Materials:
-Foam Camping Mat
-Razor Blade to cut foam
-Purple fleece (3-4 yards depending on size)
-Plastic bowl
-Silver spray paint
-Black fleece (2 yards)
-Purple wigs (I ended up needing 4, depends on what look you want)
-Hot glue gun
-Hot glue sticks
-2-3 sheets of white foam
Directions:
To start, unroll your camping foam mat and measure out the size you will need to fit your child. Cut out holes for the arms and try on your child to ensure it will fit.
Glue the camping foam mat together in the back, ensuring the seal is tight. I had trouble with this, so I used pieces from an old laundry basket to reinforce the back.
I had to make my tube longer for my tall child, so I had to add a bottom part that I reinforced with a piece of laundry basket, as well as a circular top to rest on my child’s head. After the glue dried and the foam mat is sticking together, move onto cutting out the mouth and eye using the razor blade. You can eye ball this, I had my child try on the costume and place the eye where he could see out of it, and the mouth where it looked appropriate.
Next, roll the costume in the purple fleece, adding hot glue every few inches. Be sure to cover every visible inch. It should look something like this:
Cut out the mouth and eye, and fold the fabric into the costume, hot gluing it into place.
** It should be noted…you are hot gluing a foam mat. The hot glue gun WILL MELT the mat. The best way to avoid this is to quickly place on the hot glue without touching the metal part of the gun to the mat. If you leave it on too long, it will create a hole. **
Next, cut out the hole in the bottom of your plastic bowl, filing off any sharp plastic so you don’t cut your child’s face. Spray paint the bowl silver, this is your eye piece. (I don’t have a picture of this, sadly)
Cut a wide strip of the black fleece and place it over the eye, wrapping completely around the costume. Hot glue this into place. Hot glue the bowl into the eye piece, ensuring the fit is tight and the glue is holding the bowl properly.
At this point, have your child try on the costume to make sure the arm and eye pieces are still in the same spot.
Now, cut apart the purple wigs so they will lay flat on top of the costume. Hot glue into place to achieve the look you like.
You’re in the home stretch! At this point, the only things left to do are cut out and glue the teeth, using the white foam, make the “overalls” and attach a white M. I don’t have specific instructions on this; I cut out each tooth and held it up to the mouth, deciding how I wanted it to look. Once I found what I liked, I glued all the teeth to the inside of the mouth.
Wrap black fleece around the bottom of the costume. Hot glue in place. Cut 2 strips to make the overall shoulder straps, glue into place. Cut out a letter M in the white foam, glue onto overalls.
Try costume on your child and step back, enjoying your work!
