How to Make an Alien Costume

Guide Note

Earthly monsters are so tiresome. This Halloween, spook your friends with an extraterrestrial look instead! Inspiration for your particular style of alien can come from from light-hearted sci-fi to far-out conspiracy theories. But regardless of the source material, this page will show you how to make the perfect alien costume.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Humanoid Aliens
• Roswell Aliens
• Monster-Like Aliens
• Robotic Aliens
• The Yip Yips
• Marvin the Martian
• Make Alien Faces
  • Makeup and Facial Features
  • Masks
  • Glasses
• Make Alien Head Coverings
  • Bald Head
  • Antenna
  • Hair
  • Alien Eyes
• Make Alien Clothing
  • Spacesuit
  • Space Boots
  • Colorful "Alien" Clothing
  • Alien Bodies
• Conclusion
• References

Alien Costume Tips

1. Humanoid aliens are the easiest costumes to make.
2. Roswell aliens have grey skin and a large head and eyes.
3. An old swim cap makes a great alien head.
4. You can make a spacesuit by painting overalls silver.
5. Use foil tape instead of duct tape for a more metallic look.

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Introduction

• Thanks to Hollywood, the sky is the limit when it comes to the idea of aliens. They have been everything from normal looking aliens to monsterish creatures. This page is divided into two major parts. The first part talks about six common types of aliens including:
  1. Humanoid Aliens.
  2. Roswell Aliens.
  3. Monster-Like Aliens.
  4. Robotic Aliens.
  5. The Yip Yips.
  6. Marvin the Martian.
• The second portion goes more in-depth on how to make some of these costumes including how to make:
  1. How to Alien Faces including makeup and facial features, masks, and glasses.
  2. How to Make Alien Head Coverings such as bald heads, antennas, colorful hair and alien eyes.
  3. How to Make Alien Clothing including spacesuits, space boots, colorful alien-looking clothing and alien bodies.

Alien 1: Humanoid Aliens

• Humanoid aliens are the easiest costumes to make. They typically fall into one of three categories:

1. 

   (Creative Commons photo by internets_dairy)
   Human-looking Alien: Human looking aliens either look exactly like us but are often wearing a spacesuit or acting different. The idea that aliens could look like humans was made popular with the movies such as The Day the Earth Stood Still and television series like Mork and Mindy. It was also seen again in Starman and V: The Series (until they showed their reptilian side). To pull off this costume well, you will need a good looking spacesuit or the ability to act extremely weird and totally unfamiliar with human customs.
2. Almost Human-looking Aliens: Almost human-looking aliens are aliens that look human except for one or two minor physical differences. Examples of these aliens include Mr. Spock from Star Trek, Uncle Martin from My Favorite Martian and the Newcomers in the movie and TV series Alien Nation.
3. Little Green Men: These aliens look human except that they have green skin and (optional) antenna. Think "the Great Gazoo" from The Flintstones cartoon.¹ This costume will require green makeup and either a spacesuit or strange (usually brightly colored) clothing.

• • For more information on how to make a costume for this type of alien, check out Makeup and Facial Features, Glasses, Bald Head, Antenna, Hair, Spacesuit, Space Boots and Colorful "Alien" Clothing.

Alien 2: Roswell Aliens

• The Roswell alien, named after the site of the infamous (but alleged) UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico, is also known by ufologists as Greys, Zetas and Reticulians (because they are believed to be from the Zeta Reticulan star system).^{2 3} They are known for their bald heads, big black eyes and greyish or greenish skin. According to one report, the majority of reported alien sightings in the United States are of Roswell aliens.² An example of these aliens can be seen in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the infamous program Alien Autopsy -- Fact or Fiction that was shown on FOX in the 1990s.

• These creatures can be made using either a mask, a head covering and face makeup. Although some will tell you that these aliens do not always wear clothing, it may be easier to make a spacesuit then to find matching leotard and tights to wear.⁴

• • For more information on how to make a costume for this type of alien, check out Makeup and Facial Features, Masks, Bald Head, Antenna, Spacesuit and Space Boots.

Alien 3: Monster-Like Aliens

• 

  (Creative Commons photo by Allison)
  Monsterish aliens vary in appearance from the ones battled by Sigourney Weaver in the Alien Movies to the more harmless Kang and Kodos from The Simpsons. This costume can be very complex or relatively simple depending on what effect you are looking for.

