Extreme Makeover: Sausage Edition

The law school's Halloween party was kind of a big deal.  And for Halloween 2007, David and I made the best costumes ever- we went as Monroe Sausages.  (David's family makes Monroe Sausage- which is absolutely delicious and is so much better than the neighboring county's fatty competitor sausage.)

 See?  Mr. & Mrs. Monroe Sausage were the most creative and awesome costumes ever.  Even though we were robbed in the costume contest.   

 The costumes were made out of egg crate mattresses that we secured and covered in brown fabric.  They looked awesome but were heavy and didn't like to keep their shape.  It wouldn't have been a big deal if they were only worn for one night, but Daddy Dave decided to keep the costumes and use them for the Monroe Sausage mascots.  They've been used ever since-

The old costumes were beginning to show their age, so David and I decided to give the costumes an Extreme Makeover.  Actually, we decided to rebuild them so that they would be lighter, stronger, and cooler to wear.  

The "skeleton" of the costumes is hardware cloth held together with quick ties.  We then covered the skeleton with a thick layer of batting:

Skeleton covered with batting

Looking inside the costume.

The inside of the sausage costume

The batting was secured to the hardware cloth with spray adhesive and then I used quick ties to more securely attach the batting to the frame.

David attaching the batting to the frame with quick ties

 After attaching the batting, we covered the entire sausage with felt, which was attached to the batting with 3M Super 77 Spray adhesive.  Then, we cut out the arm holes and the mouth (where the wearer could see out of the costume).  The rounded top was made by putting a cardboard top on the costume, stuffing the top with batting, and then tying the felt together.

Then we added the eyes, mouth, and decoration.  The mouth is actually made of speaker fabric so that the wearer can see out of the costumes.

 The finished product:

To see the new Mr. & Mrs. Monroe Sausage, join us at the 5th Annual Monroe Sausage Festival!