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:
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.
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
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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