How to be a Roc and other Aviandrian Costume Ideas

It’s October, which means colorful leaves, frosty mornings, pumpkiny treats, and perhaps best of all, Halloween costumes! The costume designer in me comes alive in October. As a child, half the time I didn’t really care about the candy when I went trick-or-treating–I just wanted to show off my costume. Now, as an adult, I love designing new costumes, though I’m not always the one wearing them. Because of my love of designing costumes, I’m highlighting a few Aviandrian costumes for you today. The first two I’m just showing off. (If anybody loves them and wants to try and make your own, go for it.) The second two are ideas that could easily be assembled with dollar store-type materials and things you might already have on hand. They only take an hour or two to put together. I will write out instructions for those, in case anybody is dying to go Aviandrian for Halloween.

Ashlynn’s Aviandrian Dress

This is the dress Dillyn’s mother makes Ashlynn. It is a prime example of Aviandrian fashion for the working class.

Sky Corps Uniform

This is the uniform worn by the riders in the Sky Corps of Aviandria.

Ground Corps Uniform

Materials Needed:

1 Royal Blue Plastic Table Cloth (common at the dollar store) or About 1-yard royal blue fabric (Cotton might work but will fray, so you might have to hem it. A pretty safe bet would be felt.)

Gold Paint. (Acrylic works well for me. Probably not a dollar store thing, but still pretty cheap at Walmart.)

Long sleeve gray shirt. (Extra points if it’s a turtleneck.)

Gray Pants. (If gray is too hard, use black. Most people won’t know it’s not accurate.)

A black colored belt. (If you don’t have a real belt, use a black strip of cloth, a black piece of poster board, or strip of black plastic.)

Black boots if possible.

Directions:

Measure your blue plastic so you get a rectangle as wide as your shoulders (from the end of one to the end of the other) or just a bit wider, and two times the length from your shoulders to about an inch below where your fingers end if you arms are held straight down by your sides.

Fold in quarters. In the corner that has all folded edges, cut a hole for your head to go through. Make it smaller than your head, just a little bigger in circumference than your neck.

Cut a small slit down one of the long sides from the neck hole. This will help your head fit through.

Paint the Aviandrian shield on the front of the side without the slit. Paint the rank stripes around the neck hole and the bottom. Rank stripes are as follows.

Private- no rank stripe

Sergeant- one thin stripe.

Lieutenant- two thin stripes

Captain- one thick stripe

Colonel- One thick stripe, one thin stripe

General- Two thick stripes.

I forgot to draw on the stripes around the neck in the picture on the left. The picture on the right is a better look at what the shield insignia would look like. I made it just a tad too big when I painted it on my costume. 

As you can see, the uniform in the picture would be that of a colonel.

That’s the hardest part. After the paint is dry, dress in the gray pants and shirt. Slip the cover over your head with the shield shape in front, put the belt on over everything, and of course the boots.  If you want, use a toy sword, or make your own with cardboard and aluminum foil.  Ta-da! You’re ready to join the Aviandrian Ground Corps!

Roc Costume

Materials:

Brown long-sleeve shirt and pants. Brown shoes.

Brown Plastic Table Cloth (This can be harder to find. The fabric might be easier) or fabric. (About one yard).

White Poster Board.

Golden Yellow Poster Board (Optional)

Brown, Red, Paint, makers, or other coloring tools. Yellow too, if you don’t get the Yellow Posterboard.

Safety Pins or double sided tape.

Small piece of elastic (about a foot)

Instructions:

Wings

Cut a wing shape as long as your arm from the plastic, or the brown cloth. Decorate with feather pattern with Brown markers or paint.

Pin or tape to the arms of the brown shirt.

The sleeves of this shirt weren’t quite long enough, so I attached rubber bands at the ends of the wings to go around my wrists. 

Mask

Cut the beak shape from the Yellow poster board, or cut it from the white poster board and paint or color it yellow. Tape the curve of the beak together on the top.

The part with the tabs on the bottom should actually curve in a bit more than it shows in this picture.

Draw the other mask shape. Hint: it helps to hold the beak up to get the right shape for the spot you will put the beak on.

Hold up the mask to your face to measure for the eye holes. Mark and cut the eye holes.

Draw on the markings around the eyes.

Paint the mask. Brown for the most part, with red and white markings around the eyes (See Picture). Female rocs are lighter brown, while males are a bit darker. The mask in the pictures is about right for a female.

Wait for the mask to dry and cut it out. Attach the beak with tape or glue (or both) on the tabs.

Poke holes for the elastic. Tie the elastic on.

There you have it. You are ready to soar!

So, there are two cheap and easy costume ideas. Considering Aviandria hasn’t come out yet, they will probably be fairly unique–no danger of coming face to face with somebody wearing the same costume as you. If anybody asks, you can always direct them to this website to learn more about Aviandria. (Wink, wink.)