As you can see in the above photo, this year for Halloween I was a Minion from the lovable Despicable Me movies.  I fell in love with minions the first time I saw them.  Not only are Minions adorable, but they are every inventor/scientist/evil genius’s dream.  An army of little workers who build your creations while you are busy thinking up more inventions.  While I have a CNC machine and a 3d printer that build me things while I work on other projects but it’s not the same as having my own minion army.  Oh the things I could accomplish with a minion army…  But I digress, this post is about making a Minion Halloween costume.   The first step in making a great Halloween costume is selecting an approach, setting your costume functionality requirements,  and finding reference materials showing your character. This post will cover this first stage of the costume construction. I will cover this costume in 2 or 3 posts to break up the writing.

  The last few years I’ve been really into making my own Halloween Costumes.  Making the costume is almost as fun as going out to celebrate the holiday.  I feel like Halloween is the only holiday that is even more fun as an adult  then it was as a kid.  Two years ago I was Kung Fu Panda.  Kung Fu Panda was a last minute costume but came out well.  My requirements for the Kung Fu Panda costume were less stringent then my more recent costumes. Simply that it be clearly identifiable as Po from Kung Fu Panda cartoons and movies.  I primarily based my design off of a few pictures I found, and a small plastic happy meal toy I “borrowed” from my nephew.  Having an action figure or plastic model of your character choice makes costume design and construction go easily.  You can measure and scale a physical model using calipers to get proportions correct.

    Last year I was the man in the Yellow Hat from Curious George.  My costume requirements changed to include allowing me to dance salsa in costume, as I was certain to be at a few Halloween Salsa Parties.  I used illustrations from the Curious George books as well as pictures.  The key element was getting the Hat to be about the right proportions to match my frame.  You can find my complete posts on making this costume at these links:   How to make the Man in the Yellow Hats Hat  and  Dying Fabric for Halloween Costumes.

I give credit for my initial inspiration for this costume to my friend Laura who sent me a link to the above photo one afternoon in July.  She knew I was a fan of the cute yellow minions and that I was still looking for an idea for my costume.  I saw the photo and was instantly sold on the idea that I  would be a Minion for Halloween this year. The above photo shows but one of many way to make a quick easy and low cost minion costume for Halloween.   A pair of dungaree bib jeans, and a yellow hoodie with a bit of pip cleaners for hair and some goggles is all you need for this simple costume.

Enter the research stage.  After lots of searching the internet looking at pictures like the one above, finding some minion toys to model after, and rewatching Despicable Me I had formulated my approach toward my costume.   I decided that the most important part of the minions was their  goggles/eyes and round head.  I decided to focus much of my costume construction efforts building very accurate 3d renderings in CAD software and then printing out Minion Goggles on my 3D Printer.   I also came to the conclusion that  making the correct pants was important.  I was looking into buying a pair of bibbed denim overalls.  I even went to several stores,and tried on different pairs.  After seeing myself in the dressing room mirror wearing the real bibbed overalls I felt that both the color and style did not really fit with the simple fun Minion character I was hoping to capture in my costume. I decided to make minion Pants complete with short stumpy legs because that’s part of what makes a minion a minion.

I really want this post to be a collection of ideas for someone in the future to see different approaches to making minion costumes. I met several of my fellow minions while out for Halloween Festivities and then friends had taken pics of Minions they saw.  Below are some other peoples approaches at making a Minion Costume. 

I like the above approach, I didn’t see these until after Halloween when a friend shared them on Facebook.

The above ideas inspired my approach, using a full body “head”.  I wish I could have found a spherical foam or other lightweight dome that was larger then the 12″ foam half sphere I ended up using for my costume. My shoulders are considerably broader then 12″ so the head I built was not exactly what I wanted but was what I could make given the availability of easily and cheaply obtainable materials.

I like the different ways people used hats for their minion costumes in the above pictures.  Had time allowed I was going to buy a yellow hat and put black yarn through it for hair so I could have a more dance worthy inner hat to wear as well as the full costume. I did dance 2 or 3 songs in full costume before removing the Minion head due to it being a bit hot with it on.

These people win for the best family themed costumes I’ve seen in a long time.  Super awesome!

In my next posts I will share specific details on how I measure, size, design and make my minion costume.  Click here to continue learning how I made my Minion Costume for Halloween,  http://www.projectsbyzac.com/1101/reprap-3d-printer/how-to-make-a-minion-costume-for-halloween-part-2-3d-printed-minion-goggles