Incredible Topiary Mickey Mouse Costume

Yes! This is a Mickey Mouse costume.

When I was 5 years old, my family spent a week driving down Route 66 from Indiana to Disneyland. The first thing I remember seeing when we arrived on the Disney property were the topiaries of Disney characters. It was the most exciting day of my life. No one from my school or neighborhood had ever been to Disneyland. This was absolutely unbelievable. That moment has stayed with me my whole life and will always brings back happy memories. I have wanted to recreate a Disney topiary and making a topiary costume allows me to go out and share my creation with others.

A few weeks ago, I found a large silk topiary that someone had discarded a the curb. It was old and dusty, but had hundreds of silk ivy leaves on it. i have wanted to make a topiary costume for a couple of years, but didn’t want to but leaves at full retail. Now, I could finally make a topiary costume without spending a lot of money on materials.

I took the topiary home and removed all the leaves and sorted them into piles according to size. There was also Spanish moss in the pot that the topiary stood in that I kept for the Mickey Mouse costume.

The head of the Mickey Mouse costume was created by covering a beach ball with a layer of paper covered with duct tape. There is a 2 layer of duct tape over the entire ball. After the ball was covered with paper and tape i cut a circle large enough to slide a head into and then cut 2 large eye holes.

The eye holes are covered with sheer green fabric . The ball was then painted green.

Once the paint was dry I glued 2 paper plates to the top of the ball for the ears, these were painted green, also.

The snout and nose were made with paper mache and also painted green.

I used white glue and applied a thin covering of Spanish moss over all surfaces of the head, nose and ears. Once the white glue was dry, I started gluing ivy leaves on distributing small and large leaves to give the covering an even look.

I bought a long sleeve green shirt at a thrift store and glued on the Spanish moss and leaves directly onto the shirt. The only areas covered were those that would show. I didn’t apply leaves to areas that overlapped.

I bought over-sized green shorts and a pair of green leggings. The shorts and leggings have a thin layer of Spanish moss glued onto them. Then the ivy leaves were hot glued over all exposed surfaces. Again, if an area was not going to show then no leaves were applied.

The shoes were created by covering a pair of shoes that I no longer wanted with enough polyester stuffing to look like a bulbous over-sized shoe. I covered the stuffing with duct tape. I just added stuffing and tape until I achieved the size and shape I wanted for the Mickey Mouse costume shoes.

Once I was happy with the proportion of the shoes, then I painted them green and applied the moss and ivy leaves the same way as all prior pieces.

I made 4 finger gloves using white cotton fabric. In hindsight I would just purchase Mickey gloves.

If y=You would like to make your own gloves as I did, cut four pieces of fabric for the hand portion of the glove and two pieces for the cuff. Sew 2 hand piece together, clip corners and turn right side out. Repeat for the other hand.

The cuff is a 3 inch by 8 inch piece of fabric folded in half long ways. The fabric is sewn together on the long edge. Then the tube is turned right side out and stuffed lightly with stuffing. The tube cuff is then sewn together by hand. The tube cuff is hand sewn to the edge of the glove.

Warning!! I received a couple of severe burns working with the hot glue! Be REAL careful.

Completing my Disney topiary has brought me so much joy! When not in use as a costume, I can put it on a body form and dress him in different accessories for the holiday. He has already been a patriot Mickey and is now dressed for Halloween with a top hat and giant orange bowtie. I think I will keep him out all year.

I can’t wait for Halloween so I can pose by the front door! I don’t think anyone will suspect that the Mickey topiary is really a Mickey Mouse costume. Our family and friends absolutely love him. Minnie may even be joining him soon.

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