• Because of the elaborate nature of the creature from Alien, most people settle with purchasing entire creature or at least the head and hands.⁵ However, a similar effect can be made if you create or purchase an alien doll and attach it to your midsection. Then, cover the area around it with blood so it appears to be bursting from your stomach.⁶

• • For more information on how to make a costume for this type of alien, check out Makeup and Facial Features, Masks, Bald Head, Antenna, Hair, Alien Eyes and Alien Bodies.

Alien 4: Robotic Aliens

• The idea that aliens would come not in human form made popular with H.G. Wells's book War of the Worlds and the 1951 movie The Day the Earth Stood Still. TO make a robotic alien, you can either make a silver space suit or go all out and make a full robot costume. Some examples of robot costumes can be found at the following sites:
  1. Instructables: Robot Costume With LEDs
  2. FamilyFun: Retro Robot
  3. NMTRC: Halloween Costumes
  4. 365 Halloween: Robot Costume Idea

• Also check out this page's Spacesuit, Space Boots, Makeup and Facial Features and Masks sections as well as Mahalo's page on How to Make Your Own Halloween Costumes.

Alien 5: The Yip Yip Aliens from Sesame Street

• If you need a alien costume for two people, then the Yip Yip aliens from Sesame Street is a fun way to go. For those of you who don't remember the Yip Yips, they were little red or blue fuzzy things with two big eyes on the top of their body. While they are most famous for walking around saying, "Yip, yip, yip...," they also explored bizarre Earth things such as a telephone, a radio and a a clock.^{7 8 9}

• The costume is relatively simple to make provided you have a several yards of fuzzy fabric and about a yard and a half of black chiffon mesh. A how-to page listed on Instructables shows an example of a yip yip costume that requires very little sewing (and could be done without sewing if necessary).¹⁰ Once you have the costume made, check out YouTube for old clips of Yip Yips as well as videos of people walking around in their own Yip Yip costumes.¹¹

Alien 6: Marvin the Martian

• If you have an old football helmet and a yellow deck scrub broom, then a Marvin the Martian costume is easy to make.¹² In case you don't remember Marvin, he was the faceless red and green nemesis of Bugs Bunny. Here is how to make the costume:

1. Paint the football helmet green.¹³
2. Tape or glue the brush to the top of the helmet.
3. Wear a black ski mask and paint your eyes white.¹⁴
4. Wear a green or red turtleneck or sweatshirt and either leggings or sweatpants.¹³ (Marvin appeared wearing both green and red shirt/pants.)
5. Carry a ping pong ball gun.¹⁴
6. Make a skirt out of cardboard painted green or tie slits in a green skirt.
7. Wear white shoes and white gloves.^{14 12}

Alien Faces: Makeup, Facial Features, Masks and More

• Almost every alien-wannabe has to make some adjustment to their face. It can be as simple as adding a little glitter on your arms and face.¹⁵ If you want to be a bit more colorful, then you need to look into makeup or a mask, both of which you can make at home. An alternative is to add or make large sunglasses. Below are some tips on how to do these things.

Makeup and Facial Features

• 

  (Creative Commons photo by Leonid Mamchenkov)
  Although green is a traditional favorite skin color for aliens, almost any color or colors is acceptable for aliens. To make your own makeup, all you need is a little cornstarch, cold cream and food coloring.
  1. Stir 1 teaspoon cornstarch and 1/2 teaspoon cold cream together until well blended.¹⁶
  2. Add 1/2 teaspoon water and stir.¹⁶
  3. Add a few drops food coloring and stir. Add more food coloring if necessary until you obtain the color you desire.¹⁶

• If you want to alter the shape of your face, you can make ridges on your face using spirit gum, nose putty, cotton balls and petroleum jelly. Then, stipple eyelash adhesive over the putty ridges to make "skin."¹⁷ Color this with your face makeup.

Masks

• If you are looking to create a Roswell or monster-like alien, then you will probably need some type of mask.

