I wanted to make a Scarecrow costume from the Batman: Arkham Asylum video game series.

Step 1: Required Equipment

Tools:
Hot Glue Gun
Contact Cement
12x1.5" Machine bolts
12x Hex nuts
Two or more Paintbrushes
Electric Drill
Dremmel Tool

Mask: Crayola Model Magic - 1lb
Cotton Bandages
White Glue Paint: Brown (various colors), Black, White, Yellow.
Twine
Thermal Plastic
2 x Small canisters (or ventilator cartridges)

Costume: 1 Leather Couch (for leather)
Twine
Old Jogging pants
Upholstery Thread

Fear Injector Glove:
7 Inches of 3 inch PVC Pipe
3 feet of 1 inch PVC pipe
3 feet of 1 inch Vinyl Tubing
6 x 1 inch Pipe brackets
6 x Chair leg ends
3 small flashlights
4 feet of fishtank tubing
4 x small pipe fittings
Silver metallic paint
Black and Orange printing ink
Kabob Skewers

Other Accessories:
12 feet of Itchy twine rope
Hand Sanitizer (or Hair Gel)

Step 2: Creating the Mask

I started out molding my basic shape with the model magic.

I have a plaster casting of my face and head so this was really easy to lay out. This process takes just a little bit of time, but 24 hours is the suggested wait time for the model magic to dry.

Once Dry, I removed the model magic from the face mold. Some parts I had made too thin, and began to crumble away. Because of this, I chose to separate the lower jaw and work the mask in two pieces. (this will later allow the mask to move with my face when I talk)

Step 3: Assembling the Mask

To get the "burlap" look without the itchy and hard to work with burlap, I took pieces of cotton bandages which I cut and ripped into smaller more manageable pieces.

I mixed equal parts white glue and burnt umber brown acrylic paint.
I start buy painting the glue/paint mixture down over the bandages right to the mask. this step took several coats. Don't worry about getting your bandage patches to look perfect. Right now you just want to get them laid down. I mixed different batches of brown paint for this step to break up the uniformity and give it some depth.

Once you have your several coated layers (I think mine had 8) you can trim out the eye holes, and around the face. At this point I attached the two parts (upper face and lower jaw) to a cotton hood (think a ninja mask) with hot glue into the correct position of your face.

Step 4: Finishing the Mask

When laying down last layer of bandages, decide where you want to have the stitching go. I glued down two edge pieces of bandage with a few cm gap in between to give that "sewn together" look.
Paint in between the edges a bit darker to show some depth. Do this before completing the stiches. (trust me)

To actually sew the twine stiches, I had to hand pull each stich through with a crochet hook and knot it on the inside.
This is the worst part of building this costume, but it's also one of the best details so take your time with it. (wait till the pants)

The teeth are made from thermal plastic pellets. (the same kind you get in some Halloween vampire fangs) I heated the pellets up in hot water and molded them into teeth, and hot glued them into position

For the respirator, I just used two small screw together tins, and bolted them to the lower jaw. (originally this was designed to have a dry ice container inside, but time was short. (maybe I'll post pics once I finish it.)

Step 5: The Costume:

Because this is supposed to be a Patchwork costume, there's not much of a pattern a lot of the measurements were just eyeballed.

I started by stripping all the leather from an old couch somebody in my building was getting rid of.
I used the softer seat cushion material for the hood and the sleeves, and the more firm side and back panels for the pants.

To make the hood, I cut apart an old hoodie that I had and made it into a template. From that I cut the softer leather to match, and stitched it back up the same way. for the shoulder pieces, it's basically two triangles with a head hole cut in it. and stich it all together (for this, I used the sewing machine)

The trick here is to go back over your machine stiches with the twine to hid some of the seams.

The pants were another monster...
To make the pants, I ripped the stitching from the old jogging pants I had and laid them on the floor in two flat panels. I then laid out enough leather to cover the pants. then, cutting. I used an exacto knife to carve out pieces, Be careful here as you pretty much have to put them all back together like a big puzzle. I used spray glue to try and hold the leather pieces in place on the pants.. It didn't work so well.

Once I had the pieces all cut out, I taped them to each other with a piece of making tape. (this made sure that my edges stayed closely together when I ran them through the sewing machine. The pants had roughly 50 seams per leg. Each seam was stitched to the pants, and the piece next to it with a "zig-zag" stich. Once I got one full leg done, I repeated the same process on the other leg and then stitched them up the center crotch line.

Then more fun twine stitching. This process was painful and time consuming. Because I was using real leather, I had to hand pull each stich through the tough leather with a pair of needle nose pliers. There's over 400 stiches in total so this process was a nightmare. but again, totally worth it in the end.

The arms were really easy, they were just scrap pieces I measured to my arm, and sewed up like a tube.

Step 6: The Fear Injector Glove

Okay, this part was actually easier then it looks.

I started with the center tube.
I cut the 3 inch plumbing tube down to about 7 inches long (this will depend on the lengthof your arm.

