Because of my love for the Disney/Pixar movie “Up” I decided to would go as one of the characters for Halloween. And of course I had to pick the most ridiculous character…Kevin! I made the homemade Kevin from Up Halloween costume out of wire, cardboard, felt, fun foam, feathers and lots and lots of hot glue and duct tape.
To make the neck/head I first made a cylinder shape out of a sheet of wire mesh and then attached it to a metal colander that I found at the dollar store (it was just the right size to fit my head). I then shaped the head out of more wire mesh and some cardboard. I used duct tape to cover up the parts where the edges of the wire mesh would stick out so that it wouldn’t cut or poke me.
After all of the sharp, poky bits were taken care of I covered the neck in navy blue felt and the inside of the mouth with pink fun foam. Then out of yellow fun foam I cut out the beak shape-one for each side of the face. The eyes were also made out of fun foam, and the feathers on the top of his head were made using pipe cleaners and fun foam. I painted the edge of the beak orange and hot glued a piece of wire to the backside of a pink piece of fun foam for the tongue to give it the wavy shape. I attached the head with wires to metal garden hose holder thing that I also found at the dollar store. It fit over my shoulders nicely (kind of like a harness) and helped to keep the very tall head from falling off of me.
For the body I used a cardboard box and then covered it in some stretchy blue-green fabric and stuffed it full of fiberfill to get rid of the square shape of the box. After it had a more roundish shape I covered it in feathers using both feather boas and individual feathers. That was probably the part that took the longest amount of time. Without the feathers it looked like the body of a very out of shape elderly woman…
I also wore black pants and a blue jacket for the wings. I cut out a bird foot shape out of black fun foam and taped it to my black shoes as well.
I wore the homemade Kevin from Up Halloween costume to work on Halloween and won the costume contest! I received a lot of interesting comments from customers, and people were generally really impressed that I had made the costume myself.
Even though the head kept hitting the menu boards behind me and my neck and back were really sore afterwards I still think that it was worth it. It was also really interesting trying to reach around an enormous bird belly to get change out of a till…
I love the way ur costume came out..it looks a lot like the bird..i have seen other “made at home” costumes of kevin and they look nothing like the real character..however…i am planning a birthday party for my son..the theme is Up..and for centerpieces i like the idea of the head piece with the neck and chocolate surrounding it…but since it is so tall…im not sure of how i would b able to keep the head from falling over on guests…any ideas???
It’s great to see an example of a three dementional rendering of “Kevin” I was looking for examples to make a parade float that our girl scout troop is making. Theme of the parade is “Spirit of Adventure” so of course we need lots of balloons and KEVIN! Thanks so much for posting your supplies and how you constucted it. I just hope we can build one as wonderful as yours!!
I absolutely love this I could really use it for my homecoming up theme would you be willing to sell it ?
I would definitely be willing to sell it! I’m not sure how much it would cost to ship it, because it’s rather large, but if you’re interested you can email me at ericamiles@ericaanim.com!
Do you still have this costume? We have our homecoming week coming up and I would love to use the head for my costume!
Could you possibly make one for me? I’m too lazy!