1. One way to make a mask is to use paper mache. For information on how, check out the section about making your own mask in Mahalo's complete guide on How to Make Your Own Halloween Costumes.
2. Draw a mask on white craft foam and decorate it with dimensional paint.¹⁸
3. Make a mask out of a gallon milk jug and some elastic string.¹⁹

Glasses

• Over-sized sunglasses are another way to give your face a more alien look. Here are a few tips on how to maximize them:

1. Cut a three eyed shape out of cardboard and tape cellophane to make lens. Staple elastic between the ear pieces to keep the sunglasses in place.²⁰
2. Wear over-sized glasses²¹
3. Glue a third eye onto a pair of glasses or on the bridge of your nose.²²

Alien Head Coverings: Bald Heads, Helmets, Hair and More

• Once you have decided on a face, you need to start considering the rest of your head. You have numerous options. If you have a gallon milk jug, you can make either helmet or a robot face depending on how you cut and decorate it.^{18 23} However, you might also opt for some of the more popular alien features such as antennas, a bald head, colorful hair or alien eyes. If you are want to create pointed ears for your alien, check out Mahalo's How to Make an Elf Costume.

Bald Head

• 

  (Creative Commons photo by Kasia)
  Aliens are known for their lack of hair covering. Rather than shave your head, there are two ways you can easily cover up your own hair:

1. Use a green (or painted green) ladies swim cap to make a bald head.²⁴
   1. Apply makeup or facepaint before putting the cap on.¹⁷
   2. Attach the cap with spirit gum.¹⁷
   3. If the cap is too big, it can be cut to fit or stuffed to make it fill out.¹⁷
2. If you can work a needle or thread, you can make an alien head (or hat) using a large circle of green fabric. Hem the ends of fabric, leaving enough space to get a strip of elastic through. Then, stuff the head with plastic bags and put it on your head.²⁵

Antenna

• Many aliens are known for their antenna. They are simple to make if you have a few simple craft items. Here's a couple of ways you can do it:

1. Wrap a headband in aluminum foil and attach two pipe cleaners to the top for antenna.²¹
2. If you have long hair, simply tie it a bun and stick a couple of pipe cleaners into it.²²
3. Glue painted Styrofoam balls or pompoms to the end of the pipe cleaners to make antennas.
4. If you are wearing a cap, cut tiny slits in the back and insert straws for the antennae.¹⁷

Hair

• If you want your alien to have hair (or don't want to cover you own), there are ways you can modify your hair to make it look more alien-like:

1. Dye your hair using washable hair tints.²¹
2. Put your hair in pigtails or thin braids.¹⁵
3. Spray your hair with colored hair spray.¹⁵

Alien Eyes

• Having bulging eyes at the top of your head is a great way to declare your alien status. There are a couple of easy ways you can create this look:

1. Attach large Styrofoam balls to the ends of pipe cleaners to make protruding eyeballs. The pipe cleaners can be wrapped around a head band.²⁶
2. Glue springs onto a head band.²² Then, put Styrofoam or ping pong balls onto it for eyes.

Alien Clothing: Spacesuits, Space Boots, Bodies and More

• When deciding what clothing to wear, you have several options. Your choice will usually be dictated by what type of alien you are creating. If you are leaning toward the more humanoid alien types, a spacesuit is usually a good choice to make as it will declare your alien status. However, colorful clothing can also be worn. If you're leaning to the less human, more monster like aliens, check out the section on alien bodies for tips.

Spacesuit

• Spacesuits are the favorite costume of both astronauts and aliens. There are several methods you can use to create a spacesuit. Here are a few suggestions.

1. A spacesuit costume can be sewn using any basic jumpsuit pattern and silver satin.²⁴
2. Spray paint an old pair of coveralls silver.²⁷
3. Cover cardboard with aluminum foil and fluorescent markers for major areasof the body.²¹
4. Take metal or plastic dryer ducts and cut them into sections for the arms.²⁸
5. Wrap pants with aluminum foil and secure with duct tape.²⁸
6. Disposable roasting pans and baking sheets are a great way to create the metallic look. Attach a couple together using long strips of duct tape and you have created the front and back of a spacesuit.²³
7. Use reflectors and construction paper to create dials on your spacesuit.²³
8. Instead of using duct tape, try foil tape. It is only slightly more expensive, but is much more metallic looking.
   • To find foil tape, check out Google product search: Silver Foil Tape

• YouTube: Make a SciFi Space Suit for under $50! (Time: 3:52)

Space Boots

• There are three easy ways you can make metallic space boots:

1. Spray paint an old pair of shoes metallic silver.²²
2. Cover your shoes with aluminum foil.¹⁸
3. Wrap your boots or shoes with duct tape or silver foil tape.

