Sulley (Trademark Disney) Monster Homemade Halloween Costume

The journey to create a Sulley (Trademark Disney) Monster Halloween costume from scratch was envisioned in the mind of my 13-year old son, Austin. His idea developed after a trip to our local fabric and crafts store where he saw the bright teal fur fabric. After a large amount of research examining similar large-scale, full-body costumes by others, he developed a plan. The entire project took over a month in his spare time after school and on weekends and the assistance of his grandma (who is a hobby seamstress with a sewing machine) and I. Patterns for the body were created by Austin using a rough template from another Instructable with some alteration for his body size.

The core components were 10 mm high-density EVA flexible foam for the head and 3" crafting high-density foam sheets for the body. Since Austin was too short to be an accurate Sulley, he cleverly designed a suspender system to lift the body higher and viewed through the mouth. Sweatpants were used for the legs and bear slippers and gloves with claws were converted into the hands and feet. Modeling foam Cosplay clay was used to make the nose, eyebrows and horns and clear plastic ball ornaments with paint were used to make the eyes.

This project was time-consuming and intense, but if a 13-year old can do it with some adult assistance, than you can too!

Supplies

Airtex (or similar) high-density 3" foam slabs (24" wide by 3 yards)- We could have used more of this and did have to piece some areas together. You can also consider not going as thick as we did.
2 EVA 10 mm thick foam sheets 24" x 40"
Serrated knife or pumpkin carving knife for cutting foam
Teal blue faux fur fabric (9 yards or more if you would like extra to spare or for mistakes)
Crafting paper or paper bags to create pattern templates
1 roll of heavy duty duct tape
Superglue adhesive that works for foam and fabric (many tubes as you will go through this very quickly)
High strength spray adhesive and possibly hot glue gun and glue sticks based on preference
Heavy duty thread and needles (sewing machine may be used for some parts)
1 large wooden sewing ring for structure inside abdomen- We used a 3' ring.
1 large tub of modeling foam clay (300 g)- We used fast-drying Cosplay foam that was black and paintable.
1 pizza cutter (table knife would also work)
1 clear plastic Christmas bulb that separates into two pieces- The size depends on how big you want the eyes to be. We used a 3" bulb.
1 pair of large gloves with claws- We purchased online.
1 pair of large bear slippers with claws- We purchased online.
Paint that will stick to modeling foam/clay and plastic in light tan/ivory, brown, dark teal, white, blue and black
Teal piece of leather or faux leather for lips- Our piece was 16" x 16".
Small piece of black screen plastic mesh for mouth- Our piece was less than 12" x 12".
Cardboard strip for teeth (can also use modeling clay)
1 foam cone for tail- We used Floracraft craft foam cone in 4.8"x11.9".
1 thin, wooden dowel- We used 1/8" diameter.
6 thin wooden heart cut outs for tail spikes- You can choose how many of these you would like to add.
Crumbled newspaper or Poly-fil or similar crafting stuffing for tail structure (1 large bag)
1 can of waterproofing flex-seal-type spray for bottom of slippers to waterproof
2 bottles of dark purple paint for spots- We used crafting acrylic paint (will show up lighter than looks on bottle when painting fur).
Paintbrushes
Cardboard pieces for pattern templates for spots

Step 1: Obtain and Layout Template Pattern for Body and Cut

Our first step after purchasing supplies was to find a pattern to use for the monster's body from the shoulders to the bottom of the abdomen. We developed our pattern off a template from another Instructable of a Sulley costume. Although there was supposed to be a printable pattern, we could not get it to work in the size we needed, so instead we used the template to eyeball and sketch our own version of the pattern on thick crafting paper. Deciding on the size and shape of the pattern was one of the most difficult parts of the project, as we knew it would determine the look of the final product. We made sure that the pattern we sketched was considerably larger than Austin's body so it would fit around him and make him look much larger than he actually was. We had to redo multiple templates with the crafting paper after holding them over his body and realizing they weren't the right size or shape, so this took a great deal of time.

In order to save cost, we settled on piecing together 3" high-density foam in order to use most of our slab. Although it saved cost for foam, it made the assembly much more challenging. We laid the foam slabs on the ground with the patterns on top.

Once the pattern was laid out in the most efficient, foam-sparing way, we traced it with a black marker and cut out the foam using a serrated knife and pumpkin carving knife. Warning: this part is messy as bits of foam end up all over!

Step 2: Constructing the Abdomen

Next, we assembled the pieces of thick foam into the shoulders/upper torso by gluing the two front upper shoulder pieces together with superglue and then adding heavy duty duct tape at the intersection. We did the same for the two back upper shoulder pieces. Then, we attached the front shoulder piece to the back shoulder pieces in the same way (see photos). We found that the superglue worked well but we had to hold the pieces together tightly while they dried and it required a lot of strength and patience. The duct tape added some additional security that the pieces would not come apart. We found Gorilla brand duct tape to work best.

We then assembled the tube-like torso pieces in the same way. We ensured that the torso was extra long so that it would hang down to Austin's knees to cover up the sweat pant fur legs he would wear beneath (see photos).

