walking to line up for the parade. Plus Storm Shadow boyfriend!

Walking in the parade (too bad this guy got in the way!)

Overall, a worthwhile experience!

So I present to you, Simone Legno’s (Tokidoki creator) text from the back of my Carina toy‘s box:

The cactus is a dign of protection. Kids are naive and vulnerable and need protection. A monster into a cactus suit would not have made sense in my vision of things. SANDy and her friends zip themselves into cactus suits because they think the world is a cold and scary place, and they need some armor to face it. The cactus is a conserver of water, and water means life. The Cactus Friends for me are the representation of life and pure like water.

I love that it’s kind of Engrish-y (he is a native Italian) – it makes it all the sweeter!