(How to Make a Fairy Tale Worthy) Big Bad Wolf Costume

Halloween is by far my favorite holiday. You can be who/what ever you want and stuff your face with candy and no one passes judgement. my husband however, prior to meeting me, has never dressed up as an adult. This was his second year. Last year I broke him in slowly with a simple costume.. this year , now that I had his interest, I wanted him to understand how FUN halloween really can be. I asked him to pick the theme, and said I would 'make it happen', so when he chose little red riding hood/ big bad wolf.. I knew i had to make him the star of the show.

In order to keep this from becoming completely chaotic, i am going to break it up into sections.. starting with:

1. the mask

2. the glasses

3. the legs/feet

4. hands

I actually spent a huge chunk of time on a tail for him .. but I wont be including that because he lost it before I even took a pic of finished product ( in retrospect I should have sewn this on, but to be honest, I hate hand sewing so if i can get away with a safety pin instead...)

One last note, I am going to include a list of what i used to make this, but considering only the pumpkin "teeth" , paper mache, and sculpey were bought new from a store, my list probably will not be the same as yours if you choose to recreate this. One of the things I was hoping to achieve with this costume was to show people you really don't need to spend a lot of money to make a really cool costume. Halloween can be enjoyed by everyone!

I knew i didn't want him to be in a store bought latex mask, because, well.. quite honestly, I don't do store bought. and , well.. those masks are hot and uncomfortable.. and u need to take them off to drink your beer.so .. a half mask it shall be!

I started with an old half mask (i really don't know what it was? captain america? no idea.. it was just lying there on the goodwill shelf. It was sturdier than the one i had planned to get at walmart. It was practically made to order!) If the perfect base doesn't fall into your hands , they sell half masks for 1.29$ at walmart, or if you want to make one they sell plaster kits for just this purpose at craft stores, personally i am big on recycling materials as you will see...

Next i cut a styrofoam snout and ears out of an old cooler that i had sitting around. I did the cutting with a kitchen knife and a utility knife. i was not exact. You should do this outside, unless you want to create a house full of simulated snow to get ready for christmas. (it was seriously messy as seen in the pics..and those little bits stick to everything!)

i attached the styrofoam with my glue gun.

and then i busted out the paper mache!

Prior to this , I have only used strip paper mache.. i will never use it again! Ever since this step my mind has been working in the background to figure out what to make next with this paper mache.

I layered the paper mache to fill the mask in more, and smooth it out. I used store bought "pumpkin teeth" for the teeth. It took a few days to dry, but texas is pretty humid, and i didn't take any steps to dry it faster.

i took an old fur coat, and cut it into pieces along the seams. I decided to leave the sleeves intact (for legs), as well as the collar (paws).

I started by cutting out a hole for the nose.. and after slipping the fur over i flipped the mask over and and marked (and roughly cut)the eye openings . i left the ears for last because i wanted to keep the length in the back (so it would go over his head like a hood) so I wanted to size it before cutting away any excess. the fur application is what worried me the most, I almost left the mask and just painted it, it turned out to be much easier than i anticipated, just a bit tedious. At this point in time i was starting to get excited, so i made a "nose" out of black sculpey (which i didnt bake) to get a better idea of the overall look. The nose is just flattened sculpey applied directly to the foam and trimmed with an exacto knife.

for the ears i secured the center first, then i rolled the edge of the fur under before gluing .. i tried to take a good pic of that so people could see could see what i mean. I then trimmed the fur around the eyes to increase visibility. I actually trimmed some other places (like the snout) just to give it a more convincing shape. At this point it looked like the cutest stuffed puppy dog..sooo I

i used a mascara wand and cheap acrylic paint in white, gray and black to add highlights and shading to make it look more wolf like. I then dressed him in a hat that a friend donated to the cause. At this point in time.. i sent a picture to a friend who said "that's so awesome! you have glasses for it right?"

after a few minutes of brainstorming and walking around the house looking at things.. the solution was simple. I cute a shape out of card stock so i could make sure they fit the way i wanted, then i rolled out a thin "snake" of sculpey clay and used my cardboard cutout to shape the snake. After baking i glued some thin plastic onto the "frames" I honestly have no idea what the real purpose of this plastic is, (or how I came to own it) but I am kind of curious, so if someone out there knows what this stuff is really for.. share the info with me please lol. it came on a roll similar to duct tape (i actually thought it WAS tape until i tried to use it as tape)

now to make some feet.

i cut some sleeves off of an old shirt, and fit them onto a pair of my hubby's old work boots, gluing the sleeve to itself so it could be removed easily if he ever needs to use the boots again. i then used hot glue to attach styrofoam toes that i cut from that same cooler.

i used hot glue to cover the feet , but not the underside. i then poked more "pumpkin teeth" into the "toes" through the fur and used a dab of glue to make sure they stayed secure (i ended up coloring the nails black ,and wished i had done this to the ones on the feet before i attached them, it would have been easier to color them before attaching)

i then used the same paints and mascara wand to detail the feet. Once hubby got home i had him pull the sleeves of the fur coat onto his legs so i could make sure they met up together well. These sleeves became his legs. Once again.. i detailed these with the paint and mascara wand. (sorry , i didn't remember to take a pic of these together at this time)

i didn't want him to not be able to use his hands, so i decided to make the paws more like hand coverings than gloves. i took the collar of the fur coat, which was sort of like a tube and cut it in half (one for each paw). i used stuffing to add some puff to the ends and cut a slit for his arm to fit through and hot glued the "puff" closed. i colored the claws with a sharpie marker and hot glued them to the paws. then detailed the paws too. then i cut another slit near the top (underneath) so he could slip his fingers in and out in case he needed to use his hands.(see pics)

I found an old housecoat at Goodwill , and since the sleeves were not full length we added an undershirt. i used the last scrap of fur to wrap his neck. and then i tagged along with him and soaked up all the praise for what a great costume he had. (on a sidenote- we won the costume contest at the pub we went to which payed for the costumes, our dinner and drinks, and at least an extra 100$)

(and don't forget to vote for me if you like this instructable!)

TOOLS:

scissors

exacto knife

kitchen knife

hot glue gun

safety pins

mascara brush

MATERIALS:

(from thrift store)

half mask (2$)

housecoat (3$)

(Bought new):

paper mache(3$ - had 1/2 off coupon)

pumpkin teeth (2$)

acrylic paint x3 (.50 each)

black sculpey clay

(Repurposed/had):

hat (friend got from goodwill)

old faux fur (given to me by friend)

hot glue sticks

styrofoam cooler

thin plastic

polyfill stuffing