Introduction: How to Make a Super Mario Bros: "Bowser" Costume

By Spicy Panda Creations
About: I'm a kid in a candy store when it comes to creating things. I love learning different versions of art, whatever medium it may be. Feel free to like the official site on Facebook to keep up with past, presen…

King of the Koopas, Bowser is one awesome villain! My friend wanted to be the menace of the Mushroom Kingdom for the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo. Well, I aim to please! Let's get started shall we??

* This costume is VERY hot, since it is mattress foam. You definitely need a fan or an ice pack vest

Materials:

- Mattress Foam (We were able to get a ton of free mattress foam from Verlo Mattress bedding factory. Apparently they throw out the foam that is unusable for their purposes. Ask and you shall receive)

- Fuzzy Slippers

-EVA foam

-Mickey Mouse Hands

-sandpaper

- Cotton Stuffing

-Coat hanger

-spray adhesive

- styrofoam

- Zipper

-Worbla

-insulation pipe foam

- black straps/ parachord

-needle/ thread

- cardboard tubes or thin PVC pipes

-hot glue

-black paint

-plastidip

- black see-through fabric

- camelpak

-handheld personal fan

- green, dark green, white, tan, yellow fleece

Step 1: Body + Appendages + Tail

Lay your mattress foam on the ground so you can cut out a template. For the body, begin by finding a bowl that is about the circumference of your shoulder. If it's a little bigger, that may be even better. it all just depends how big you want to make yourself. (pic 1)

1) Draw and cut out the two shoulders from the foam so that your arms can get into it.. Like putting on a jacket backwards. (pic 2)

2) You will then have to cut out a crotch piece and glue that in place. I took scraps of fabric and glued them on the inside of the foam at the seams to act like bandages. It makes it so that the hot glue isn't the only thing holding the foam together. (pic 3)

3) cut out leg and arm pieces from the foam. Glue them together so that the seam will be on the inner thigh/leg, and inner arm.

Tail

- Cut out a big isosceles triangle. It should be the length of the tail.(pic 7)

- unbend your metal coat hanger and glue it onto the triangle.

- Glue the foam into a cone (pic 8).

Fabric

- Grab your yellow fabric and start covering the foam. Sew everything on.. Make sure you leave enough Excess on the ends so that you can sew all the appendages together.

Step 2: Shell

Take a break from the body and lets start the shell.

1) cut out a templet from paper. The circle should be as large as your back (pic 1)

2) cut that out of EVA foam.

3) now, you will cut out 3 long Wide strips of foam and glue them together like a "+". From there you will add diagonal pieces. (Pic 2)

4) now, you should take your cardboard tubes/ PVC pipes and glue them underneath the "+" to act as a support. (pic 3)

5) now start filling in the giant gaps with EVA foam. it's kind alike a jig saw puzzle. (pic 4)

6) i made a mistake when i was trying to figure out how to fabric the shell.. Put the darker green on first to make the lines in-between the shell segments..

7) Then, make a template of the shell segments (pic 5)

8) Cut out several segments from the lighter green.. NOW glue them on top of the darker fabric (pic 6 and 7)

Step 3: Turtle Shell Ridge and Spikes

1) Take 3 triangles of EVA foam and glue them into a cone (pic 1)

2) I painted mine white afterwards because the grey of the foam was showing through the white fleece (pic 2)

3) from there, wrap each cone in white fleece. (pic 3)

4) get your pipe insulation foam and cover it with white fleece. (pic 4). Wrap it around the border of the shell. If easier, you can add a little "ridge" of foam so that cut in the foam insulation can clamp around that. Glue it in place when ready (pic 5)

5). Take your pipe insulation foam and cut it in thirds (length wise) so it isn't so thick.

6) glue the ends together so them make rings

7) take your red fleece and cover each ring. (pic 8 + 9)

8) stuff your white spike inside your red ring (pic 10)

9) Glue the spikes in place. You should have 10 spikes total. 4 down the middle and 3 on each side.

10) make 4 holes on the inside portion of the shell. This is where the straps will come through. We took some worbla and enforced the edges of the cut so that they would be less likely to tear from the strain of the straps.

11) use your white fleece to put an inside border on the inner part of the shell

Step 4: Attaching Body + Stomach Plate

1) Since you have excess fabric attached to all your appendages, start sewing everything together.

2) i left a hole in the armpit so that i could reach inside and tie the shell on.

3) you can see the "bandages" where the spare fabric (pink in color) is supporting the seams. (pic 3)

4. I also put some velcro straps near the neck of the suit so that i can keep the suit closed. (pic 3)

Stomach Plate

1) Take a piece of paper, fold it in half and cut our your sketch. we went with a 4 segment design (pic 4)

2) cut the whole stomach out of your tan fleece.

