Friday, September 17, 2010

TUTORIAL: Goomba - Part 1


Welcome to my tutorial on making the world's most innocent video game villain: a Goomba! To remind all the grandparents out there - this is a Goomba. He waddles around the Mario Brothers games waiting to get bumped into or stepped on.

First, let's fast forward to see what the body of our Goomba costume is going to look like. Sometimes it helps to know where we're headed.



Now let's make our pattern pieces.

Supplies for Part 1
  • Large sheet of paper, such as bulletin board paper or newspaper taped together.
  • Large sheet of 1/2" thick foam.
  • Pencil.
  • Sharpie.
  • Scissors.
  • Pattern pieces for facial features printed onto computer paper. See below.
  • Optional - black paper.
1. Make pattern for the body.

Using a big sheet of paper, pencil out the shape of your costume so that it fits your child. Think mushroom. For my six-year-old, my Goomba is 25" tall x 34" wide at its widest point. TIP: I used a scrap of bulletin board paper from a teaching supply store. You could also tape together newsprint to make one large sheet of paper.


Here I've sketched out the pattern for the body, cut it out, and am laying it on top of my son to check the fit. TIP: Fold the body in half side-to-side and make any necessary adjustments to ensure the body is symmetrical on the left and right sides.

2. Cut foam inserts for the body.

Trace body pattern onto a thin sheet of foam. Here my pattern was slightly taller than my foam - that's okay. Since fabric requires a seam allowance, you need your foam slightly smaller than your fabric anyway.


Remember, our Goomba has a front and back, so you'll need two pieces of foam for your costume - one for the front and one for the back.


Cut out the foam body pieces.

3. Make pattern pieces for the facial features.
Now this is where I remind you that here in Blogland, you get what you pay for. And this tutorial is free. So please be nice about my hand drawn pattern pieces. :) Each picture fits a full 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper, with the eyebrow and mouth going edge to edge. If you made your Goomba's body larger or smaller than mine, you'll want to scale your facial features accordingly.

To make your patterns for the eyes, cut out two of each shape. TIP: To help me visualize the face and make sure I had my proportions correct, I cut the pieces out of colored paper (see photo below). Everything that was supposed to be white, I cut out of white paper. Everything that was supposed to be black, I cut out of black paper. Remember, you'll use felt on the actual costume; these are just the pattern pieces.


Cut out even more pattern pieces... (I'll explain the place on fold comment when I get to Part 2 of the tutorial.)


Lay your pattern pieces on top of your foam to make sure you're happy with the proportions. Make adjustments if necessary.

Alrighty folks, that's it for today. Click here for Part 2 of the tutorial, click here for Part 3, and click here for part 4. Also, my entire family is dressing up as characters from Super Mario Bros. this Halloween, so you may get lucky and I'll still have enough time and willpower to post a tutorial on making Toad, Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach. Okay, maybe if you're really lucky. ;-)

28 comments:

  1. Oh Rachel, I haven't even STARTED! I think maybe we'll all go in pajamas this year. I can't wait for your tutorials!

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  2. WoW!! You are so, so talented. This is an amazing costume!! Can't wait to see the others.

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  3. you just made a comment on my towels that I made based on your tutorial! :) Thank you for the tutorial! I love my towels! All my friends and family are going to get something with their names on it for Christmas! :)

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  4. Would LOVE to see the other tutorials! My little girls want to go as Princess Peach and Yoshi this year! And, I think we are going to dress up my 4 mo old as a Goomba or a Toad, but I am struggling as to how I want to make the costumes, so it be so awesome if you were to post tutorials :)

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  5. Love the creativity! I am going to the teacher supply store tomorrow to get some items for Halloween costumes. My little one want to be Little Bo Peep and the older one wants to be Madeline.

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  6. Oh my gosh, this is awesome! My twins are going to be Mario and Luigi, so if you could even post pictures of those costumes, that would be fantastic!

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  7. This is awesome! Thank you so much! My almost-five year old will be thrilled.

