Craft Foam Vader Mask (on a pair of sun glasses)

IT's always easier to start with a pattern, so I searched Paper Vader mask, and I found a picture of the print out for a mini Vader mask made out of paper on Google image search. I saved the image to my computer and then zoomed in till it was about the size I wanted and then traced the image onto paper directly from the monitor. 

It's hard to make sense of the random shapes, but this top shape is the cheek bones, and the middle piece between the L shaped ones and the triangle is the out side of the mouth.

So in order to see what I actually needed I cut it out of paper and taped it all together

Turns out I really only needed these pieces. I used black craft foam, and you can manipulate it better than paper, so I changed some of the pattern pieces. Oh I guess I used the L shaped ones and the triangle ones, 

This is just the top piece. I cut the nose piece bigger. To glue it I tapes the gaps shut on the out side, and then on the inside I used hot glue to close the seams

 This is a view of the inside

I forgot to take a picture of the mouth piece separate from the cheek bones, but here they are together

 To make teh concave piece for the nose I heated a small piece of foam and wrapped it around the end of my knife which had a great curve

 The I ended up with this, then I just cut out the rounded piece for the nose

 Now I had to guess for teh rest of the shapes, so I held up paper and marked it to the size I needed then cut it out and placed it on to see if it would work, like this

This is the shape I came up with

Instead if cutting it all the way out I only cut a slit in on the curved part of the line to give a rounded look to the eyebrow part.

 Then I folded the "extra" part under on the line so it was the original shape. I heated it and gave it a round shape on a bowl. 

To heat it just hold it a few inches over a burner on med heat till the foam goes limp, hold it over what you want to mold till it cools. With craft foam it only take s a few seconds

 Then I found a curve going the opposit way to curve it up for the eyebrow-ish part just over his eyes.

 Ah, see. Now you can see what I'm talking about. It worked, so I just cut one of and did it the opposite direction to go over the other eye. (9the eyes are sun glassed, but they are not attached yet, I just needed to see the shape.)

 Now i have both eyes

 Now for the nose

 I placed the mask on a batman mask to help keep the shape stiff cause my 3 year old wouldn't let me hold it on his face (it's not hot, don't worry) :) then I heated the nose and shaped it to the mask

 I used some wire for the tusks. A wire hanger would be just the right size
I cut a few pieces to fill in the gaps on the sides of the mask so I had something to glue the tusks to. 

 then wrap and glue the foam around it, and do the other one facing the opposite direction 

 Position and glue to the mask (you can see the final shape of the base of the mask as well. It doesn't have to be great, the helmet will cover most of it up)

Once I got the tusks on I cut them flush with the back edge of the mask. Then I cut out 6 small circles and glued them on each end to cover up the exposed wire.

 You can see that the mouth does not sit straight, so I cut a piece of wire to go across the bottom of the triangle and glued it on the inside

 Then I made some foam frames to go over the glasses to make it easier to glue in place. I had to use my made for plastic glue 

 I positioned them in and glued the foam to the foam on the inside. now I went to the eyes, remember the slit that I cut in the eye brow piece. I put glue on the bigger piece then laid the triangle piece on top of it to make the cavity for the eyes.

 The triangle piece hung over a bit so I had to trim it up . Then I taped paper to the bottom to figure out the shape for teh bottom piece

This is the final shape, can you see the upside down triangle drawn in the middle?

 I heated this piece and molded it over the card board form to make the bottom triangle of the mask

 To get the cross mesh look I scored it with a nail. An x-acto would have cut to far in. You can also use a black ball point pen. I used the pin to do the out line. It defines the lines a little better. 

 Bottom piece glued on

 To reinforce the glue joints and stiffen the mask a bit I took strips of fabric (I happen to have black) and  mixture of elmers glue and a little bit of water and applied it like paper mache. (about 3:1 glue:water, but I never measure, you just need to thin it enough to make it paint with out leaving big brush strokes)

 Then I used the same glue mixture to paint the out side. This seals the foam, and gives it a plastic look. It also acts as a primer if you want/need to paint. I ended up doing 2 or 3 coats. (let it dry completely between each coat)

 I didn't paint the glue over the lines that I scored in the foam because I wanted the extra depth and texture.

