Oogie Boogie Costume (Glows)

You're jokin'! You're jokin'! I can't believe mah EYEZ!" I made my husband into Oogie Boogie as a last minute costume for the LACMA Tim Burton/Dead Man's Ball, that we ended up missing and I cried. (We were both in costume, lost in downtown LA as the party was ending.) One of the most depressing moments in my creative career.

But hey, we made up for it with a great suggestion from a friend - on Halloween night, we went to Downtown Disney and took hundreds of photos with children and families and we were smiling all night. It felt really awesome for him to be recognized as Oogie Boogie and it was funny because everyone thought that we worked there and we were supposed to be taking pics. (The half-circle crowd with flashes from cameras, multiple familes in the same photos by incident and even some children crying at the sight of him.) - I was dressed as elegant Shock (Boogie's Kids).

We tried to get a portrait drawn of us, but the guy had to call his manager because of the mask. We overheard him in the background "NO, it's LEGIT"... hahah. It was a no-go. :(

Burlap - around 7-8 yards to be safe
Black Yarn - cheapest stuff (Red Heart?)
Multi-Pack of needles - it has some big ones in there with round tips for burlap
Embroidery Floss - to match the burlap
Black Fabric/Embroidery Floss- for the mouth and eyes, optional
Black Sharpie - for the eyes/mouth as needed
Paper Towels - to wrap/pad the wire
Thick Wire - utility/type from Home Depot
Pliers, Scissors
Glowz by Krylon 6/7/8 cans - optional for black light effect

To be a million % honest, I'm not a seamstress. I basically held the fabric up to him and made cuts where I thought I would need them. So, as strange as it is, I will tell you how I did it.

I unfolded the burlap and had him lay on it. I made a cut from head height to a couple feet below his feet for the back panel. Because of the amount of burlap I had left, the front panel was shorter and it made a deep neckline, in the end. Which was fine, I just put a panel there at the end, to make it covered up.

Once you have your front and back panels, you can use the yarn to stitch up, LOOSELY and UNEVENLY, the sides. Go deep into the burlap, maybe a half inch or more on each panel, so that it won't unravel the edges if it stresses the seams.

I made the arm panels by themselves and I made them come to a peak, just beyond his fingertips. (That way he had control over them.)

Once your arms are cut out and sewn together, you can just attach them to the body, without sewing the armholes shut. I liked doing these steps with him inside the costume so that I would know how it looked and fit when I would be done.

One thing that I wanted to make sure of - that he wouldn't just be a guy in a burlap sack. So I pinched some lines of burlap and used the embroidery floss to stitch behind them. This created ripples and folds where there were none. I think this should be critical, even though it's just a tiny step, which may go unnoticed.

When it came to the bottom, I just made the two sides (front and back) meet at the bottom edge and did some folding and tucking around his calves so that I knew he would be able to step into and out of the suit once it was finished. Don't worry about the bulkiness of the extra fabric down there, that's what you need for the low-crotch-boogie look.

At this point, he's sewn into the costume and I needed to get him out. So I took my scissors and made a clean line, maybe 2.5 feet long from the back of the neck, all the way to mid-back. I had him carefully take it off his shoulders and then down his waist and step out of it.

Once the costume was free from his body, I reinforced the V, where the end of my cutting rested. I wanted to make sure that it didn't rip any further. (Basically, sew like a mad person, back and forth, all over it with the embroidery floss.)

Then I wanted to make some ties in the back to tie it shut when he puts it on. So I did this with the black yarn, it was simple and effective. He's been in and out of this costume on the failed tim burton night, family party, work party and halloween night, with no wear on the V section , nor the ties. :)

Time to buy a million cans of Glowing spray paint that won't go to use. :( We used about 6 cans. You may want to buy 7 or 8, just to be safe, and return the last one if you don't use it. But remember, the suit will need numerous coats, and so will the mask.

I took him outside and made him do some slow spins as I painted him up. It's transparent, so you can't see what you've done until you hold a black light to it, once it's dried it will activate. Yes, the paint went through and I ended up painting my husband LOL, it made a cool effect. (The can says to not get it on your skin. But he lived.)

I would say....10-12 coats of spray paint and between those, you need to go over it with a hand-held black light to see where you've missed any spots.

Yeah, this is the make-it-or-break-it part. When I finished the mask and I put it on my husband I was so frustrated that I wanted to quit. It looked HORRIBLE. BUT....you need to work it until it looks right. Just remember that. DONT GIVE UP. I grabbed some safety pins and started to pin where I thought would help out the look, then I used the matching floss and I tacked it in place. That saved the entire costume. Just, don't, quit.

Now, to make the mask, I did the same ridiculous thing where I laid the fabric over his head and I thought about the ghost tip on top, and where the face would go to the sides and I used a marker to mark where the eyes would go. Then a straight line for the placing of the mouth.

I took some paper towels and padded some wire shapes for the mouth (top and bottom) so that they would have the puffy look, as Oogie Boogie does in the movie. I did a preliminary sew-on with the black yarn and noticed that I wasn't getting the full shape of the lip stiches, so I did a second run-through and exaggerated the existing stitches to complete the effect. I did this with the top and bottom lips. Then I used some black floss to sew in the black fabric right along the inner lip line. I left some excess fabric there and just made clean edge cuts after I had sewn in the giant rectangle. (amateur) lol

I tried to do the fabric eyes that you could see through, but the fabric was gathering too much and it was a major mess, so I just shaped the eyes with the sharpie and I evenly colored in where the eyes would be. (He could see through the burlap, so it was a great solution to the fabric eyes.)

For the eyebrows, I didn't want them to be TOO pronounced, so I left out the wire and I just rolled up some paper towel into a couple snake shapes and I sewed it into the face, where the brows would be. (Using the matching floss, burlap color.) Make sure not to pull the thread too tight, you just want the hints of brows, nothing like the lips. (Just don't let the tan thread go into the black eye color, stay above the black line.)

Then I folded the tip top, cut the peak shape and stitched it together with the black yarn. Once I had met the top of the head - area, I stuffed some recycled plastic bags in there to hold the shape. Continuing on with the mask, sew the head and neck shut, on your costume wearer, with room for him or her to lift it off. That way you know exactly how tight to make it. I added an extra panel to the back of the mask to overhang some of my "yarn closures" on the back of the costume, which worked out. :D

The GHOST TIP! :D I wanted to make the top peak of the mask visible from the front, but not an unnatural bend. So I carefully folded the tip, while it was on my husband and smashed the plastic bags out of the way on the inside to find the best tacking spots. I fastened 2 safety pins where I wanted to sew, and then I tacked the folds in place. It was a gentle hold for the shape that I wanted.

Now, to finish it off, just add any extra flaps where you'd need them, or extensions to lay over onto parts of the costume if you'd like.

Maybe it's a good idea to spray all the fabric before you use it, but that could be a waste of the paint, which is $5 a can!! GAH!

So, we painter's-taped the eyes and pinned the mouth shut and gave it a few coats of the spray paint. Once it passed the black light test, we were done!

Time for photography and fun! :D Go scare little kiddies or parade in your new suit. I had him dance in front of the green felt and put him in with the Boogie Man Himself! So you can listen to the song and watch their "duet" haha.

I really recommend going to a public place to make kids happy and families smile because it makes YOU feel good about it. I really needed that, to bring me up from the slums that I was in, a couple days before. HAPPINESS is Contagious! <3