How to make a Toy Story Alien costume

This year, The Pea and her 2 BFFs decided they wanted to be Toy Story Aliens for Halloween.  We found ready-to-wear costumes, but they all looked hideous, so the gals decided they would make their own.


The trickiest part of the costume is the alien's head, but if you're handy with a glue gun, you shouldn't have a problem.  Here's what you'll need:

Green beanie cap (we couldn't find a green beanie so we bought a yellow one and dyed it green)
Hot glue gun
Black or brown felt
White felt
4 small styrofoam balls
Green craft paint
Green pipe cleaner
Green felt

1)  Cut 3 circles for the pupils out of black or brown felt, and 3 smaller ones out of white for shines.

2)  Glue 1 white eye "shine" circle onto an upper corner of 1 black pupil circle.  Repeat for the other 2 pupils.

3)  Hot glue each pupil to a styrofoam eyeball.

4)  Slice off a third of the styrofoam ball so the eyeballs can lie flat on the beanie.

5)  Hot glue the eyeballs to the beanie.

6) Cut 2 leaf shapes out of green felt (these will be the ears).

7) Apply a dot of hot glue to the rounded end of the ear and pinch the felt together.

8) Hot glue one ear to each side of the beanie.

9) Paint the 4th styrofoam ball green, and let dry.

10) Poke one end of the green pipe cleaner into the green styrofoam ball and shape the remaining length of the pipe cleaner into a spiral.

11) Form the other end of the pipe cleaner into a loop.  Hot glue the looped end onto the top of the beanie. You're done!

Once you have the hat, assembling the rest of the costume is easy.  You'll need the following items (or a close approximation to them):

Royal blue dress
Purple bead necklace (not shown in The Pea's photo)
Green tights
Dark navy sash (The Pea and her friends chose a purple sash instead.  They decided that color coordination should trump accuracy)
Royal blue shoes

One last detail: the Pizza Planet logo on The Pea's dress is actually a patch we made from felt.We cut out little felt shapes (yellow felt for the ring, orange felt for the planet outline, blue felt for the planet, plus red, green and brown felt for the pepperoni, green peppers and mushrooms on the planet) and hot glued them together, then hot glued 2 safety pins to the back.

It turned out to be one of the cutest, cleverest DIY costumes I've ever seen! I was so proud of The Pea and her friends for designing such clever (and age-appropriate!) outfits, and I really enjoyed watching their creativity blossom.