Despicable Me Minion Costume

My 7 yr old son Ethan is wearing the minion costume.

Materials Needed: white, black, chrome, and red spray paint- sleeping pad- trash can with rounded top- grinder with cut off wheel- hot glue sticks and glue gun- spray adhesive-yellow felt- large coffee can- white pantyhose- aluminum flashing- razor knife- black belt- overalls-screws-clown wigs- A TON OF TIME AND PATIENCE.

How-To Instructions: I started with a Rubbermaid trashcan, medium size, with rounded top. I cut the bottom out and hot glued the top solid. Then I cut out the single eye hole for the single goggle, which was made using aluminum flashing covering a large coffee can and also on the inside to make it a smooth looking coffee can cut down to about 1/4 of the height of the can. I then put inside two backpack straps so when my son put it on it fit like a backpack. Then covered the whole thing with the sleeping pad foam cut to even the taper of the trashcan out and make it a perfect "tic-tac" shape. I cut out the mouth and built up the upper and lower lips and made a tongue and teeth out of the same foam pad. I painted each tooth white and put them into the foam with toothpicks. I painted the tongue red with black shadow and white highlight to make it a more realistic 3D look. I cut out arm holes, and then wrapped the entire thing in yellow felt with spray adhesive, which was quite difficult. I wanted to do that in 1 solid piece because its what separated mine from the rest. I wanted to make my minion look more like a real character dressing up for Halloween with a clown wig rather than the minion just being the costume. It actually was 2 clown wigs cut and fit together to look like 1 big one. I then stretched out a white stocking pantyhose as much as possible and colored a pupil with a black marker and placed it on the inside of the goggle to disguise my sons face and he would still be able to see through pantyhose in the goggle while trick-or-treating. The single goggle I then put an old belt strap around and hot glued it to make it all one goggle and strap with mini bolts on each side of the goggle to look like hinges. I then cut off the top of 8 rounded bold heads and glued them symmetrically around the outside of the goggle to add another detail to represent the "rivets". Then I cut a pair of overalls to fit and hot glued it in place, cut out a "Gru” logo and spray painted it on the front pocket to look just like they do in the movie. I worked very hard and long on this project and my son was super excited to help out in any way possible and see it come to life. It was a huge hit but very extensive and labor intensive. I tried to keep every little detail in the costume because that is where it counts to make the minion come to life.

*P.S. This costume became very involved and cost more than expected but I didn't want to cut corners. I wanted a very well-made costume that would be awesome. It had some weight to it and my son didn't make it much more than a half hour, so just keep that in mind. It may have been better for a child a little older, but it was definitely a HUGE HIT EVERYWHERE!