Coolest Homemade Carol from Where The Wild Things Are Costume

Fall was in the air, which meant it was time to start thinking of what or who to be for Halloween. As I was starting to come up with costume ideas I was flipping through the channels. I came across the movie, “Where The Wild Things Are”, which is based off an older children’s book. I thought that the character Carol would be a great costume to make, but wasn’t sure if I could pull it off. Luckily this happened in mid-September, which meant that I had time to attempt this homemade Carol from Where the Wild Things Are costume and come up with a backup if it didn’t work out.

I started brainstorming ideas on how I was going to make the head. For this costume the head is what makes or breaks it so I wasn’t even concerned with how I was going to make the body until I had completed the head. My first ideas were to find a large Styrofoam ball or make one out of Great Stuff spray insulation, then just carve out the features. Then a friend who delivered a piece of furniture had a large 1” thick piece of foam pad he used to protect the furniture in is pickup truck. He was just going to throw it away, but I thought this would be a perfect start to my costume.

To keep the costume snug on my head I was just going to use a helmet in the center of it, which was actually the same helmet I had used for my two previous Halloween costumes. Last year I was a Gladiator and the year before that I was Tron, both costumes consisted of the same helmet, which was altered in various ways.

I began by cutting up a small paper model and using tape to find out what shape to cut in order to form the head. Then I drew the pattern on the piece of foam, cut it out and began stitching it together to make the round head. For the nose I used scrap pieces of the foam pad and folded them up in different ways until I was content with a good shape to make the nose.

For the eyes I purchased clear plastic Christmas tree ornaments, which I cut in half and painted the eyes on the inside to keep them glossy on the outside. I purchased some fur at a local fabric store and applied it to the head with spray adhesive.

The head all came together better than I had originally planned at a low cost of only $25. Of course I intended to go out and party during Halloween so I spent an extra $2 to buy pieces so I could engineer a chin strap so the head wouldn’t fall off on the dance floor. I also used materials that would otherwise have ended up in a landfill, which were the helmet and large foam pad.

Fur, paint, 2 plastic Christmas tree ornaments and spray adhesive – 25 dollars.

Strap, two rings, 4 nuts, bolts and lock washers to make a chin strap – 2 dollars.

Creating a homemade costume that was inexpensively made from recycled material that is surely going to be the best costume at the party — Priceless!