Thoughts from a (girl) Gamer

Tara Voelker's thoughts. A lot about video games, a little about life

My Easy-to-make Little Sister Costume

16 Comments Posted by Tara Lynn on January 21, 2011

Hey guys,

So this past Halloween I went as a Little Sister from Bioshock while my fiance went as a splicer. I was a little crunched for time, so instead of going for an accurate Little Sister costume, I decided to just take the most recognizable elements of a little sister and put those together for my own version.

The 3 things I really wanted to make sure I had were-

1) A needle gun (Due to the overwhelming amount of people asking me how to make this a how to on this has now been listed here!)

2) Dirty Dress

3) Pony tail with ribbon

4) Yellow Eyes

For my dress, I actually bought an Alice in Wonderland costume. In retrospect, there were better Alice in Wonderland costumes I could have bought to alter- but then I wouldn’t of had this hilarious moment so I’m glad I went with the cheap one.

So how did I go from Alice to Little Sister?

The Dress:

After buying the dress, I preceded to rip off all of the ribbons. I then went through the “dirtyfcation” process where I used tea, coffee, and old make up to stain my dress. If you want to know more about how to do that, it’s the same thing I did for my Silent Hill Nurse costume. That made my dress look like this:

After that, I sewed 4 buttons onto the front of the dress and ripped the bottom of the skirt up and called it done.

Needle Gun

The needle gun was the most important part of my costume. I had no idea how to go about it. Luckily my fiance did. So I agreed to make his splicer costume if he made my needle gun. I’m not completely sure of the construction, but I do know the most important element was buying an antique gas pump handle via eBay.

So,

gas pump handle + pipe cap + dowel rod + glass jar + bottle nipple + spray paint + Gatorade = needle gun.

If you have questions about this, feel free to email me and I can get you the more specific info.

Make Up/Eyes:

So for this my make up was simple- use a foundation that is slightly too light, and cover my eyes in dark grey/black/purple eye shadow. The real finishing touch on this was my UV light yellow contacts. They were scary as hell.

So that was really all this costume was. I wore black flats, and pulled my hair in a pony tail. I also carried around a big daddy doll I had and that was it. Every one knew what I was supposed to be and while out at a local bar, several people asked for me and my fiance to pose for pictures with them. With more time I would have made my dress more purple by dying it and likely get a brown wig, but I still think it was great and this was fun to wear.

And yes, that gun was very sharp. 🙂

16 responses to “My Easy-to-make Little Sister Costume”

Shay March 31, 2011 at 4:16 am
How do u make the Adam sryinge ?(the needle gun)

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- Tara March 31, 2011 at 10:18 am
  Wrote this for you!
  
  http://thoughtsfromagirlgamer.com/2011/03/31/how-to-make-an-adam-syringe-bioshock-needle-gun/
  
  Reply
Pingback: How to Make an Adam Syringe (Bioshock Needle Gun) « Thoughts from a (girl) Gamer
Renate August 21, 2011 at 11:50 am
I love how you were pressed for time yet still managed to make the syringe. 🙂 I’m thinking about putting together a Little Sister costume for Comic-Con 2013, and I still don’t know if I’d be able to get a decent one together in time. 😉

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- Tara August 22, 2011 at 8:50 am
  For me, the syringe was the main piece. I figured I could have a crappy looking dress as long as people saw the syringe- because there is no mistaking what that’s from.
  
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Theresa October 16, 2011 at 8:09 pm
great costume in a short ammount of time! ive been planning all summer to be a Little sister for halloween and im working on my costume now. your needle gun post helped me alot and staining the dress with old makeup and coffee was a great idea! (i made my dress from scratch was was unsure of how to make it dirty without going to the halloween store and picking up a tube of fake blood)

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Maddie October 30, 2011 at 4:58 pm
how did you create the needle?

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- Tara November 4, 2011 at 5:53 pm
  The needle gun is listed in a separate post- http://thoughtsfromagirlgamer.com/2011/03/31/how-to-make-an-adam-syringe-bioshock-needle-gun/
  
  Reply
Hope March 13, 2012 at 12:22 am
How much did antique gas pump cost?

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- Tara Lynn March 16, 2012 at 1:03 pm
  If I remember correctly we spent about $35 on it.
  
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  - Hope March 17, 2012 at 1:32 am
    Thanks! 🙂 But where did you get those contact lenses? I can’t seem to find any like that..
  - Tara Lynn March 17, 2012 at 9:27 pm
    Umm… I’d have to look that up. I don’t remember off the top of my head… I think they came from Europe somewhere?
bkbijou August 9, 2012 at 4:18 pm
I made the adam gun last year. I feel like it was a lot of work and I would like to re-purpose the gas nozzle for another costume. Have you done anything new with yours or put any thought into using it for another costume?

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- Tara Lynn August 9, 2012 at 4:21 pm
  I actually haven’t. I use it as a display piece. I have a room just decorated with video game stuff and I keep it in there.
  
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Jess October 12, 2013 at 12:10 am
I’m thinking about being this for Halloween. I just want to have an awesome needle gun and I won’t be able to get a gas pump in time I do t think. So do you have any other suggestions, and if not could you please give me some more specific info on how you did it. Thanks so much.

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- Tara Lynn October 14, 2013 at 1:19 pm
  Sadly, I don’t have any suggestions other than a gas pump. I did make a detail instruction set for the needle gun using the gas pump, so hopefully that’s helpful – https://thoughtsfromagamer.com/2011/03/31/how-to-make-an-adam-syringe-bioshock-needle-gun/
  
  Reply