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  8. Cute! "Start with an old Hershey's Kiss costume, but round off the top edges." could be the alternate first step. :-)

    Empoleon and Daddy Puppy pics here: http://homeschoolblogger.com/coffeeheidi/588451/ (a page I ran into yesterday, coincidentally)

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  9. You are a lifesaver! I've been wondering how I'm going to do this. THANK YOU for posting this!

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  10. I just want to say, "THANK YOU" for posting this! I found it through Google, since my son wanted to be a Goomba this year. This was my 1st time making a costume.. so your templates and ideas were so helpful! I had to make a few changes, since our son wanted the costume to cover his head... having seen what you've done, made my job easier! Thanks again!

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  11. Awesome tutorial, Rachel. You did an amazing job. I made some adjustments, and it didn't come out quite as well as yours, but here's a link to how mine turned out:

    http://www.thirtysomethingblog.com/2010/10/halloween-costume-mario-brothers-goombas.html

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  12. Great costume! My little one went as a lady bug. I am going to the teacher supply store this afternoon to get all of the great after Halloween sale items.

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  13. This is excellent! Every year I tell myself I'm too old to dress up for Halloween, but I might have to justify one more year in costume just to wear this ^_~

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  14. Hahaha.... the older we get the more eloborate we are allowed to make our costumes. We are NEVER too old!
    I found this looking for a picture of a goomba, and now I just have to post a link to my craft night blog.
    Hope you don't mind!
    http://laurelsart-thepowerofcreativity.blogspot.com/p/craft-nights.html

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  15. Just popping back to say -Thank you Rachel! When my 12yr old announced that he was part of a group costume for his last year trick or treating, and that he ws a Goomba, I wasnt sure what to think (Besides what on earth is a Goomba?) While the costume we made was a little more rough and ready, it was thanks to you all the same. My son was thrilled with the result.

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  16. I just made this costume for my 6-year old...your instructions were great! Thanks so much!

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  17. I love how you made this costume. My son found this picture while we were looking through "google images" for a Goomba pic so I could get an idea for the face. I can't wait to get this made up tomorrow. Now that I have instructions to go by I am excited to make this. Going at it on my own was a bit daunting :)

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  18. Just used your printable cutouts and attached them to a brown 3/4 sleeve tee. Thank you so much! They worked great. I really appreciate you shared your work!

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  19. do you think you could make one for people if they paid you?

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  20. Awesome tutorial, I'm making one for my daughter. She is one year old and will make a super cute goomba toddling after her two brothers (Mario and Luigi)! I've added a pink bow and eyelashes to make the costume more suitable for a girl.

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  21. I'm making one of these this year!! Thanks. Sad to see your blog is not updated, but alas we all have lives! And in the old days they never had blogs.

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  22. I think I need to make this for my grandson, and his father too!

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  23. A huge thank you for this post. It was written before my kiddo was born (!!!) but my now 6 year old son INSISTED that he be a Goomba for Halloween this year. Still not available in stores in 2017, I followed your instructions and have the perfect costume for him.
    So grateful! Thanks again.

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  24. Thank you so much for this post! I made this in adult size and my husband wore it. I made it with brown cotton fabric and 1" foam (all the store had). It was probably stiffer than it needed to be but still worked. If doing again I would buy the snaps and snap gun as you suggested, as I used the type that sew on like buttons but a) it took a lot of time to sew them all on, and b) they didn't always stay together when wearing the costume. We got lots of compliments on it though! I would never have been able to come up with it on my own. Great design. Thanks again!

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  25. I’m incredibly grateful for this! Made my 5yr old so so happy. Thank you!

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  26. Ayyeeeee 13 years later and this STILLLLL comes in handy💯🤣🙏🏽

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  27. This tutorial is so great! I miss the internet from 2010 and how freely everyone shared. Thank you!

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  28. Thank you so much for sharing this. My family is doing Super Mario this year for our Halloween theme and your directions gave me the option to be goomba instead of princess peach which would have cost a tonne. I made mine on the cheap with cardboard and paper but it turned out pretty well!! https://imgur.com/gallery/zreua97

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