Colorful "Alien" Clothing

• Alien clothing is usually very colorful and mismatched. Here are some suggestions on how to create clothing that an alien might wear:

1. Draw stars on your shirt and pants using glitter glue or florescent paint.
2. Glue sequins and felt in fun patterns to old clothes.²⁷
3. Draw or paint your clothes to make them look more space-like.²²
4. Drape yourself in a tie-dyed bed sheet.²⁷
5. Dress all in black and add a black cape.²⁵ For information on how to make a black cape, check out Mahalo's How to Make Your Own Halloween Costumes

Alien Bodies

• Alien bodies can be very creative since it has almost no limitations. Here are a few ways you can make your clothing appear to look more like a monster and less like a human:

1. Create tentacles by cutting out long sheets of faux fur and pinning them to a sweatshirt.²⁶
2. Glue blobs of faux fur to your shirt.²⁶
3. Cut out lots of fabric strips in variety of material and colors. Sew, pin or glue them to sweatpants and a hooded sweatshirt.²⁹
4. You can create a alien with four arms by using a large sweatshirt, pair of gloves, and turtleneck of the same color.³⁰ Split the seams underneath the arm holes of the sweatshirt. Stuff the arms of the sweatshirt and gloves. Then, pin the gloves to the sweatshirt arms. Put on the turtleneck and sweatshirt and you're good to go.
5. Make the hands a unique shape by cutting a hole in ping-pong balls and gluing them to the end of each finger of a glove.²⁰
6. Glue fake fur to the back of a pair of gloves to make alien hands.³¹

Conclusion

• Now that you have made your alien costume, you might want to explore some of the other Category:Halloween pages on Mahalo such as How to Make Your Own Halloween Costumes, How to Make Your Own Haunted House, How to Make Printable Halloween Stencils or How to Make Halloween Props. And remember, just because you are dressed like an alien, doesn't mean you can legally create crop circles.

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References for How to Make an Alien Costume

1. ↑ YouTube: The Great Gazoo (Time: 2:42)
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Alien Research Wiki: Grey
3. ↑ UFO Casebook: Alien Types
4. ↑ Abduct Anon: Aliens
5. ↑ Costumzee.com: How To Make An Alien Costume?
6. ↑ Costume Idea Zone: Costumes By Categories
7. ↑ YouTube: Yip Yips Meet the Telephone (Time: 2:57)  
8. ↑ YouTube: Yip Yips Gone Crazy (Time: 2:24)  
9. ↑ YouTube: Aliens Meet the Clock (Time: 2:25)  
10. ↑ Instructables: Yip Yip Costume
11. ↑ YouTube: Yip Yip Halloween Costume (Time: 1:13)  
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1} Family Education: Marvin the Martian  
13. ↑ ^{13.0 13.1} Halloween is Here: Marvin the Martian
14. ↑ ^{14.0 14.1 14.2} Costume Ideas for Halloween: Cartoons
15. ↑ ^{15.0 15.1 15.2} FamilyEducation: Alien Girl  
16. ↑ ^{16.0 16.1 16.2} FamilyCorner.com: Homemade Halloween Make Up, Bruises & Blood
17. ↑ ^{17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4} Better Homes and Gardens: Space Alien
18. ↑ ^{18.0 18.1 18.2} HowStuffWorks: Kids Halloween Costumes
19. ↑ HowStuffWorks: Halloween Masks
20. ↑ ^{20.0 20.1} FamilyFun: Alien Costume
21. ↑ ^{21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3} FamilyEducation.com: Martian Costume
22. ↑ ^{22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4} DTLK: Alien
23. ↑ ^{23.0 23.1 23.2} FamilyFun: Retro Robot
24. ↑ ^{24.0 24.1} About.com: Viewer Submitted Halloween Costumes  
25. ↑ ^{25.0 25.1} Halloween is Here: Halloween Costume Idea - Alien
26. ↑ ^{26.0 26.1 26.2} Activity TV: Alien Costume
27. ↑ ^{27.0 27.1 27.2} Family Management: Costumes for Halloween  
28. ↑ ^{28.0 28.1} Instructables: Robot Costume With LEDs
29. ↑ FamilyEducation.com: Mini Monster Costume
30. ↑ FamilyEducation.com: Four-Armed Person Costume
31. ↑ Better Homes and Gardens: Haunting Hands