The Boy is going as Mr. Freeze for halloween this year, but he’s wearing last year’s Perry the Platypus (Agent P!) costume to school on Friday. I started thinking about it, and decided it needed a bit of an update, so here is Perry, V 2.0! I decided it needed big Perry eyes, so I added 2 ping pong balls, colored with Sharpie marker. I also added a drawstring around the hoodie that I never got around to doing last year, so that it sits closer to his face.
Just those minor adjustments really add a lot to the costume!
How to Make a Perry the Platypus Costume:
See Part 1 (the previous tutorial) for the making of the tail, the suit, the bill, and the feet.
New for 2010: The Eyes…
You’ll need:
2 pingpong balls
black sharpie (permanent) marker
2 large safety pins
I decided that the eyes needed to be removable, since The Boy likes to wear his platypus tailed sweatshirt around the house a lot. Alternately, you could stitch these on for a more permanent solution.
Try the hoodie on your child, and guesstimate where you should put the eyes. Depending on the size of your child’s head, and the size of his Perry hat, this could vary, but mine are probably 4-5 inches from the center top. They are less than an inch from the edge. But use your best judgment as hoods will vary.
If your pingpong ball has writing on it, you’ll want to hide it, but if you pin through the writing, it will show as the balls sag a bit when pinned. So you’ll want to pin through the ball a little ABOVE the writing. (Try a test ping pong ball first!) [Or just spray paint them white, I suppose, to avoid the hassle!]
Make the holes in the ball by pinning through the ball (as close together as you can get them (maybe 1/3 inch?). Then remove the pin, and pin on to hoodie.
Place hoodie back on child, and mark where you want the pupils to go with a pencil. Remember you want it to look good from both the front and the side. Mine came out a little wall eyed… I would have liked them looking more forward, but The Boy likes it as is.
Using your sharpie marker, draw a large circle for the pupil, then a smaller circle inside it for the reflection dot. Color the large circle in black, leaving the smaller one white.
And that’s all there is to it!
I think adding the eyes are well worth the effort…