 Last step, a little grey accent on the end of the tusks and in the nose

And I decided not to use the black gloss paint for the mask cause the glue gave it a bit of a gloss.

 COMPLETE MASK AND HELMET!!!

$2.67 for the sun glasses $0.75 for the craft foam

Total cost of mask $3.42

UPDATE: 

Here are just the pieces that I used from the original pattern. Everything else I had to fill in my self. But this is the cheek bones, and mouth part.

Save the image to your computer and print it as large as you can on a 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper, and it should be about the right size for a child. OR if you need it slightly bigger then zoom in a little and trace it right off the screen. white tissue paper works great for this. Good luck!!!

Bat Gril (Batman/Ninja) Hood

Bat Girl needed a cool hood like Batman. I had some scraps left over from her  cape which is awesome cause they will match seamlessly. I CAN make things with out patterns, however it's easier to start with a basic shape, so I searched ninja hood pattern and found this on google image search

I thought it was perfect cause ti was already on a grid, that will make it so much easier for em to scale it up, cause it was scaled down to 25%. Then I had a better FASTER idea. I saved the image to my computer and then opened the picture and zoomed in until it was just an inch or two bigger then her profile. 

Then I just held a piece of paper on top of the screen and traced it on my paper. EASY!

Then I pined it on her head pinning it to fit, not pinning along the edge. 

 Now so I can see my lines when I take it off I drew the "seam" with a marker

 Now when I take it off her, I can lay it flat and make the needed changes.  You can see that I needed a different angle for the back. When It was on her head I also marked the other changes I needed to make. Notice the arrow on the bottom, I needed it about an inch longer

 So I lay it on top of my fabric and I cut the new shape

 Pin on the new pattern

 Mark more changes

And the next pattern I cut out was PERFECT. 3rd times a charm right?

So this is my pattern shape, and I also cut out some triangles for ears

Pin them on

I had to hand sew them on since the opening was so small, but it didn't take long. 

Then after the ears are on just sew up the out side of the hood. I sewed the dart first (the little triangle opening, then I sewed down the back profile of the hood. 

 This is the hood right side out

 I finished it off with black bias tape around the edge to it looked nice and clean (but that's just cause I had some) If I didn't have any I would have either hemmed it or just did a zig-zag around the edge.

Then a small strip of velcro on teh front of the neck to keep it together

 And there is the finished hood. 

 I made a separate mask so she can wear just the hood, or the hood and mask. I will post the mask next. It's SO EASY.

Total cost for Bat Girl hood $0.88 (I had to buy some velcro) :)

VADER HELMET!!!

OH YES I DID!
Since I had no instruction on this I did things the slow way, and a bit out of order, so I will save YOU the trouble and show you how to do it the most effective way.

Found THIS hat at a thrift store for $.50 (score!) It's PERFECT. Turn it around backwards and the angle of the bill is just right for the hood thing on Vaders Helmet

  

FIRST SAND IT. You need a rough surface everywhere you will glue or paint. Next get a permanent marker and mark the middle. I just did a few lines here and there. I used a sewing tape measure to get the exact middle, you can also use a piece of string and a ruler if you don't have a tape measure. ...or just eye ball it.

Now that you have your middle you will need to mark the curve for the eyes. 

It should gently slope back into the helmet

Then I cut it with my jig saw, it went REAL fast and easy. (you might be able to cut it with a utility knife if you don't have a saw)

(I did find this site and I used it as a shape reference for the shape of the hood piece.)  Then I took a brown paper bag (you can use news paper too) And I taped it inside around 1/2 and then drew the basic shape on the paper with a marker. 

 I didn't take a picture after I drew the Vader helmet shape, but basically just hold it up and draw a line around for the base and then up to where it goes around the eyes.

 Then I took out the paper and cut out my shape

 To make sure it's the right shape I taped it back on. It's not usually perfect the first time, so I take my marker and redraw the lines how they should be or mark any changes to the pattern.

