Ventriloquist Dummy Illusion Costume

Inspired by the RL Stine character Slappy.
Made this costume with everything we already owned w the exception of the mask. Wound up finding a George Washington mask for 3.99$ and colored the hair in with a sharpie.

• man's suit [suggest suit, not separates to make more cohesive]
• mens dress shirt or turtleneck
• mask for ventriloquist
• towel to be balled up and fill mask
• bamboo sticks or similar to support head
• backpack to support vent torso and head
• overalls for child
• stuffing [batting in long socks to use for "puppet's legs"]
• child's shoes
• child's vest [must be willing to cut back]
• swimming "noodle"
• long belt or 2

• stuff backpack with flat cushion [I used patio cushion]. flat gives the ventriloquist a flat back as opposed to rounded.
• put men's dress shirt on backpack
• insert noodle to fill as arms
• feed belts through sleeves of shirt
• take balled up towel, insert bamboo stick[s] place mask over and poke through noodle at neck hole

• shorten / hem pants [can tape up if not willing to cut / sew
• use belt to cinch "men's" pants around child's waist
• put on dress shoes [these will appear to be men's feet - so a mature style a must!]
• place overalls on child w stuffed legs and shoes already attached
• folding legs up [have child hold] wrap a belt around child and pinch bottom of stuffed legs in belt. when then flop down they will be short.
• put vest on child to hide backpack straps
• put suit jacket on vent buttoning just under the legs hiding the bel from 2 steps above
• take belts from vent arms joining via belts that were fed through arms connecting under stuffed mini legs. this will give appearance of holding the child

using the web to find a style of dummy makeup that I preferred. used women's makeup for the following:

• cream foundation to give smooth artificial look. a lot of this.
• liquid eye liner o create painted eyebrows, lines around eyes & lines on mouth
• blue/green shadow just applied to center of eyelids and high enough to brow to see when eyes open creating a "doe" look adding to artificial feel
• bright red lipstick sparingly applied because it stains

this costume cost $4 total. everything else we already owned. lass than 30 minutes to put together though may be slightly longer for people who haven't done many costumes before. was a huge hit with all who saw!