This is the time when I decided, at the age of 42, to dress up as a one year old.
This costume turned out to be a big hit, and was actually very easy to make. Also it was my first attempt at making any costume ever, so you can learn from my mistakes here and do this even better. I’ve listed the mistakes at the end.
At the time of writing (Sep 2019) I googled and didn’t see any versions of this costume that I honestly thought were better than mine.
So anyway, Stewie Griffin. The 95th Greatest Villain of all time according to Wizard Magazine, is 50% head. The entire thing is based on the head. If you are feeling lazy you could just make the head and wear a normal shirt and jeans and it would still work as a Stewie costume.
I made the head from papier mache. Not from any fancy mixture - just flour and water and newspapers.
STEP 1. The Head Mold
To make the head you need something for the shape. Something to stick the papier mache on.
I got one of those inflatable rugby balls, the 120cm one.
You can get them on Amazon.
I wanted an Ireland Rugby ball that I could maybe get some further use out of, but they don’t seem to make those, so I got the England one. The main thing is to get the 120cm.
You want to make as big a head as possible, but not so big that you can’t balance it on your own head. How to get it to sit securely on your head it is explained further down.
One of these
STEP 2. Coat the ball in tin foil. Stick the foil on it with masking tape.
My thinking here was that I didn’t want the papier mache to stick to the rugby ball, as I was planning to extract the ball after the mask had hardened. In the end I didn’t do that but found an even better approach which I will reveal later in this article …
(This is an example of a literary device known as “foreshadowing”, often used to great effect by writers such as William Shakespeare and me)
You can see at the bottom I’ve put an empty biscuit tin underneath. This was to make the hole to put my own head through.
Paper Mache mix - get a basin, then put in 1 part flour/1 part water.
There are more complicated recipes online but this worked for me.
And here the first area where you can improve on my costume. The flour/water mix means that you eventually end up with something akin to stale bread. Which will grow mould after a few weeks. You could feed it to birds I suppose. A ghastly effigy in your back garden, slowly begin eaten.
Or put it on a scarecrow. But if you make your papier mache with something like wallpaper paste the head will last longer and you could even sell it on eBay the next year, netting yourself a cool €10.
I wore this to a party over in Westport and had the hilarious idea to maybe just chuck the head off a bridge into the Shannon on the way home. I assume it’s biodegradable? And then wait for someone to take a pic and have it turn up on some site like broadsheet.ie. But I didn’t do that as I ended up giving it to my cousin’s kid for trick-or-treating.
Here I am outside the Hotel Westport
I want this photo displayed at my funeral
Tear the newspapers up into strips and start sticking the strips on.
I did this over the course of about 3 nights. You need to wait for the top to dry a bit before flipping it upside down to do the underside. I did this in the bath as you can see.
Leave the air nozzle at the side uncovered.
Make two separate little nuggets of Papier mache to stick on as the ears.
I sent this photo to my mate Gus without explanation. He wrote back “Looks like alien egg?”.
STEP 3. Paint it
About a week later when you are sure everything is dry you will need to paint it. There are plenty of shades of yellow that would work, the shade I got was called “Buttermilk”.
STEP 4. Stewie’s Facial Features
There are various eye and eyebrow shapes you can choose from. Maybe “Angry Stewie” might be a good one. The only feature you are stuck with is the open mouth. Because you need to have the mouth open so you will be able to see out through it.
I am confident enough with drawing so I called up a picture of Stewie on my phone and just copied this mouth. If you aren’t confident you could try
- getting help from an artistic friend
- using a wipe away marker to do it roughly until you are happy, and then write over it with a permanent marker.
For the eyes I just got a saucer of approximately the right size and traced around it.
Stewie Griffin has 10 hairs on his head but I misjudged it and ended up having to do 11. Text from my friend Anna “Throw it away. It’s ruined now”
White paint for the eyes.
Cut the mouth shape out with a carpet knife.
Now. This is the surprise part - open the nozzle of the rugby ball and deflate the head about half way.
You can now balance the whole thing on your own head quite comfortably! This crude diagram explains it. You will be surprised how well this works. Other people at the party wore the head on the dance floor and it worked fine for them as well.
Starting to take shape
This might have seemed odd to my neighbour across the street if he happened to be looking
STEP 5. The Trousers
Stewie wears red dungarees with yellow buttons. And a yellow shirt. As I said, this part hardly matters. But maybe you are trying to win a prize.
You don’t need these dungarees to fit well. In fact I’d say it’s better if they are baggy. You are trying to look like a baby. So buy a red bed sheet and cut it into the shape of dungarees and sew the two sides together. Cut out two plastic circles and wrap them in yellow material from an old t-shirt.
For the yellow shirt I just put on a yellowish shirt I already had.
This would work for a Mario costume the next year
Here’s a few pics of me at the party. A lot of people came up and asked to get a photo with me so I’m calling the costume a success.
How to improve on my version of the Stewie Griffin Halloween Costume
- Add Rupert. Any brown teddy bear would work, but a floppy one would be perfect.
- Better Papier mache mix. Make something that will last.
- Before painting, smooth the finished head down with sandpaper or a sander if you have one. The surface of my mask was quite rough when you looked at it up close.
- Have an opening at the back of your trousers and a false bum sticking out.
- The smaller the person the better. This would work great on a 6 year old.
- Put something over the inside of the mouth hole. Maybe cut out a bit from a pair of dark tights? Or thin black paper. You need something you can see through. The reason I recommend this is because otherwise whenever you are directly facing a camera flash this happens …
Your Big Stupid Face will distract from the costume
So that’s it
This same basic method should also work pretty well if you want to make South Park characters. Just use a round beach ball for the head. Start in August and make yourself a shed full of Southpark characters and sell them all on done deal the week before Halloween.
Or if you are part of a couple you could make TWO of these heads - and the other one can be that half-brother guy that fights Stewie. Bertram. Just stick bit of red hair on top.
Thanks for reading