Halloween Costume! Russell and Carl from Up

Halloween Costume! Russell and Carl from Up

Ansell first came up with the idea to do the characters from Up. He already has clothing that is basically old man, Up is his favorite movie, and Carl his favorite characters. So, overall it was an easy pick for him.

He made the bottle cap from a Corona bottle. It’s not authentic but close enough. To be really cool, you can get the grape soda cap from this store at Etsy.

Ansell wanted me to be the house. While that’s a cute idea, I was a city last year and I really wanted to be an actual person this year. Plus, I wanted some mobility and a house was not going to allow that.

So, I chose Russell because I freaking loved Russell and was excited by all the cool, but easy to make, stuff on his outfit.

First, thank you to Chariots of Ire for having such a great tutorial of making the Russell costume, especially the badges. Here is the link to Part 1 of the costume tutorial.

I ordered the yellow cap, shirt, bandana, shoelaces, and badge supplies in September. If I hadn’t there is no way I could have done as much last minute stuff as I did. :)

Here it is!

Costume break-down

I have provided links to all of these. Just click on the link in green to go to the actual product I used.

Yellow Cap: $3 Amazon

The hat is supposed to have the Wilderness Explorer badge on it, but the badge wouldn’t stay on for me so I gave up. It didn’t matter though as the way the cap is worn, you’d never have really seen it anyway.

Bandana: $6 Amazon 
Cut in half. One half was the bandana and the other was the flag.

 

Yellow polo: $10 Amazon 
 It's useable as a regular shirt when this is done!

Scout sash: Repurposed long sued skirt from stash.

I used the bottom half, and now the top half is a super cute skirt!

Beads: From stash, originally bought from Amazon. I think it was these, $7 Amazon.

Brown shorts: Ansell

I couldn't find anything I liked on Amazon but you could check Ebay, Ross, TJMaxx, or your male friends wardrobe. (Try the last one first!)

Yellow socks: Ansell

Sometimes these look white, sometime light green, sometime light yellow. I chose light yellow because I thought it looked the best. Pick whatever works in your wardrobe!

Sneakers & Laces: Had the black sneakers (from Ross), Orange Shoelaces $4 Amazon

Backpack: Ansell

I recommend looking at thrift stores or ask outdoorsy friends if they have something similar. Ansell and I are both backpackers so I had my pick of backpacks.

Crap on backpack: Crap from around the house. Wish I could have gotten a trumpet like this and spray painted it gold!

Badges: 

Transparency printer paper $8 

Furniture cushions $4 per 8 both from Amazon

These are the actual badges used by Pixar found here. 

I simply printed the badges on the printer transparency paper then cut and put on the furniture pads. 

The transparency paper was sticky enough that I didn’t have to use extra glue to get them to stay on the pads. 

The pads themselves are sticky backed and they are SUPER sticky so I just placed them straight on the suede stash and they stayed on all night.

I used 4 packs of the furniture pads for a total of 32 badges. You need more like 6 or 7 packs though. 

I made all of the obvious front and top badges with the furniture pads. 

The ones towards the bottom I just left the transparency paper on the white adhesive backs and used elmers glue stick to glue the paper on the suede sash. It wasn't as 3D but since the majority of the badges were, it tricked the eye well enough for my purposes. 

Can you tell?

Note: I specialized what badges I chose based on my own interests/skill set not the original costume.

That's why books, sushi, cupcakes, and sewing are the most prominent.

The large Wilderness Explorer badges were printer on the transparency paper then stuck directly on the shirt and pendent.

The lower badge with the beads was put on paper then sewn on. I would have preferred putting it on leather to make it more like the original costume but didn't have time.

The black hair is my own hair spray painted black. I also used a lot of bronzer to look less pale. I will never be asian but I can at least try to not look like a ghost.

And done! I had a lot of fun with this costume and it made a huge hit at our party. Ansell and I won the couple's costume contest!