Prince & Princess - Tube Heads - Katamari

Hey-o! So here's a look at how to make your very own Katamari tube head! ;D

First I took a 12" diameter sonotube and cut a piece that was 2ft long for each head. (I drew a guide line all the way around and cut it with a hand saw)

I bought an 8ft sonotube at Home Depot, so in theory with 1 tube I could make 4 heads. This is good news for group cosplays! XD

I compared the size of Miso's face on the tube to see how the size looked. If I remember correctly we determined it to be a tad small and made Prince, Princess and Nickel's faces a tad bigger.

Alex made the expressions for each face and sewed each on. Then she attached the yellow bias tape to the edge of the face to finish it off. Fantastic! :D

I set to work on cutting the neck holes. Using my handy workbench, I clamped the tubes down in preparation for dismemberment cutting holes.

I drew the shape I wanted cut, then drilled a hole big enough to fit my jigsaw blade in. With much caution--or at least as cautious as one can be while using power tools upside-down on a curve--I cut out the neck holes.

Then I had to decide where to glue the helmet. I marked the center on the inside and put the helmet in. Then I used an available human (preferably the one who would be wearing the costume) to determine the spacing for the placement of the helmet. I used blocks of insulation foam (hot glued in) as spacers to have the helmet sit at the right height and angle. I had some problems with this because the glue didn't really want to stick to the waxy inner surface of the tube... solution use MORE glue until it works! But in all seriousness, I should probably find a more reliable adhesive...

Other problems included the fact that Prince was to be worn by 3 different people, all with differing head sizes, neck length, etc. which made it a little tricky to fit it so that it would work for everyone.

Once that was done I cut out an eye slot using the same method I did for cutting the neck holes.

I went to Camp Connection (at Bathurst and Lawrence in Toronto) and bought 2 eggshell bed rolls. Instead of buying upholstery foam at Fabricland, this is much cheaper! It is also the perfect width for covering the 2ft wide tube.

I hot glued the foam--eggshell side in--to the tube.

Once it was glued on, I cut the holes in the foam for the eye hole and the neck hole with a pair of sharp scissors. Always do this after, just in case the holes don't line up.

Testing my fabric colour combos. I think I came pretty close to perfect! >:D

Then I created the pattern pieces for the end of the tubes using the bump pattern from the Katamari ball.The circumference measure for the base of the bump in this case is the circumference of the tube with the foam padding on it. Then you use  rectangle of fabric that spans the 2ft tube, falling a little short so that it pulls tight.

(In hindsight: It is also a good idea to add an extra inch to the end of each c-shape because you will need to tuck and hand stitch this sucker. I learned the hard way that this would indeed be helpful...)

I made these assembly line style. Always make sure to do the relief cuts before you pin it. Also, mark the 1/4 marks so everything lines up alright.

Then attach the next ring. These ones look like green eggs (and ham). :P

Next thing I recommend is to take packing tape to compress the end of the foam. It makes it 50 times easier to get the cover on. I tried it without and managed to rip the top circle on Princess's cover. D:

You leave the tube cover open at the bottom, the open seam going across the neck hole.

Mark where the eye-hole is going to need to be on the cover, and determine the placement of the face making sure it will cover the eye-slot. In the case of the Prince, a white rectangle also needed to be put down  under where the face flap would be so that the rather see-through fabric for the face wouldn't look green. (Obviously an unnecessary step for Princess.)

I took the cover off, sewed on the white rectangle and then remarked the eye-slot on Prince.

Then I stitched the tops of the face flaps on.

Using the markings I made for the eye-slot I sewed a rectangle where I wanted the edges of the hole to be. Then I carefully cut a hole in the center leaving a 1/2" seam allowance.

( In hindsight: Mark and attach the velcro squares to tack down the face now rather than later! You can easily machine stitch them on when the cover is not on. If you wait too long (or forget) you will have to hand stitch them on, which is not fun!)

Then I made a back piece for the slot, same as the front.

By making a relief cut into each corner, I was able to sew a rectangular tube into each hole. I was able to easily feed this through and tuck it into the face, gluing it in place on the inside of the tube. A very clean way to finish the eye-slot.

 Then make 2 foam core discs and stick them in each end. These with be hot glued in place later to help push the stuffing out into the ends of the tubes.

Each cover was then slipped on --more like wrestled, I made them very tight fitting so they wouldn't be loose--and stitched up. The neck hole was cut out leaving extra fabric to pull and hot glue to the inside.

Then the antenna--which had a yellow bias tape trim glue along the bottom--was stitched on. >:D Voila!

Cousin Miso - Soup Bowl

Wow I'm behind! I meant to post this as soon as I got back, but it's over a week later and I've been too busy to do anything! XD

So once again, I have no pictures of the beginning of this project! D: Although in this case, it's because this is not my work! This is about 0.3% my work! Hahaha! No, I was involved in the sewing of the outfit, but for the head, I was merely a helping hand for tools that were out of reach and a second opinion! And I would take pictures. So here they are!

Like me, she started with a bike helmet, only she built the base frame out of cardboard. She figured out the curve she wanted for the bowl, and cut 2 pieces of cardboard in this shape. Then she measured the shape of the helmet and cut that out of the pieces. And cut a slit into each so they would interlock to make a cross shape. And she also cut a circle to make the flat top.

The fallout, the wire measuring the shape of the helmet and the failed piece.

She then glued the whole base frame to the helmet. She added a shelf and made braces to make it more stable, and also to support the layer of foam. (Which is added later)

 

Then she added in ribs along the bottom, and connected them together with a wire.

She extended the bowl to be taller.

She cut out large rectangles of foam and put slits up the bottom so it would curve easily.

Cutting out the excess and gluing the bottom in place.

Looking good~! :D Just a bit of a squeeze getting her head in and out, and not with her glasses on. Next I (yeah, something I actually did!) drew an estimate guideline of the size and placement of the face.

So smooth over the joins, she covered the entire thing with cotton batting. then measured and cut the hole for the eyehole.

She constructed the rectangle for the face, using bias tape on the edge to save herself some trouble. She had to find a fabric that she could see out of.

She spraypainted the inside of the bowl, and cut chunks of upholstery foam to be the tofu. Gessoed and then painted white.

We got the antenna parts of of a friend in the katamari group who had bought a whole bunch so the antennas on all the characters would be identical. So many people dropped out of the group that we were able to obtain some extra parts, for my costume later.

She filled the cardboard bowl she made with more foam, as we realized that that much resin would be too expensive! DX Painted brown to save her the trouble of tinting it.

Mum was enlisted to help her make the cover, as I was busy working on my beak (and crying....).  They made a ring and then sewed a rectangle to it.

A fair amount of photos missing here, but mum tacked the excess together and basted the seams together so it would be easier to machine stitch when she took it off than if she pinned it.

Pouring the resin on the front lawn. It smelt dreadful! DX

The white was put there so the see-through-ish face wouldn't look pink! XD

Finally cutting the hole in the cover and securing it inside with hot glue. Newspaper was used to protect the face. It looks like they are performing dental surgery.

OM NOM NOM. Delicious.

Face was hand stitched into place.

We waited for the resin to cure properly with our fingers crossed... and presto! Fini! :D