Every Halloween, DH works at a haunted house, which he dresses up for. Me? I’m not so much into Halloween. I know, I know…. people love it. I’ll and participate in my own way by baking scary looking cookies or making costumes, but I really don’t care for the whole thing to be honest.
Last year DH found the pattern for a Yip Yip costume online, and gave me that pleading look: can you make this honey? Pretty please?
Of course I said, Sure, honey! So off to the fabric store we went. This costume could have cost a pretty penny, but we found a cheap way to make it. The whole thing cost under $25. We deviated from the instructions on some things like the eyes on top, mesh, and material. But the costume turned out really sa-weet! Even up close, you couldn’t see his eyes or face, yet he could see out.
The one problem was that the material was too thick to run through the sewing machine. I ended up hand sewing the mesh into the head, but the great part was that I only had to half-sew up the sides because of the large piece of fuzz material we got. All in all, though, a pretty easy costume to make.
The Yip Yip, in case you are unfamiliar, were those alien thingy’s from Sesame Street. Here’s a clip of what they looked like:
The costume allowed my husby to move the mouth back and forth, so his yip yip yip yip imitation looked great. A tip if you’re making this yourself. Buy a large piece of fuzz, because you will actually have to sew much less. A larger piece will drape more eventually over the body and act as a “cape.”
Hand sew the mesh inside, and be sure you fold down the inside edge so it’s finished. This also helps the mesh stay in place.
Be creative with materials. Take a look at what’s in sale at your fabric store. For example, the material that would have been perfect for this costume (because it was thick and really shaggy) was actually $20 per yard. Instead, I used a less thick, more velvety like version for $4.45 a yard. When the costume came together, you noticed the overall product and not how shaggy and thick the material was. Also, check out the various mesh products available. Some of them are wildly expensive. We found a less thick mess that actually worked better, because it was so cheap we could afford to buy more of it and then double it up.
Oh gosh, I totally love the Yip Yips. The kids and I used to drive each other nuts by popping out from around a corner and making that noise all day long after seeing an episode with them in it
yipyipyipyipyip
LOL!
They were one of my favorites, too. But they didn’t stay around very long.
That’s a terrific rendition of a Yip Yip, Cherie. Great job! Do kids today know what a Yip Yip is or are they frightened by this monster?
They aren’t frightened, but they don’t know what it is either. Some of them think the blue ones are Cookie Monster.
The kid we ended up giving the costume to loved it but had no idea what it was! We had to show him the video on YouTube so he knew how to “act” once he was inside of it.
This is Adorable!!! Definitely not your run-of-the-mill costume!! A real keeper!!
Thanks, Eden! I’m glad we got to give the costume away to someone who could use it after we were done.
I so miss Sesame Street!!! This turned out great! What a good job… and fun costume!
Sesame Street rocks, doesn’t it? I learned my first word on that show! haha – SERIOUSLY!
I love your Yip Yip costume! It turned out really cute!
Thanks, Linette!
I loooove the way you figured this out on a budget AND little sewing ( I suck ), no less. I loooooove them so much! I am so thrilled to have found this site, because MY 7 YR OLD daughter and her BF are going to do this for school. I knew all I had to do was show her the book episode one and she’d be as smitten as me. It worked and I’m threw the roof.
Sesame Street was so baffling to my young one who has access to anything kid TV show’ish. I simply said that when we were young we only had one show just for kids, she fell over! Then I told her it only came on once a day…maybe twice, my how things have changed!
It sure is different now, I agree!
How exactly did he make the mouth move? Were his hands up in there?
Yes.