"Satyr Costume"
I've long been interested in Bacchus, and the designs of satyrs in antiquity. The challenge of creating the illusion of goat feet on a person was appealing. When some friends threw an ancient Greece themed party, it was the fire to finally make this costume.
Materials:
2 yards of 54" fun fur, the longer the better (create your pattern first to figure out how much you need)
Cardboard
Lumpy pillow
Hot glue
Air dry clay
Waistband elastic, 1" wide
White or tan tulle
Pan flute
Goat pants:
Tape a few sheets of newspaper together, lay them on the floor, then lay on top of them, on your side. Trace your leg, hip to ankle, and mark where your knee is. Draw a line for the front of the leg, with the "knee" about 10" in front of your front knee mark. Draw the back of the leg by placing a mark for the "calf" about 6" out from the back of the knee, and create a straight line from the ankle up to this mark, then angled in to your real knee mark. For the posterior, draw a line from the waist about 14" long and 30 degrees down, then a big generous curve to the back of the knee. Essentially, you're superimposing a cartoon goat leg on top of your leg and you're going to have to exaggerate.
Measure the width at the ankle to make sure your pattern will reach halfway around your ankle, plus about 2 inches. Use this pattern to cut two out of your fun fur (hides a multitude of mistakes and alterations; don't forget to cut it from the back), then figure what your inseam needs to be, and cut two more, but with inseam removed. Hand sew together like the world's ugliest pants. Put them on. Take an old ribbon, string, elastic waistband or whatever and tack it to the waist. Take an old pillow (I used a lumpy one) and bunch it in to the knees and butt of your costume, mushing it into shape and using a thick or double strand thread to stitch it into place. Adjust the waist by cutting darts and whip stitching together, alter the bum as needed. If you tighten up the ankles, just be sure you can get your foot through - I ended up leaving mine unstitched about 5" up. Play with the scraps to make a tail - I hot glued a long, narrow triangle around a scrap of wire, but half a metal coat hanger works well - you can bend it to a perky curl. Hot glue in place. A couple triangles will be your ears.
Bodice:
I relied on a tulle/net top to keep the remainder of my dignity covered. The scraps I had were about a foot wide, and I had enough to stitch two bands like wide suspenders, front to back, over my shoulders but arms open, overlapping front and back. On the front, I stitched a merkin of fun fur wide enough to cover my chest and long enough to trail to the top of my goat pants. I'd advise shoulder tufts and widening the bottom of the merkin to better blend into your pants.
Goat feet:
Trace your foot on a piece of cardboard (I used a pizza box). Draw a cleaner foot around your tracing, about 1/4" wider all around, then trace something round around the toes, big enough to wrap around all your toes and the side of your foot. Cut two for your "shoes." The hoof itself is tricky; I rolled the cardboard (actually, chipboard works too), and experimented with angles to get my hoof form. If you're really fancy, you can bend in the clefts in the front of the hoof. Or, you can just draw or paint a black line to give the suggestion of a cleft. This assemblage is hot glued to the toe part of the shoe, sort of like a slipper, and a strip of fun fur glued to the top of the hoof near the ankle. A rubber band or some elastic will keep these in place to and during your party, but don't go for a walk.
Goat horns:
Mold them out of air dry clay (I got mine with a Michael's 50% off coupon), press the base against your forehead to match the curve of your skull. I made mine about 2" long, dug out a little of the inside to make a lip, and drilled two holes in the lip after the horns dried overnight. I took my thick thread, tied and knotted the horns so that they would sit at about the right place on my forehead, with a bow tied in back (I needed help to tie them on.) The ears can be threaded on this too, to flop over your own ears.
Getting in to costume involved taping down my chest with masking tape (ouch) and wriggling in to the costume through the back slit. Makeup was red lipstick and black eyeliner smeared around the eyes. Eyebrows and goatee were bits of fun fur white glued to scrap tulle, then spirit gummed in place. The moustache was two pieces, to allow for lascivious smiling, and I lost half within an hour. The third time I wore it, I used a flesh tone undershirt with the chest fur sewn in place. The tulle was better, but tears easily.
Specialty supplies: keep your eyes out for large pieces of long fun fur. I bought 1.5 yards at a remnants shop for $5/yard.
Note: Plan on standing while wearing this costume, and it's a little awkward for restroom breaks.
Most important info about my costume submission: total cost, under $15!
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