TUTORIAL: Mario & Luigi

This is the final post in my Super Mario Brothers costume tutorial series - wahoo! Between making the costumes and putting together tutorials, I feel like I climbed Mt. Everest. Today I focus on the two most beloved characters - Mario and Luigi.


I'll start with instructions on how to embellish the hats, since the rest of the costumes are more assembled than made.

Supplies for Hats

• Red or green hat. I bought these newsboy caps from Amazon.com.
• White felt.
• Red or green felt to match hats.
• White embroidery floss.
• Red or green embroidery floss.
• Template (see below).
• scissors, hand sewing needle, pins

1. Cut letters and circles from felt.

Click on this template to enlarge it, then print the template.


Use template to cut felt letters and circles.

2. Stitch letters onto white circles.

Using two strands of embroidery floss, hand sew letters onto the white circles. TIP: Be sure to sew the letter onto the circle before you sew the circle onto the hat so you don't have to sew through multiple layers of fabric.

3. Stitch white circles to hats.

Pin the circles in place, then hand sew using two strands of white embroidery floss.


Ta-da! Admire your work.



Now for pulling the look together. I'll start with Luigi. From the top down:

I bought this green newsboy cap on Amazon.com. There's plenty of elastic in the back so that the hat could be worn by a child or an adult. Amazon also carries the hat in red, both alone and as part of a deluxe Mario kit, which I'll show you farther down in the post.


This moustache was easy to shape, though my husband said it hurt like the dickens on his nostrils.


I'm sure any other time of year, I could have found green long-sleeve t-shirts at every discount retail chain. But this Halloween I had to buy one off of Amazon.com. What did our mothers do before the days of internet retail?


I searched several thrift stores for overalls, but my fruitless efforts brought me to buying these Carhartt dungarees. I have to say - I'm impressed with Carhartt. These are the most sturdy denim garment I've ever seen.


I used glue dots to adhere these big yellow buttons to the overall clasps.


These white gloves are also from Amazon.com. Size large were a bit snug for my husband, but they stretched enough that I'd still say they fit.


Last but not least is this Instant Mario Deluxe kit. I bought this to accessorize my mother-in-law's Mario costume. NOTE: before posting, I double-checked that this is the exact kit I ordered - it is. The hat I received is the one pictured. It's exactly like the green hat my husband wore for Luigi, only red. The gloves and mustache I received are also the same as the ones I had to buy individually for the Luigi kit, NOT the ones pictured. Looking at what's pictured, I'm glad I received the mustache and gloves that I did. The gloves in the kit were a size medium - too small for my husband but maybe a good fit for a child. My mother-in-law found her own poofy Mickey Mouse-type gloves at a thrift shop, so she wore those instead.

For her overalls, my mother-in-law found a set of bright blue medical scrubs at a thrift shop. She cut away the sleeves and neck to make the shape of bib overalls. Pretty ingenious, if you ask me.


Here we are as one big, happy Mario Brothers family. We even found a turtle costume at Target for our dog so he could join in as a Koopa. If you'd like to see my other tutorials, please click the links for Princess Peach, a Goomba, and Toad.

If you make anything using my template or tutorials, I'd love to see! Please leave a comment and let me know. Take care and belated happy Halloween!