Whether you loved them as a kid or hated them for giving you nightmares, there's no denying it's fun to go around freely and anonymously shouting "yipyipyipyip" to those around you. Here's how to make a costume based off the Martian Yip Yip aliens from Sesame Street.
UPDATE: Some pics from WonderCon 09!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sliny/sets/72157614507235315/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gpbmike/sets/72157614506357137/
UPDATE: Some pics from WonderCon 09!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sliny/sets/72157614507235315/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gpbmike/sets/72157614506357137/
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Signing UpStep 1: Materials
5-6 yds of Curly Fleece
I've found this fabric to work well for the body of the costume. It's soft, breathable, and light enough to move around in but with enough weight to hold the package together. The downside to curly fleece is it can shed quite a bit when it's fresh, so it gets rather messy. However, a good thing about this is that the fur on the fabric was so long that it easily hid the many safety pins I used. Another good option is something called Flurr (fleece + fur). You want about about 2.5-3x whatever your height is.
1-1.5 yds of Black Chiffon/Mesh
This is the mesh-like material that will form the mouth. It is important that the material be see-through, since this will be your window to the outside world. The mouth will probably consist of 2-6 layers of this material, depending on the specific fabric you have. The most important part is that if you hold it up to your face, you can see relatively clearly through to the other side (usually there is a light source outside of your costume), but no one can see into your costume through the mouth (no light source within your costume).
Contour Shaped Sponge
You can pick this up at your local Home Depot for a few dollars. A good half-oval shape is what you want. The dimensions I found were 7.5"x3.5"x2.5", and I eventually cut in half length-wise however. This will form the lip.
Styrofoam Spheres (x2)
For the eyeballs. 4" in diameter will do, or 5" if you want to go bigger.
Beanie
This will be essential to keeping the costume on your head. Pick out something that is light, nothing too thick. You don't want to start sweating too much while wearing the costume. It should have enough structure to it though stay firm and not flop around.
Pipe Cleaners
This should match the color of your costume. Thin pipe cleaners work well, you just need to buy enough of them to twist around to make a solid and flexible pair of antenna. Some glittery pipe-cleaner is also helpful in complimenting the solid colors.
Other materials:
Hot glue gun
Needle and thread (or staples)
Safety pins (various sizes)
A friend (very helpful to have someone to wear the costume as it is being created)
I've found this fabric to work well for the body of the costume. It's soft, breathable, and light enough to move around in but with enough weight to hold the package together. The downside to curly fleece is it can shed quite a bit when it's fresh, so it gets rather messy. However, a good thing about this is that the fur on the fabric was so long that it easily hid the many safety pins I used. Another good option is something called Flurr (fleece + fur). You want about about 2.5-3x whatever your height is.
1-1.5 yds of Black Chiffon/Mesh
This is the mesh-like material that will form the mouth. It is important that the material be see-through, since this will be your window to the outside world. The mouth will probably consist of 2-6 layers of this material, depending on the specific fabric you have. The most important part is that if you hold it up to your face, you can see relatively clearly through to the other side (usually there is a light source outside of your costume), but no one can see into your costume through the mouth (no light source within your costume).
Contour Shaped Sponge
You can pick this up at your local Home Depot for a few dollars. A good half-oval shape is what you want. The dimensions I found were 7.5"x3.5"x2.5", and I eventually cut in half length-wise however. This will form the lip.
Styrofoam Spheres (x2)
For the eyeballs. 4" in diameter will do, or 5" if you want to go bigger.
Beanie
This will be essential to keeping the costume on your head. Pick out something that is light, nothing too thick. You don't want to start sweating too much while wearing the costume. It should have enough structure to it though stay firm and not flop around.
Pipe Cleaners
This should match the color of your costume. Thin pipe cleaners work well, you just need to buy enough of them to twist around to make a solid and flexible pair of antenna. Some glittery pipe-cleaner is also helpful in complimenting the solid colors.
Other materials:
Hot glue gun
Needle and thread (or staples)
Safety pins (various sizes)
A friend (very helpful to have someone to wear the costume as it is being created)
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ_F_jgykJw
1. I bought regular Fleece instead of curly fleece. It's cheaper, plus we found it on sale.
2. We put up 4 layers of black chiffon for the face, but so far we've cut on layer off from the inside cause it's a bit too dark. We expect maybe one more layer will come off by Hallowe'en
3. For fit, I started the fabric in the back just about touching the floor. Then up over the head, grab the 'mouth' where it's comfortable and fold your arms to under your eyes. Trim the front to the same level as the back (you may want to wait until you are done constructing the mouth though)
4. I sewed up the sides instead of pinning. After you finish the mouth and get the cap on right (we safety-pinned a baseball cap turned backwards), make sure that the fabric is at the same level at front and back with your lower jaw in place just below YOUR eyes (not the yip yip's - you want the jaw where you can see over it to walk). Once that's trimmed level, just flip the costume inside out, hold the corners of the front and back together and sew a half-inch seem all the way up to about 20" from the fold. Don't over-complicate this: Imagine folding a bedsheet in half, then sewing a half inch seem from the open end to the closed end, ans stopping 20" before getting to the closed end. This leaves room to poke your arms out, but is loose enough to hide your shoulders if you tuck it in.
