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. ;-)