3) Cut your segments out so you know where to sew everything down (pic 5)

4)after each segment, put some cotton stuffing inside to puff it out a bit)


Step 5: Feet and Hands, Tail Spikes

Hands

1) Get your mickley mouse gloves and cover them with yellow fabric.

2) Your finger/ toe nails are little cones, so cut out your triangle from the white fleece, sew them up, stuff them with cotton, and sew them onto the digit. (pic 1)

Feet

1) grab your fuzzy slippers and cover them with the yellow fabric. I sewed them on, but i assume you could glue them on if you wanted to be lazy. I just don't know if you would get the cleanest of looks.

2) For the toes, take some mattress foam and roll it into a ball. Glue it together.

3) cut off the edges so that it is more sphere shaped. cover in yellow fabric and sew into a ball (pic 3)

4) Sew them onto the covered slipper (pic 4)

5) take your nails, put a little cotton stuffing inside and sew them onto the toes (pic 5)

Tail

1) draw your triangle out of paper and cut it out of white fleece. (pic 6)

2) sew them together and stuff them with cotton stuffing (pic 7). remember that the spike closer to the end of the tail is smaller.

Step 6: Spikes/ Straps

1) Cut out a long strip of eva foam. it should be the length that can wrap around your suit's arm.

2) glue it into a ring and then plastidip it.

3)get your pink styrofoam and cut out cones. do this by drawing a circle on top and cut it out all thte way to the bottom of the foam. You should have a pink cylinder if you will. (pic 2)

4)from there, take a pen and indicate the middle of the cylinder

5) take an exacto knife and start carving from the edge of the circle to the dot.( pic 3)

6) take your sandpaper and sand the cones so they are smooth.

7) now worbla each cone and glue them in place. (pic 4 +5)

Remember you need 4 of these (2 per arm)... You will also do the exact same thing for the collar

Step 7: Head + Jowls

1) take your cement cylinder and cut it to the top of your head. it should be fairly high, because you will put a fan on the inside. Don't worry about cutting out a mouth hole at this point

2)start taking EVA strips and making a "cap" on the top of the head. it's just a smaller version of the shell.(pic 1)

3)take your pink styrofoam and start stacking to see how big you want the jowls. (pic 2)

4) Glue the stack together and start drawing out your sketch (pic 3)

5) Start carving and whittling awake. it's best to use those really elongated exact knives for this part.

6) take your sandpaper and sand it as smooth as possible.

7) take your fabric, cut it out and then needle it onto the jowls to help you see what it will look like.

8) Once the fabric is completely pinned down, take your spray adhesive and spray the entire jowls. put your tan fleece fabric on it.

9) Now you can press the jowls onto the cement head, outline the mouth opening, and then cut it out of the front. (pic 1)

10) Take your green fleece and cover the entire head with it.

11) take your black see-through fabric and glue it onto the head part, where the mouth opening is

12) glue the jowls onto the head

13) don't forget to glue some nostrils on

Step 8: Teeth + Hair + Eyes + Collar + Horns+ Bib

Teeth

1) Cut out little cones from the pink foam.

2) Sand them smooth (pic 1)

3) spray each tooth with adhesive spray and wrap in white fleece

4) glue the teeth into the mouth (pic 5)

Head

1). cut out templates for your hair pieces

2) cut them out of red fleece and sew together. (pic 2)

3) Fill them with cotton stuffing

4). Glue them in place. (pic 3)

Eyes

1) Get your white fabric and cut out your eyes. then cut out red circles and even smaller black circles. for the pupils (pic 4)

2) Just like you did with the hair, create eyebrows, stuff them with cotton, and glue them in place.

Collar

1) do exactly what you did for the arms.

Horns

1) just like you did with the jowls, put a few stacks of pink foam together. Carve out each horn.

2) spray with adhesive spray and cover with white fleece

3) don't forget to put a red cap on the bottom. it's the same concept that you did for the rings on the spikes of the turtle shell

4) Glue them in place

Bib

1) get some excess yellow fabric and glue it to the inside of the head, like a bib. This will tuck into the body of the suit itself so that nothing of the wearer shows through.

Step 9: Fan and Camelpak. FINISHED!

Fan and Camel Pak

1) We got a really cheap summer fan and glued the entire thing onto the ceiling of the mascot head. if you are lucky, find a fan where the blades are made of foam. we found ours at walmart for about $4.

2) wear your camel pak as this thing gets warm!.

3) always smart to carry and extra set of batteries with you, in the even your fan dies

That should be it! Enjoy causing mayhem for the plumbers! if you can, find a princess peach to tag along with.

Photosource: Discreplaycg (instagram)

For More current projects and overall Geeky Goodness, feel free to find me on Facebook and Instagram as Spicy Panda Creations!