5. Antennae: take two pipe cleaners and hook them together end to end to make a long one. Make 5 or 6 of these, then twist them together in pairs, then again, until all are twisted together as one sextuple-thick, double-length pipe cleaner. Take 2 more and wrap them around one end to form the pom-pom. This makes ONE antenna. Do it all again for the other. What I did then was to put these two together and wrap another pipe cleaner around the end to bind them together. This will make a V-shape out of the antennae. Now make a small L on the bound-together side. This gets glued to the fabric, and the rest of the bound portion gets glued to the back of the eye-balls where they meet. this gives a lot of stability to the works, plus it let's you curve the antennae around the eyeballs like the real yip yips.
6. Mouth modifications: Now that the costume is all sewn up, but before you glue the eyes and antennae on, I made one practical change. Find the inside bottom point of the mouth when it is in position under your eyes. Sew through the chiffon a 3"-4" diameter circle centered around that bottom point. Then cut an X through the chiffon circle, and safety-pin a pillow case to the inside of the costume so that it catches whatever candy is thrown into your mouth!
nice instructables
@Emaleen: I would do every single thing you can before attaching the eyes and antennae. You should make sure everything works as you want it, then glue the eyes and antennae, otherwise you stress the hot glue when you turn it inside out or take it on and off. You know?
Thank you very much for these instructions! my sister have made 2 yip yip costumes for this halloween (2009).
a few things we did different were....
1. we sewed up the sides of the costume....we found that this was harder to get into but it became more sturdy....we left a 8" gap so our arms can come out but it folds over so you can't see the gap.
2. we couldn't find a foam peace so we purchased some 1" styrofoam and made it into tombstone shape and placed a stick in the middle, wrapped it in duct tape and attached it to the mouth.....still allowed it to be flowing and allowed for a handle as well.
3. we wraped gardening wire around the pipe cleaners so that we could get more structure in the cleaners themselves.....
Here is how one of our costumes turned out!
It's a costume, it's a muppet, it's awesome. :)
People loved the costume, but I think they loved the act more. We walked around the bar several times, looking things up in our book, yipping at people, and letting them take pictures with us. There were some pretty elaborate costumes, but ours had the most character.
Thanks so much for your awesome instructable. You helped us turn our idea into reality!
It was also insanely expensive. Not many places sell the curly fleece anymore, and the one place we could find (JoAnn Fabrics), only had it in one bright color, red. The rest of the colors were off-white, white, brown, and spotted, so they weren't exactly traditional Muppet colors. We purchased the red curly fleece (at $75 for 6 yards) and then opted for a cheaper, yet similar material in pink ($45 for 6 yards). I would strongly recommend using a cheaper material like Crushed Panne Velvet. It comes in a variety of colors and is more breathable. The only downside is that it doesn't hide pins, glue, etc. as well as the curly fleece.
In the end, the effort and money spent were pretty well worth it. People were beyond giddy at the reference (if they got it...we got a lot of "Elmo!" and "Hey Cookie Monster!" too) and were amazed we made them ourselves. My only regret was not enrolling ourselves in a costume contest or 2. Given the cost of the costumes though, I plan on using this for many a costume party and Halloween for years to come. Thanks for this Instructable!
Does anyone remember the name of stores they found their curly fleece from? I'd love to email those stores or call them and see if they have any. Once I saw the curly fleece in real life, I really, really don't want to use a stand-in fabric.. the curly fleece is so good!
Thanks for any help!
When I got this in my mailbox a few months ago I HAD to make it! My hubby and I never do the matchy matchy thing, but this was awesome. It really took a while for people to realize it was us at the party.
Thanks for the awesome instructable!
A couple of things we did differently -
- Used thin black muslin rather than gauze for the mouth, it allowed us to put velco round the top half edges rather than sewing. This lets you lower the face flap from the inside and have a converstion with people, or more importantly, have a drink without taking the whole costume off.
- -Like other people, we sewed up the sides, but left a few inches gap at the top to stick arms out if needed (again for the all important drink grabbing).
Great instructable, thanks!
one modification I was going to do is to drill out the base of the eyeballs and glue a wooden dowel like you use in furniture assembly in to it so i can screw up through the material with some small screws and maybe a washer for a more permanent fixture .
what do you think ??