Once this was dry, we added the large, wooden sewing ring under the wide part of the abdomen and sewed it into the foam using a needle and thread to add support (see photos from underneath abdomen).

We attached the shoulders to the abdomen so that it created one large piece. Note the very large armholes (this will be explained later).

Step 3: Create Pattern and Cut Fur for Abdomen

We used an old bed sheet (but you could also use crafting paper or a paper bag) to create a pattern to overlay the foam abdomen. We traced the pattern on the back of the faux fur and cut it out using fabric scissors. A tip is to brush the fur into the area being cut out with a comb or your fingers to avoid trimming the fur itself. This is messy as there will be some fur loss.

We then laid the fur over the foam abdomen to ensure great coverage and used a sewing machine to stitch the pieces to enclose into a circular shape while inside out. We used the spray adhesive to attach the fur to the bottom portion of the abdomen but not the top.

Step 4: Add the Suspenders and Attach the Fur to Shoulder Piece

Next, we attached a pair of heavy duty suspenders by sewing them into the foam. The suspender shoulder straps served to rest on the wearers shoulders, lifting up the costume to be taller, like Sulley.

We then temporarily attached the top shoulder fur, leaving extra over the arms to tack together. You will notice that there is an opening above Austin's arms in the photo. This is where Sulley's arms will attach, as they need to be longer than Austin's arms. Austin's arms will enter Sulley's arms at the elbow of the arm pieces.

Step 5: Creating the Tail

Using the Styrofoam cone, we traced and cut the fur to the shape that would go around the cone completely, extending the fabric well beyond the wide end of the cone to make the tail longer (see photo). We used a thin, wooden dowel to cut a groove in the cone (a knife could be used as well).

We painted the wooden heart cut-outs dark teal with acrylic paint. After they dried, we cut a couple of the hearts in half so that the point of the heart remained and left the rest whole. We attached the wooden dowel to the cone with glue. The dowel will extend well beyond the cone and will be used as a support for attaching the tail spikes all of the way up the tail.

Next, we sewed the fur fabric into the cone shape by hand inside out and then flipped it. We measured where we needed to make slits in the fur fabric for the spikes to poke through and slid it over the cone. You could also glue the fabric onto the cone to avoid sewing if that works better. We inserted the heart points into the groove in the cone and through the fabric slits and secured with superglue.

To extend the tail, we added Poly-fil to the tail beyond where the cone ended to cover the entire length of the dowel. We then sewed the tail onto the bottom by hand using a needle and heavy duty thread to bear the weight of the tail.

Step 6: Creating and Attaching the Arms

To create the arms, we measured the length we wanted them to be down to the wrist and cut out two strips of fabric that we used to create the tubes of the arms. Turning the fabric inside out, we stitched it into a tube shape, turned it right side out, and then stitched the arms to the shoulders on both sides by sewing by hand from the inside of the costume.

Next, we stuffed the top of the arm from the shoulder with crumpled newspaper and poly-fil to provide it structure and support. About half way down the arm, we cut a slit in the fabric. This is where Austin would insert his hand and then arm from inside the costume since he is not as tall as the costume and his natural shoulders fall much lower.

Step 7: Creating the Hands

We purchased gloves online that had fake claws at the ends of the fingers. We used these but anything similar would work: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075TBJBR5/ref=p...

Next, we traced the outline of the gloves onto the fur fabric a bit larger than the glove itself on each side of the glove. We cut out the pieces and turned them inside out to sew them together, leaving openings at the end of each finger for the claws to poke through and leaving a wrist opening. We repeated for the other hand. We sewed by hand but a sewing machine could also be used. We then flipped them right side out and slid them over the purchased gloves for a semi-tight fit. We worked the claws through the hole openings with some difficulty and found that if we attached a temporary string to the end of each claw, we could use the string to pull the claw through the small opening much more easily. We then removed each string. A tip here is that you want to ensure the fabric is long enough to cover the wrists completely and meet up with the fabric at the end of each arm.

While you could sew the hands to the arms, we preferred to keep them separate to make the costume easier to get into. The gloves are the last part we added when dressing up.

Step 8: Creating the Legs and Feet

For the legs, we chose a pair of comfortable sweat pants that had a loose fit. We measured a piece of fur for each leg that would be the correct width and length to wrap around the leg all of the way from the upper thigh to the bottom of the pants, hitting at the top of the foot. We cut out the fabric for each leg and then stitched by hand to attach the fabric to the pants by sewing around the top and bottom of the fabric. This set up made it very easy to just slip on the pants with the fur attached when dressing up and made it quite comfortable.

For the feet, we purchased a pair of bear slippers online with claws on the toes: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LXI03NF/ref=p...

We used the slippers as a pattern on the fur fabric and cut out a piece for each slipper that would completely cover the top of the slipper from front to back and side to side, wrapping around the slipper to the bottom. We cut a small hole in the top of the fabric where the foot would insert into the slipper and a few slits around the circle to tuck the fabric into the foot hole. We cut a small slit where each claw would need to insert through the fabric. We repeated for the second slipper.

