Measure Twice, Cut Once part 2- My Halloween DIY projects

Back in August I posted (here) about my adventures into the do-it-yourself world of Halloween costume making. 

To recap, 

Joel Zimmerman, AKA Deadmau5 (pronounced "dead mouse") is one of my favorite house music producers. He is characterized by wearing a giant mouse head at all of his shows.

My vision finally came to life this past weekend after countless hours of preparation.

I found an instructable that actually walked you step by step on how to make one of these bad boys. (Read it here to give you a detailed description of what I went through!)

The author of the instructable, Intrica, was quick to answer questions of fellow Mau5-makers, and her detailed instructions helped make life 10x easier. 

THANK YOU INTRICA!

I will say that I underestimated the amount of time, effort, and pre-planning that needed to be put in. 

It was hard, y'all.

Here are some abbreviated step-by-step photos of beginning to end.

Step 1:  I measured and cut the globe to make the mouth, and cut the small globe to make the eyes.

I used a dremel and was covered in tiny acrylic bits by the time I was finished. And kinda smelled like burnt plastic.

Step 2: I used high-density construction foam and cut out strips to make the lip, and cut out 4 ear shapes. I glued the lip to the mouth opening, and glued two of those foam ear pieces together in between a threaded rod. 

I had to cut out channels in the foam for the rods, and was covered with little bits of foam by the end of this step.

After the ears dried I drilled two holes in the head and attached the ears with a wing nut and fender washer. Now we're starting to look like a mouse!! 

Step 3: I covered the ears with a four-way stretch fabric and used Stitch Witchery to steam the sides together to make it nice and smooth. To hold stretched in place while steaming, I used sewing pins and then cut off the extra after it was secured. 

For the hat, you have to make holes in the sides so that you can attach/adjust the ears inside the helmet. Otherwise you can't get to the wing nut. So, I busted out the dremel again. I must say that hard hats are challenging to cut! 

After it was cut I used a mixture of hot glue and gorilla glue to secure it in place inside the globe. It wouldn't stick initially, so I ended up gluing the helmet to a small piece of the foam, then securing the foam into the globe. 

By the end of this process I was covered with small strings of hot glue. I looked like a spiderweb. 

Step 5: Covering the head in fabric was the most challenging part of this entire process. I used a four-way stretch fabric so it would stretch in all directions, but keeping it smooth with no creases was a pain in the $%&. It took a good 4-5 hours of stretching, holding, gluing, taking off and redoing. If you don't have patience, you may want to call someone to come over and keep you calm. Because it's maddening. 

I don't have any photos of this portion of the process because quite frankly the last thing on my mind at 2AM after scuffling with this fabric for 5 hours was taking a photo.

Step 6: The mouth was cut out from a mesh food cover dome and covered in a chiffon/nylon fabric. You can get the dome at Chinese markets. I cut out the shape of the mouth with wire cutters,spray painted it black, then covered the edges with electrical tape. Then I covered the mouth with the fabric trying to keep it as smooth as possible. 

I stuck the mesh into the mouth opening by attaching a few small screws into the foam lip.

Step 7: The eyes were the fun part, because I bought battery-powered neon to go inside them so that they'd glow. I also used small purple rhinestones to make the eyes with, instead of just black stripes. 

I stuck the neon through a previously-drilled eye hole and wrapped it around some aluminum foil to make the light reflect brightly. I glued the white eyes on top, and secured the battery pack inside the globe with double-sided velcro.

I added a rhinestone crown to the top to give my head a little feminine touch. 

This is Intrica's photo, giving you an idea to show how it looked pre-eye placement since I forgot to take a photo

Finished product

We went to a Halloween party and I felt like a complete celebrity. I was surprised at how many people knew who Deadmau5 was, and I was bombarded with people wanting to take pictures with me all night!

Prateek's costume was also a DIY - he went as the MetroPCS Indian guy from Tech&Talk commercials.

After I finished my Deadmau5 I felt like I had so much extra time on my hands! So, I finally broke down and joined Pinterest where I found inspiration for a few other DIY Halloween projects.

Arrrgh!

Owl Cupcakes

Fabric Wreath

I doubt that I will ever top this year's costume. But, at this rate, who knows WHAT I'll have up my sleeve by the time Christmas comes around!