Mitch wanted to be an Enderman for Halloween, so of course we made him an awesome costume!
The previous year Mitch was a Creeper. I made him a pretty decent Creeper costume out of green felt, a green sweat suit and 12×12 box from FedEx. It took a while to hot glue all those squares to his costume, but having a soft and flexible suit that a six year-old boy can run around in was well worth the effort!
We got a lot a mileage out of it, too, since he wore it to Boo at the Zoo, Grant’s Farm Halloween Nights AND neighborhood trick or treating!
As much fun as the Creeper was, I’m very relieved that he picked a simpler monster for this Halloween: the Enderman. If you’re not familiar with Minecraft, the Enderman is a tall black creature with eery eyes who teleports around the game. The creature was modeled after the super creepy Slenderman, but all blocky.
How to Make an Enderman Costume
To make our Minecraft Enderman costume we’re going to need a plain black sweat suit: pants, t-shirt and hoodie. Around St. Louis you always plan on Halloween being chilly, so having layers built into the costume is a good idea. We can add an extra layer if it’s really cold or pull off the jacket if we’re indoors.
I’m decorating the suit with purple particles (the little sparkles that emanate from Endermen) cut from purple scrapbook paper and laminated with packing tape. I’ll safety pins these to the suit so it can be reused after Halloween.
The head is crafted from a cardboard box–I’ll recycle last year’s Creeper head, but it was purchased from the FedEx store. It’s hard to find a square box that big just laying around the house! The box is painted black, with a large eye hole cut for Mitch and two extra holes cut for the Enderman’s eyes. It’s covered with purple tissue paper, laminated with packing tape and lit up with battery powered mini twinkle lights! I was lucky to find purple lights at Michaels, but white ones will work too. If you don’t find a set in the Halloween department, check floral. Or Christmas. We’re looking for lights small enough to put inside the mask, so you’re looking for lights normally used for table top decorations.
Purple Twinkle Lights add Sparkle
If you can’t find twinkle lights, try lighting up the eyes with glow sticks! It was actually my first idea for the costume, then I found the twinkle lights. You could also leave the lights off, but what fun is that?
Supply List for Minecraft Enderman Costume
- Black clothes (pants and hoodie minimum)
- Square box (new or recycled, can be bought from shipping supply store)
- Black paint (craft paint or spray paint)
- Sponge brush (if using craft paint)
- Purple tissue paper
- Purple and black construction paper
- Battery Mini Twinkle lights (optional, but WAY COOL)
- Packing tape
- Duct tape
- Foil
- Box cutter or razor knife
- Scissors
- Ruler
- Pencil
The Enderman Head
First, if your box still has flaps, remove them, but save the scraps. You can use these to make an inner ring to position the box on the kid’s head and keep it from wiggling around. See the Creeper post for details if you need pointers.
Assemble the box if you bought it flat. Use black duct tape, not packing tape to seal the seams–packing tape is hard to paint!
Estimate where your child’s eyes will be with the box on his or her head. Mark with pencil. Once it’s off the child, cut a square with the box cutter or razor knife. Remember, you can always make the hole bigger,but you can’t make it smaller! Last year I tried to have Mitch look out of the Creeper’s eyes, but it limited his visibility and he kept taking the head off.
Next draw two rectangles for the Enderman’s eyes below the child’s “window.” The eyes are three blocks wide in Minecraft, so our eyes are three inches wide by one inch high and positions right at the edge of the box. Cut out the holes with your box cutter or razor knife.
Time to paint! Paint the box black with either spray paint or craft paint, whatever you prefer. Mitch was a big help with this step!
While the paint dries, prep the tissue paper for the Enderman’s eyes. I made a sandwich of packing tape and purple tissue paper–the tape adds strength so the tissue won’t tear. Cut a second layer of tissue paper one inch wide and position in the middle as the Enderman’s pupils. (The sandwich is tape, tissue paper, pupil, tape.)
When the box is dry, tape the tissue paper over the Enderman’s eye holes from the inside.
Bundle the mini lights into two groups with rubber bands. You’ll need to leave one light in the middle, so it’s a group of 9, 1 and 10. Position the lights over the pupil and tape to the inside of the box with duct tape. Tape the battery pack on the side of the head where it won’t get in the way.
Cover the mini lights with a layer of black construction paper. This keeps the lights from bothering your kid or messing with his night vision. I added a layer of foil to help reflect the light outward. Duct tape, duct tape, duct tape.
The Suit
A real Minecraft Enderman is made from shades of black squares, but we don’t need to go to that trouble.
However, leaving the suit totally black just makes the kid look like a square headed ninja! Decorate the suit with purple particles (see the image at the top). I made mine from half inch squares of purple scrapbook paper stuck to strips of packing tape. Some particles needed two overlapping strips of tape. Once the squares are in place, seal the particles with a second layer of tape and cut off the excess. Safety pin to the hoody. Make sure you pin through the paper–the tape is pretty thin and could tear easily.
Extra Credit:
Tape blue glow stick bracelets to the back of the particles to add glow!
Add a strip of translucent fabric to the eye hole so you can’t see the kid’s face. (We tried this for a while, but Mitch didn’t like it.)
Do you really want to light up your little Enderman? Then check out this Enderman suit made by Heather at Lights and Decor. I noticed they used lights that they sell, so you could probably find what you need over there…if you have time for shipping?
If you happen to have clear contact paper, that would work to cover the tissue paper and particles. But I’m too lazy to go to the store right now.
Enderman have the annoying habit of stealing blocks in Minecraft. They’re often seen in the game carrying around a grass block. So it’s only natural that we’re going to make Mitch a grass block trick or treat bag to finish his costume! I have two options. 1) Decorate a box with green and brown bits of paper, kinda like this planter we made in the spring, but bigger. 2) Decorate a tote bag to look like a grass block. (I’ll update this post when we get it finished.)
Need another great idea for a Halloween costume? I’ve got 31 No Sew Halloween Costumes right here!