Our Halloween Costume: PACMAN and MS PACMAN
This past Friday night our lovely friend Alfredo hosted a fun Halloween party (he also hosted this party) for a bunch of us at his place. I love dressing up with Will (last year we were Mr and Ms Fox, from Fantastic Mr Fox) and so I started brainstorming early ideas for what to do. My dream was to go as Daenerys Targaryn, but I decided that was going to be a little too ambitious and expensive. A few others I threw around were Helga and Arnold (from Hey Arnold) and Richie and Margot (from the Royal Tenenbaums) and Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan. Neither of us were really into any of those for some reason, and I eventually thought of a PACMAN theme. I then somehow convinced Will that wearing a giant foam costume around at a party was a good idea and started working on both costumes.
After a quick google search, I came across Julie Ann Art's post on the PACMAN costume's she made a couple years ago. I loved them. I followed her descriptions/instructions fairly closely but I did make some changes. I thought I'd share briefly how I went about making these costumes as well as some tips for working with and wearing styrofoam.
Materials Used
+ Large piece of Foam Board
+ 4 Yards of Yellow Cotton Fabric
+ Red Felt Pieces
+ Black Cardstock Paper
+ Black Ribbon (for the straps)
+ Duct Tape
+ Black Duct Tape
+ Spray Adhesive
+ White Craft Glue and Mod Podge
+ Wire
+ Toothpicks
Method
I originally wanted to use thick cardboard for the frame, but we ended up selecting a large piece of foam board (insulation with foil on one side and plastic film on the other) from Lowe's. It ended up being more cost-effective and seemed sturdier. The large piece (that barely fit shoved in the back of our 4-Runner) we bought only cost $7.00 and was enough to make both costumes. I traced large circles onto it and cut them out with a box-cutter. I ended up also removing the foil and film coverings (on both sides) to make it easier to adhere fabric. I placed the foam circles down on the yellow fabric and cut pieces large enough to fully cover it (just the front, pulled over the edge and secured further onto the back side). I adhered the yellow fabric using a spray adhesive (Elmer's), spraying the fabric in sections and then pulling it tight against the foam. I let this sit a day just to be safe.
I finished each face before joining them. I cut the eyes out of black cardstock (and the whites of the eyes out of white cardstock). These adhere well to the fabric using either Mod Podge or more spray adhesive. Next I held the two sides up to both of our bodies and measured a comfortable distance for the two pieces to sit from eachother (you want to be able to move a little). I cut foam pieces (extra scraps from cutting out the circles) to fit here and form the mouth (two pieces for each pacman). I secured these rectangle pieces to each side using toothpicks (which I dipped in craft glue before sticking in the styrofoam) and lots and lots of duct tape. Once the glue had dried and it was secure, I covered the visible part of the mouth in black duct tape. I then took another piece of yellow fabric and secured it tight (as tight as I could) between the two sides-using spray adhesive-above the mouth I created, to give it a more dimensional look. The last step was adding red lips and a red bow to MS PACMAN, using red felt and spray adhesive. I secured ribbon inside the costume, to use as shoulder straps, using more duct tape.
Tips
+ Just DO NOT use any form of super glue. It will eat straight through any kind of foam. I learned this the hard way, trying to use E6000 glue to secure the two sides to the mouth pieces.
+ Make sure there is plenty of room around your hips before cutting the pieces to form the mouth.
+ Add wire to the back of the fabric you stretch between the two sides (above the mouth) if you want it to retain a rounded shape.
We had so much fun as PACMAN and MS PACMAN, even if we were bumping into people all night. There was even a costume contest, complete with a skeleton trophy, and we won! And look, I also made (and took to the party) a pretty, lopsided, delicious ghost cake.
