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Make Your Own ‘Despicable Me’ Minion Costume for Halloween

October 23, 2014 by Chris Bernholdt

Minion Philly Dads Group co-organizer Chris Bernholdt dressed as Gru. his wife Susie as Lucy, and his son Adam as minion from the movie "Despicable Me 2" for Halloween in 2013.
Philly Dads Group co-organizer Chris Bernholdt dressed as Gru, his wife Susie as Lucy, and his son Adam as a minion from the movie “Despicable Me 2” for Halloween in 2013.

After watching Despicable Me with the kids years ago and loving those little yellow guys wreaking havoc, it seemed only fitting that I refer to my own children as “my minions.”

We all know that getting everyone out to the car can be a pain so I took a lesson from Gru and now say “Minions! ASSEMBLE!” before we head out.  The kids love it with the only drawback being the occasional “Bee-do-bee-do-bee-do” siren the whole way out.

As a bald guy, Halloween costumes can be a challenge so I try to pick characters that are already bald like Dr. Evil, Voldemort, and in 2013, Gru. It also meant that with the right sweater and a well placed scarf, that my costume was good to go without going overboard, as I am known to do sometimes. No self respecting Gru would be caught without a minion so I needed to invent a costume for the kids. Here is how I made it:

Materials:

Glad 4 oz. plastic round mini cups
Hot glue gun
Cheap play glasses with the lenses pulled out (search for round wizard glasses)
2 inch black elastic
Velcro tape
Silver spray paint
Foam craft paper
Yellow hoodie or long sleeve shirt
Yellow beanie
Black pipe cleaners
Cardboard
Duct tape
Overalls
Black gloves

The Goggles:

  1. Take the Glad Mini Cups and cut out the bottoms
  2. Hot glue them to the glasses. To make the cups fit side by side, cut a notch in one of the cups at the top lip so they sit side by side.
  3. If they don’t fit exactly to the glasses, hot glue the cups to a foam paper shaped like the front of the glasses with spaces cut out to see through the foam
  4. Hot glue the cups together and let it dry. Once dry, you should be able to shake them without movement.
  5. Spray paint the whole thing silver outside using newspaper underneath. I used two coats
  6. Using the Velcro tape, place the felt (soft side up) to either side of the cups, securing with hot glue underneath
  7. Measure the band length using your child. Have them put on the glasses to measure. This doesn’t need to be tight but as it is only covering up the glasses’ frame. Mark and cut the band.
  8. Attach one side of the Velcro tape (grabby side) to the inside of the elastic band with hot glue. Once you have ensured that the band is the right size, do the same on the other side.

The Hat:

  1. Take the yellow beanie and poke two small holes through the top on opposite sides
  2. Push the black pipecleaner through both holes to create the hair
  3. Secure the pipe cleaners to the top of the beanie by placing a small piece of cardboard with duct tape. This will also protect your child from being poked

Complete the Minion look:

Copy and print out this Gru Logo and tape it to the front of the overalls. Instant Minion!

despicable me costumes minion diy
The Bernholdt family – A Minion for all on Halloween 2013.

A version of this first appeared on DadNCharge.

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Filed Under: entertainment, holidays Tagged With: costumes, Halloween, movies

About Chris Bernholdt

Philly Dads Group co-founder Chris Bernholdt, a former public school art teacher, has been a stay-at-home dad since 2008. A father of three, Chris writes about his adventures as a stay-at-home dad at DadNCharge and is also on Twitter as @DadNCharge. His writing has been featured on CNN iReport, The Good Men Project and he is a contributor to the website, Life of Dad. He lives with his wife, Susie, and their children in a suburb of Philadelphia.

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