How to Make a Prize Winning Edward Scissorhands Costume

How to make a prize winning Edward Scissorhands costume

Last year I dressed up as Edward Scissorhands for a fancy dress competition and won first place. I put a lot of work into my costume, but most of it was relatively easy to make. Here’s how I made mine!

To make the gloves:

These were the hardest part of the costume to make but were well worth it. Mine are best visible in this photo and this one (that last one looks pretty awful in that funny light, I hadn’t finished my makeup!)

You will need: 2 meters (at least) of embossing metal (I used pewter and aluminium)

1 pair of black gloves (preferably quite thick, but any will do)

Some cardboard

Scissor handles (I sawed some off from unwanted and broken scissors

Silver coloured duck tape

Black coloured duck tape

Metallic coloured paint or spray paint

A hot glue gun and a stick or two of glue to go in it

And lots of oddments and hardware to decorate with: I used screws, nuts, cogs from watches, wire and hinges.

Start with the gloves and the embossing metal. Cut strips of metal large enough to cover your fingers, wrap one end of each strip around each finger, shaping it into a sort of cone to cover the finger. You should have a foot or so of metal sticking out beyond that cone: flatten that into a blade shape and make sure you wrap the edges around each other to make them less sharp and dangerous, trimming off any unwanted excess. You may find you need to put some extra metal or a strip of cardboard along the inside to strengthen it. Do this for all of your fingers but not your thumbs.

Once you have 8 of the metal “fingers” use a combination of hot glue (be careful I burnt my hands doing that) and duck tape to secure them to the gloves. Once dry and secure, embellish the “knuckles” where the fingers meet the gloves with assorted hardware and scissor handles (I taped them at an angle to a few fingers, it really makes it look like scissors!) If you don’t have enough scissor handles for the effect, make some cardboard ones. For the thumbs I found metal fingers were impractical, and mini cardboard ones looked silly so I sewed a selection of cogs along the thumb for a steampunk look.

Once I’d done this I found the backs of the gloves looked a little plain: more embellishments! What I did was to glue a hinge to a silver-painted piece of cardboard, with a few more bits of hardware attached, then glue it onto the back of the glove. To give the whole glove a more industrial feel, I used some nice thick wire, coiled it around a pencil to make it look like a spring, leaving long straight ends on either side. These ends I attached to one of the scissor handles and then to the holes in the hinge. Then when I moved my fingers, it looked like some strange apparatus was powering them.

You can spend as long as you like getting the gloves to look just as you want, it’s great fun to do.

To make the costume itself:

You will need: 1 long-sleeved t-shirt

1 pair of leggings or skinny jeans

1 old t-shirt you’re willing to cut up

1 pair of big boots

As many belts as you can get hold of

2 rolls of black duck tape (for good measure)

1 – 2 rolls of silver duck tape

Any leather straps you can get hold of

Hardware (ie nuts, cogs, buckles, studs, rivets, metallic buttons)

I started off by making a duck tape corset out of the old t-shirt, the duck tape and the rivets (don’t know how to make one? Try here) which I then decorated with rows of studs and some duck-tape straps with faux button fastenings. Then I made some more faux straps out of strips of duck tape which I decorated with more studs, cogs and nuts to give texture.

Now the best part: dressing up! Put on the long sleeved shirt and leggings with the duck tape corset over the top. Sling some belts around your waist and add straps wherever you want them. Got some bits that need straps that won’t stay? Simply wrap more duck tape around yourself. It’s worth having a few straps on your wrists to disguise the divide between the gloves and the sleeves of your shirt. Add some big boots and pop on the gloves and you’re nearly there!

Hair and make-up

I won’t go into the hair so much since I’ve already written an article on how to get that huge hair look so check that out. For the makeup you’ll need:

Pale coloured foundation

White face paint

Dark coloured face paint or makeup

Reddish coloured face paint or makeup

Collodium (optional, but makes spookily realistic scars)

Apply a layer of white face paint first, then use pale foundation either in a thin layer over the top or to accentuate naturally darker areas like your cheeks. Now apply the collodium wherever you want “scars”, allow it to dry, adding another coat if necessary. Use the reddish coloured makeup to bring a little more life to the scars and a combination of dark and reddish makeup around your eyes and cheekbones (because we can’t all have Johnny Depp’s facial features). Keep tinkering until you have the balance right. Remember to check in different lights, especially if you’re planning on going to a particularly well-lit fancy dress party or cosplay convention!

If you like my crafty hints, tips and patterns check out:

• Bataclava Batman hat pattern
• How to Make an Easy Shawl
• Guide to Wire Knitting
• How to Make Vampish Gothic Gloves
• Lydia Poncho Knitting Pattern
• Transformittens
• How to get really big hair
• How to make a Harley Quinn costume and hat
• Toddlets Sweeney Todd mittens