  As you can see I cut it too short. I needed it to go to the center line, and I was short about an inch.  Also you want the hood just SLIGHTLY longer then the bill at the very least so you can cover the bill with the craft foam. You can see where I drew the line for the base of the hood, this helmet will work for an adult, just draw the hood longer. (the helmet is actually kinda big on my 3 year olds head)

 I redrew the pattern with the changes

 PERFECT fit this time. WOOT!

 Well slightly long in back, but that's just how i needed it.  Now take your pattern and cut 4 of them out of craft foam. (I got an assortment of colors in a pack of 12  for about $5 at wal mart. They are the big sheets that are about the size of 2 pieces of paper. I only needed 2 though) Craft foam is kind of thin, but I found 2 layers to be just about right

I found this glue at wal mart also, in the craft isle for about $3. You need a glue that says it will work for plastic. 

 Now I glue one layer of the out side of the bill, using tape to hold it in place as the glue dries

 And the other layer on the inside of the bill. You can see the layers overlapping at the seams. I took my scissors and cut the top layers together cutting right down the center seam, and then the bottom layers the same way. Then the fit nicely together.

 Once the glue is set you can add the strip that goes down the middle. Make sure to let it hang off a bit on the front and back. That way you can round it under neath and completely cover your seams (99sorry, I don't know why this one didn't turn) (here you can see the seam taped down in the back)

 Then I glued the edges together, and to avoid finger cramps I utilized my abundance of clothes pins. If you do this, I suggest putting a scrap piece of foam on either side, sandwiching the hood. The clothes pins will dig into the foam and leave dents.

 Now to stiffen the hood use some scraps of fabric and glue and basically paper mache it on the INSIDE ONLY. Do one layer at a time. I also covered my seam from the hood to the helmet on the inside to reinforce the bond to the plastic. I only did 2 layers and it is stiff enough for me. I used just white elmers glue (non washable) and a little bit of water to thin it out just a bit, not too much. I also did a few layers of mod podge. It's just personal preference, or what you have.

 Then I painted the glue on the out side. This acts as a primer for the paint as well as giving it a little more strength. I did about 4-6 layers on the inside and on the out side. (using both glue and mod podge, but either or will work) I also gave the hard plastic one coat of mod podge to help even out the sanding lines and help the paint adhere.

 When it was ALL dry I started painting with my high gloss black paint. (YAY) This was after the first layer.

 I ended up doing 3 layers. And I might actually go back for more touch up, there are a few pin hole size parts that got missed.

 And here is the final helmet! LOVE IT! So does my 3 year old.

I still need to add a small foam piece to the inside for a bit of padding

There you have it! Vader helmet $.50 on the baseball helmet, $1 on the foam $3 on the glue...and used HARDLY ANY for a grand total of
$4.50!

Google Image Search

      Google image search is my BEST FRIEND. I do a lot of prep work just looking at pictures. I would say a good majority of the projects that I do aren't really my idea at all. I just put my own spin on them. I don't want to take credit for something that is not mine. A lot of times I just save the image from the search on a file on my computer so I can reference it later. However, I will do my best to give credit where credit is due.
     

A few more costume props

Just a few more elements to the Vader costume. They are not necessary, but they REALLY add to it. I found these little black shin guards at the thrift store for $1.98. They were practically NEW. But they did have the red "Wilson" logo on them.

Nothing a little bit of black glossy paint cant fix right? I didn't sand them before painting or anything, just painted it on and when it dried the paint was seamless. You can't even tell it ever had words on it.

Then there is also the long robe/vest thing. I used the left over black fabric from the sheet I made his cape out of.
    I didn't have a pattern so I measured the length from his shoulder to where I wanted it, then I pulled out one of his vests that fits him pretty well. I just turned it inside out so I could clearly see the seams, and I placed it on top of the fabric and just around the back of the vest to get the right size and shape, cutting it slightly bigger for you seam allowance. Then I did the same with the sides. Only I didn't make my sides quite as wide as his vest.
   No hemming or anything fancy. I just did a zig-zag stitch all the way around to keep the edges from fraying.  Now I have a simple vest that I can throw in my costume box. It would be great addition to a pirate costume too...or a ranger. I'm sure there are plenty more applications for a simple long black vest. :)

Vest $0 (30 min project)
Shin guards $1.98 (1 min project)