I capped each end of the tube with some plumbing couplers. and painted the whole thing silver.

I cut the 1 inch pipe down to about 6 inches long, and repeated to make three smaller tubes in total.
Next I had to cut the "windows" in each of the three tubes. For this I use a cutting blade in my dremmel tool. and again, I painted these silver as well.

Once dry, I slid the vinyl tubing into the 1 inch pipe and cut it off to fit. I sealed one end of each with a rubber stopper and some contact cement.
Each of the small tubes gets capped with one of the chair leg ends (also painted silver). I drilled a hole into one end of the caps and fitted the small flashlight into the hole, and the other end (the light) will fit into the vinyl tube (after filling the tube). The cap in the other end of the tube gets a hold drilled in it to fit the pipe fitting. Two of the tubes have one fitting, and the other has 2 (you'll have to measure this out carefully to allow room for both fittings)

Once you have all the pieces ready to assemble, lightly rub the tubes with the black ink. Be careful with this, as it can be messy. I heavily coated the parts that would show the "patina" and the rubbed most of the ink off again. This is just to give it a more realistic metal feeling and make it not so "shiny and New" looking.

Once you have the three tubes completed. place them where you want them to go on the main pipe, and mark off where you will have to drill your holes for the mounting brackets. Then drill holes and secure in place with the nuts and bolts.

To make the needle fingers, I used 4 Pee-dee syringes that I picked up at the pharmacy. I also painted the tops and bottoms of the syringes to look like old "harpoon syringes" for the needles themselves I just painted Kabob skewers . and hot glued them into the syringes.

The "filling" to the needles and the three chambers on the arm is made of hand sanitizer mixed with orange printing ink" (I've been told that orange hair gel works similarly, but I was using what I had)

Fill the needle tips to the desired fullness. To plug the fingers, I used hot glue and two pairs of heavy nitrol gloves. I filled the holes with glue, and then pressed my fingers into them (yes it was still hot, but the gloves helped me from getting burned). When I pulled my fingers out, they were perfectly shaped to my fingertips.
I also filled the chambers on the arm with the same mixture, but then stopped the other end by inserting the small flashlight and hot gluing it into the chamber.

The four fishtank tubes were filled with the same orange ink, and stopped at both ends with hot glue. I then plugged one end off the 4 into each of the pipe fittings on the chambers.
on the day of, the other ends of the tubes were taped in place along with a little extra tape to secure the needle tips to my fingers.

Step 7: Accessories:

I made a noose for the costume for a neck accessory by just trying a hangmans knot in a the itchy twine rope.

I cut this off to make the right length for my neck and used the rest to make a belt for the loin cloth.
The loin cloth is just some scrap leather I had that I cut and stitched belt loops into.

Step 8: Final Product:

Step 9: Comparison:

Step 10: Warning:

Be careful when cutting your leather. One wrong move and I ended up with a few extra stiches then I was planning.

Second Prize in the
Superheroes and Supervillains Contest

Participated in the
First Time Author Challenge

Participated in the
Halloween Costume Contest

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19 Comments

seanajeffries2012

Question 2 years ago

when u mean u ended up with more stitches do u mean cuts on yourself or on just on the scarcrow

BrianF230

Question 4 years ago

Wow! Amazing job! Thank you for taking the time to post this. I have one question. For the Fear injector (glove).. what did you use to plug the inner clear plastic tube?

rainingfiction

5 years ago

Love that mask! It looks great!

ojflores

7 years ago

My forearm is too thick for any of the pipe, I won't be able to make this one

ojflores

7 years ago

So it's 3 inch abs pipe and some 3 in couplings?

elissa.bracher

8 years ago on Introduction

Hay! You NAILED this. I'm actually trying to make a short film with some friends and you just saved the freakin day!!! Also my friend has been trying to figure out fake teeth (for her halloween cupcakes) for a while so you saved the day twice! :D thanks!!!

bakunin

8 years ago on Introduction

Sweet costume! Thanks for documenting your process so carefully, after such a huge effort with the scrap leather!

ashleyjlong

8 years ago on Introduction

Terrific mask! Love the texture and depth up there. I really need to find a way to get a cast of my head to make masks easier...

I've never played the game, so I'm not as familiar with the body pieces. Do you think in the future you might dirty up the brown leather pieces to get the same creep-factor the mask and hood have? Just an idea. I've used sandpaper to scuff and dyes to darken to take the "newness" away from leather. No sharp tools involved, so your arm will be safe! :)

buffy.irwin.7

8 years ago on Introduction

nice work and the Crayola model magic is something I'm going to have to try. may not be available in Canada but I am always struggling with this area making my own in the end. check out Ghost Rider and bottom video shows it on fire driving to the contest.

https://www.instructables.com/id/ghost-rider-making-costume/

desertsniper

8 years ago

I like your design choices! Very cool! I did one similar a few years back. I used EL wire to light the fingers, tubing and the cylinders. Also lit my eyes with LEDs.