In order to make the slippers more water resistant for outside costume use, we used a can of flex seal type of waterproofing spray to coat the bottom of the slippers with a rubber coating. We let each layer dry and then repeated for multiple coatings.

For attaching the fabric to the slipper, we first inserted the claws through the fabric slits and pulled the rest of the fabric over the slipper, using spray adhesive and super glue to attach the fabric permanently to the slipper. A hot glue gun could also work. We made sure to use a lot of glue around the bottom of the slippers where the fabric meets the sole and around the edge of the foot hole. We repeated on the second slipper.

We decided it would be easiest to keep the slippers unattached from the legs for easy costume assembly. After putting on the pants, Austin would step into the slippers.

Step 9: Creating the Head

Getting the head right is one of the most important parts of creating a Sulley costume. It took us a lot of time to get the shape and dimensions correct and there was significant trial and error. We used the black 10mm thick density EVA foam to mold the head. While the foam is bendable, we found it easiest to start with two separate pieces, one for the mouth and bottom portion of the head and one for the top of the head where the eyes and nose would attach. We created a strip of foam and rolled it into a circle with a rather wide opening so that Austin's head would be able to fit through the bottom to put the head on. Once we felt comfortable with the size and shape, we attached the foam ends together with superglue and duct tape. We cut out a hole for the shape we wanted the mouth with a pumpkin carving knife. We found the angle that the head would sit on the body to be very important to the final look. This took so modification along the way.

On the back side of the mouth hole, we cut out a strip of cardboard that we painted white and cut into teeth, attaching them to the back side of the mouth hole. We cut a strip of black, plastic mesh that we attached to breathe through when wearing the costume.

Next, we covered the head with the fur fabric, cutting out the mouth hole in the fabric. We attached it with glue to the black EVA foam head. Be sure that the fabric flows with the fur pointing downward so that it will meld with the fur on the body to look like one big piece.

To make the lips, we cut long, thin strips out of the faux teal leather and rolled them into skinny tubes, attaching the ends together the long way with superglue. We made a strip for the upper lip and another for the bottom lip and glued them around the mouth with super glue.

We modeled the horns, eyebrows and nose into the desired shapes out of the high density Cosplay foam clay. We found that the Cosplay foam worked great because it was light, quick-drying and paintable. Once the horns were shaped correctly, we used a pizza cutter to go around the horn to make the indented concentric lines. We painted the horns a very light tan/ivory and added faint concentric rings around them using slightly darker brown paint in the grooves we had made with the pizza cutter. Next, we shaped the nose using photos of Sully online as a guide. We painted the nose with dark teal paint and molded the eyebrows into the correct shape using an online photo as a guide. We then covered the eyebrows in scraps of fur fabric using superglue.

For the eyes, we took apart a 3" clear, plastic, round bulb Christmas ornament and painted both halves white with acrylic paint that would stick to plastic. We then scraped off a circular area in the center for the iris and pupil. We painted the irises blue from the back side and added a black pupil in the center.

We attached the horns, eyes, nose and eyebrows to the head using superglue after the paint was completely dry. A tip is to be very particular with the spacing of the eyeballs and their relationship to the nose. We found that even a slight modification of the distance between the eyes and nose made the head look more or less like Sulley.

We attached the head to the body by hand-stitching the fabric from the inside. You could also leave the head as a separate piece, depending on your preference.

You can see in the last few photos how the costume is looking at this point, when Austin is wearing all of the pieces.

Step 10: Creating the Spots

To create the spots, we cut out ovals of different sizes from a piece of cardboard to use as a template. We focused primarily on the back and tail, as that is where Sulley has the most spots, and added a few that could be seen from the front as well. We used dark purple acrylic paint and a medium sized paintbrush, hand-painting within the cut out area of the cardboard in a downward motion to go along with the direction of the fur. We would then move the template to a different area and paint additional spots. We found that it was important to make the spots look fairly random and mix up smaller and larger spots. We painted spots on the back, back of the head, tail and sides of the abdomen and shoulders, leaving the belly and face blank to be authentic.

We started with a lighter purple paint but found that it did not appear dark enough on the light colored fur. After we switched to a darker purple, it looked more like Sulley.

Step 11: Assembling the Final Product for Wear

At this point, Sulley was complete. When Austin wore the costume to school on Halloween, there was a process to put it on. First, he put on the sweat pant legs. Then, he stepped into the slipper feet. Next, we held the abdomen, head, tail and arm piece up high and he bent down and came up underneath the opening at the bottom. He slid each arm through the slits on the side of the abdomen area and then into the arms of the costume on each side. Then we lowered the large piece down so that the suspenders rested on his shoulders, situating it so that he could see through the mouth hole. Finally, we helped him put on the glove hands.

The children at school were in absolute shock about this costume. He received a lot of hugs from the little ones (and some scared looks as well). Although the costume was moderately heavy, the padding made it warm and comfortable to wear. The most difficult part was seeing where he was walking through the mouth hole.

For questions, Austin and I can be contacted at casselms@hotmail.com. Thank you for reading and good luck!