Carol Costume From Where the Wild Things Are

This is an Instructable for the Carol from Where The Wild Things Are costume I made. Feel free to message me any questions or leave them in the comments, please vote for me!

Since this is my first Instructable I tried to make it detailed, but if you have any questions let me know. I made this head peice into Carol but by changing the fabric it could easily be modified to your giant mascot head needs. When I decided to make this costume I scoured the internet, but I had trouble finding something that gave detailed instructions. I picked and chose different elements in order to make my head, and I love the way it turned out. For those who are worried about time spent with this costume, I made it less than a week before Halloween, so you can do it too! Good luck!

Step 1: Materials Used

I went to my local craft store (JoAnn's) for the supplies, and a quick run to Lowe's for pipe insulators and duct tape.

Things you'll need:

First of all a Giant Jar of Patience, a costume making must-have
A couple of newspapers with the adds if possible
Cardboard boxes ( big enough to cut at least two giant circles out of )
Cardstock ( I recycled pop boxes )
A Wire Hanger
Pipe Insulation Tube ** With Double Stick Tape**( I bought mine at Lowe's but most hardware stores have them )
Duct Tape
Low Temp Hot Glue Gun with extra glue sticks

Fabrics:
Creme Fleece
Light Tan Fleece
Fun Fur ( I used a dark brown fur that was longer and shagger than some of the other furs )
Yellow Felt
White Felt
Textured Red Felt
Black Felt
Two Medium Bags of Poly-Fil type stuffing
Scissors

Altogether it cost about 35 dollars for the supplies, also was about 15 dollars for the outfit ( a striped shirt and khakis that I drew a feather pattern on).

Step 2: Making the Base

Ok so this is the first few steps in actually making your mascot head. First of all you need to measure around your ( or whoever is going to wear it ) head, measure all the way around, then from about mid forehead to the middle of the back of your head ( like how you wear a baseball cap). Write all these measurements down on a seperate peice of paper. Then on a large peice of cardboard draw an oval representing your head ( use the afore mentioned measurements ) around that oval draw a circle with the outer edge being the length of your head all the around the oval. Cut out the large circle and the cut out the oval center.

Place the now circle oval ring ontop of the other side of the cardboard box trace the ring, then cut out the outer line and the inner oval. Take the ring that fits you head set it aside, the other ring can have a larger hole to fit your head better and cut down on weight. You should measure and cut in half in order to make the supports.  One of the half you can cut in half, now place the half ring perpendicular on top of the circlular ring, secure them together with hot glue. After the intial line of hot glue sets, add another line on both sides of the half. After the half ring seems secured to the circular ring add the quarter peices to either side of the half and to the bottom of the ring.

Allow the glue to set, after the base seems secure, cut two strips about the length of your head ( baseball cap style) and little over half that length. You are going to take these strips place them in an X crossing each other, and secure them temporarily with masking tape to were you want the head to fit. After you've decided on where the head will sit mark the strips and cut of anything left over an inch and a half, secure down with hot glue, tape it with masking tape to make sure it dries together.

Now the bones of your base are complete! Congratulations! Take a quick break, and get ready to scream 'Bring it On!' at your mascot head as we start the next steps.

Step 3: Filling and Covering the Head

Alright now for this step, filling up your head. First line the part where your head goes with duct tape, it keeps the filling out of your hair, just remember to put it sticky side up.

After you lined the cap part, take a newspaper and make big crunched up bunches and evenly place in around the head. If you don't balance it it'll tilt to one side.

Next comes a layer of stuffing so your head will be nice and smooth. Fill in all the holes and make the stuffing about a 1/4 to 1/2 an inch above the base.

Now comes the tricky part, covering it in newspaper. This is so when you put your fabric on not only do you have something to anchor it to, but also it keeps the surface smooth and free of lumps. I only used a single sheet of newspaper, if you can use the ads because they work better. Match your newspaper to the section your covering and mark it with a marker. As I did this I found it was easier to do the bottom, leaving about 4-5 inches to cover at the top, I then cut out another newspaper triangle with about an inch of overlap, and glued it to the exposed edges of cardboard and bottom newspaper. 

Step 4: Decorating Your Head

Success! You have covered your head in newspaper, congratulations! Now we begin to decorate the head. First of all finalize your design if you haven't already. Next make those features on scrap paper, try it out. Do different shapes and sizes, play with it.

After you have decided on a pattern cut them out of your fabric, dont glue them down yet. Cut out your face peice after draping the fabric on the mascot head. Glue the face down first, then glue down all your features.

Next the upper set of teeth, lay down your paper pattern and trace it onto cardstock (for expample a pop box ), leave about the teeth length on the bottom in order to attach them to your mascot head. Next cut out white fleece to cover your teeth and glue them down to the part that will be exposed. Cut out a bottom set of teeth and repeat, making sure to leave extra cardstock at the bottom don't glue these to anything yet.

Now comes the bottom lip. Because it was two in the morning, days before Halloween I forgot to take a picture but it wasn't too difficult. First of all grab that wire hanger that was mentioned earlier and unbend it. Add some curve, this is going to be the bottom lip, with pliers bend two small hooks at both ends of the hanger. Poke both ends through the cardboard and give it a *little* gentle tug to make sure it's secure. After its attached grab the pipe insulation tube ( leaving the tape protectors on )and cut it to fit snuggly to the head. Take your bottom row of teeth leaving the tape protectors on stick them in, make sure it sits in nicely and cut of any excess if it's visible. Now grab the fur for the front of the neck and tuck it evenly into the front of the tube. After everything is postioned remove the tape proctectors and squeeze everything together. The teeth will attached by the tape on the backside and the fur will be held in place by the front tape.

I made the horns out of fleece and hot glue. Cut out your peices leaving about one inch wide flaps at the bottom to attach it. Hot glue them together, for a better look turn them inside out then fill them. Now attach them to the head, use fur to cover the flaps.

Now cover your head in fun fur. Be careful to push the fur away from the edges for better coverage. A longer fur works best because it allows you to cover any seems just by pushing the fur around. Make sure to leave a hole for where the horns are attached. Make sure to drape extra off the back and attach it to fur at the front, making a nice neck.

Side note, If your head is too big add the pipe insulation to the inside of the cap. You can add it to the edges or the inside, helps make it more comfortable, and fixes fit issues.

Step 5: Show It Off!

Now that your head is completed prepare the rest of your costume. I bought a striped shirt and a pair of khakis at a thrift shop for about 15 dollars. If you want to add more detail you can add a feather print to the pants with a Sharpie. You could also use any left over fur to make a tail, I didn't however, I didn't need people looking at my behind. Have fun on Halloween, or just for everyday life! I hope you enjoyed my Instructable! And I hope you love your new costume!