Bacon and Eggs Costume

Materials:

30" x 42" piece of foam core board, 3/16" or 1/2"
two 2-quart plastic bowls
two 12" x 30" white sheets of polyurethane foam, 1" thick
6" x 30" strip of scrap cardboard
1" wide white tape
acrylic paint: yellow, red, tan, and white, 2.5 oz of each
roll of 2" wide clear packing tape
red baseball cap
5 yards thin (20 gauge) wire
two 18" pieces of strong white ribbon for ties
craft knife
small cotton paint roller
scissors
paintbrush
pencil
marker

1. Draw the shape of fried egg whites on the 30" x 40" foam core board and cut out the white shape (figure A).

2. Place the two plastic bowls on the egg white shape. Trace around the bowls, and use a craft knife to cut out slightly smaller circles from the foam core board (figure B).

3. Tape around the outside edges of the foam core board with white tape.

4. Poke two small holes for straps in the top of the egg white with a 12-inch gap between the holes. Tie an 18-inch piece of ribbon through each of the holes and tape down the tied ends with clear tape. The ribbons are the ties that will hold the costume on the child's neck (figure C).

5. Use the small cotton paint roller to cover the front of the foam core board with white acrylic paint. Let dry.

6. Mix a little red acrylic paint into your yellow paint to give it the orange tinge of an egg yolk and paint the insides of the plastic bowls (figure D). Let dry.

7. Fit the bowls into the big holes in the egg white shape so that the rims are at the back and the rounded parts stick out the front. Tape to board from behind with the clear packing tape (figures E and F).

8. Take the two sheets of polyurethane foam and use a marker to mark a wavy line on each long edge, like the edges of a strip of bacon. Cut on these lines with scissors (figure G).

9. To make a clean line while painting the foam strips to look like bacon, cut the 6" x 30" strip of cardboard so that it has a wavy line that roughly follows the edge of the foam (figure H). Push the cardboard edge almost flush to the edge of the foam, leaving about 1 inch of the foam edge uncovered. Paint the uncovered foam edge with the red acrylic paint. Repeat the process on each side of each bacon strip.

10. Paint a wavy red stripe down the middle of each piece to finish the bacon (figure I). Let dry.

11. Mix the tan paint with water. Make this very transparent. Lightly brush the foam bacon strips with this mixture to make the red paint and foam look tan (figure J). Let dry.

12. Run a piece of thin wire all around the edges of each foam bacon strip to help stiffen it, taking large running stitches with the wire along the edges as if it were thread. Twist wire ends together and cut off excess. Be sure to cover any wire ends with tape so they don't scratch anyone.

13. Poke two holes through the middle of each of the foam bacon strips with a short piece of wire. Take one of the bacon strips and wire it to the baseball cap in front; it should balance well when the cap is on the child, and the child should be able to see easily when he is wearing the cap. Or, just wire both pieces of bacon to the eggs (figure K).

14. Wire one of the bacon strips to the bottom of the egg white shape by poking holes through the foam core and feeding the wire ends through to the back. Twist the wire's ends together to hold the bacon to the foam core, cutting off any excess. Tape down the wire ends so they won't stick the wearer (figure L).