by: Kristin
My boyfriend and I decided that, being a fairly new couple, a DIY
couples costume would be a fun bonding activity. Brainstorming on a
socially relevant duo, we came up with several ideas but the
Mars Rover and Mars won. Mostly because of the probing and exploring jokes that could be made throughout the night.
Here's how we created each costume:
Mars/Martian:
Flour
Water
Newspaper or old phone books
Red and orange spray paint
Suspenders, ribbon, rope, or bungees
Duct tape
Bucket
Paint
Stabilizing Pilates ball
To create a round, bulbous planet, I covered a Pilates ball with
papier mâché. I used a 1 part flour to 2 parts water no-cook paste to
apply the strips of phone book paper, but I'm sure any variation of
papier mâché recipe would do. When applying the paper, make sure you
leave 2 areas on opposite ends of the ball uncovered so that there is
enough room for you to slip the shell on over your head. You'll end up
needing to remove the ball from your papier mâché shell, so one of those
uncovered areas should be the spot where you can pull the plug of ball
to deflate it. After applying one or two layers of papier mâché, let it
dry. Since you'll need to apply several layers for durability, it's a
good idea to start on your costume at least a week before show time. You
want to make sure your layers are relatively even, to avoid soft spots.
And you want to store your ball in between drying times in a climate
controlled place aka NOT outside where the sun is going to heat the ball
and cause the gases to expand. Paper is not forgiving and your ball
will cause your shell to bust open.
I learned this the hard way.
After several layers have been completed (I did 4, but the more you
do, the more durable your costume), you can create structural
reinforcements and paint it. Before you paint, find where you want to
attach shoulder straps and apply duct tape. Then, deflate the ball and
reinforce the edges of the openings. To paint, I used red spray paint
for the base color and fluorescent orange spray paint for an accent
color. Acrylic paints work too, but has longer application and drying
times.
Now to make your planet wearable! Where you applied the duct tape,
attach either the suspenders or create holes for you to run ribbon, rope
or bungees through. You can wear whatever you want underneath the
costume. I chose a sexy Martian number, wearing silver tights and a
silver American Apparel bodysuit.
Overall, I was really happy with the way my costume turned out and it
gave me a crafty outlet in the process. The only thing I would do
differently in the design would be to make the ball smaller as well as
the openings in order to create more of a "bubble skirt" effect. Next
time I may apply lace before the spray paint to make it look more like a
piece of garment.
Curiosity Mars Rover:
White foam board
Boxes of various sizes
Cables and wires
Silver and white spray paint
Suspenders, ratchet straps, or bungees
A box that fits the size of your head
Scissors
Strong glue (like epoxy or rubber cement)
Duct tape
Tin cans
Cardboard tube
White rimmed sunglasses
Black sharpie
Nuts (the hardware type)
So for the rover part of our duo, we broke the costume down into 3
parts: the camera/head piece, the rover body, and the robot arm.
Using the head sized box, we spray painted it white and removed the
flaps on all sides except the right side. When dry, I drew a black line
defining the camera location. Along the line, we glued the nuts evenly.
Wearing this with white rimmed sunglasses creates a pretty good replica
NASA's camera used to take pictures of Mars’ terrain.
The body of the rover is made out of foam board strapped to the back
of the person. You can glue suspenders or attach ratchet straps, but you
need a heavy duty glue to make sure it holds up. The back of the foam
board is where the brains of the rover are located, I let my boyfriend
use his creativity. To replicate the body, he used the three panels of a
box to create the back hatch and attached it to the bottom of the foam
board. Tin cans and boxes of varying sizes made the rest of the
equipment. We glued everything down (aside from the wires and cables)
before painting everything white. Once dry, we attached the cables and
wires to make it look like all the stuff connected to each other.
To create the robot arm, use a cardboard tube and attach the extra
box pieces and odds and ends. In real life the robot arm looks like a
mini junkyard attached to a piece of metal. Of course, my boyfriend
wanted to attach the am to his crotch area (he's incredibly mature).
Thankfully, it wouldn't hold up and we attached it to the side of the
foam board that sits on the persons back.
What did not work: using a crib mattress as the body. It was too
heavy and all around a pain in the ass to lug around. Wood glue and
super glue. Neither of these adhesives were strong enough to hold up all
night long. Especially when a lonely girl looking for attention wants
to wear the rover body and proceeds to jump around and dance, hoping to
catch the attention of her booty call who is on stage singing karaoke.
Details of this event are for a completely different blog.
Final Product:
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