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How to make what nightmares are made of costume

video How to make what nightmares are made of costume

I have dreamed about becoming a creature like this since I saw "The Dark crystal"( landstriders scene) when I was a child. Way into my adult life now I went to see circ de soleil, while watching the blank face crutch walkers, it hit me, why don’t I combine them both. When I did a search on line it turns out there are others with the same idea (Thank you Garen and Mellissa for the info aka. Stilt Spirits). This creature I refer to as "what nightmares are made of" is 7 feet tall and primarily made of recycled foam. An old foam eggcrate mattress, duct tape (that has been spray painted black) coffee dyed cheese cloth and dollar store spooky cloth. I used old wooden crutches, I modified to make taller since they only go to 6.6ft. The most expensive thing was the dry wall stilts that I bought, which I found out is cheaper than making stilts from wood. My dream/nightmare has come true!

Material list:

Recycled foam at least 1in thick (I like foam with patterns on it more organic)
2 or 3 packages of poly-fil tru-foam 27in x 72in x 1in
1/2in to 1in Foam Eggcrate Mattress (Mine was recycled so it was to flat)
Duct tape
2 or 3 cans black spray painted
1 can of tan spray paint
3 or 4 packages of cheese cloth (6 yd x 36in)
Coffee or Fabric Dye (I used grey RIT) to dye cheese cloth
Dollar store spooky cloth or any other torn type cloth (more ripped the better)
Brown or gray yarn
Small yarn sewing needle
Some button ends or something to tie off yarn
A bunch of Black tie wraps
Glue sticks
A pair of Wooden crutches (depending on your height, I used large)
A pair of stilts (I used spackle stilts)
wire
Blank theatrical mask
Card board or foam core to cut template out
permanent marker

Tools needed:

Glue gun
Sharp utility blade
Philips head screwdriver or something to poke holes with
Card board scraps to spread the hot glue

Costume by: Manbuddha
Music by: Kevin Macleod

8 comments

May 24, 2012. 8:12 AMalbertkelley25 says:

awesome i found what i am going to be for halloween

May 10, 2012. 5:20 PMReplicator says:

Freeking awesome! noe you gotta learn to run in it like the landstriders :D

Mar 16, 2012. 10:13 AMowlart101 says:

This, Is, INCREDIBLE! I love, great job!

Nov 13, 2011. 8:14 AMTeqrose66 says:

Thanks for sharing ...... that is the best thing I have seen this year for Halloween with so many people just repeating stuff that is totally unique!!! thanks again.

Nov 11, 2011. 11:34 PM

RaisedByRobots says:

incredible. I think it would be scarier if the white mask was more like the rest of the costume, all grey and fringey and confusing. really good, especially the bizarre walking legs

Nov 9, 2011. 1:32 AMKozz says:

That's amazing. Thank you for sharing! Great instructables are this: just seeing what is possible makes me think about all the ways to tackle similar challenges, even experimentation with different materials in unconventional ways. Nicely done! Love the videos!