#accessory tutorial

The Hat

I bought the “Mongo Hat” (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Halloween-Costume-Mens-Mongo-Hat-Brown-G1902-One-Size-/262592829540) and cut the slashes into it with a boxcutter. These are generally available at Value Village at Halloween for a bit less than the ebay price, but I'm sure other costume stores would have it.

The one downside is that you can't remove the velcro from the back brim without ripping that chunk of felt off with it. I find painting a scrap of felt or fleece and stitching it over the hole works just fine. Worst case scenario: it's in the back and unlikely to be seen in photos.

The Goggles

The goggles I did out of foam and worbla. They don’t look the absolute best, but they look fine in pictures.

I cut two large ovals and two skinny rectangles out of foam for the main “eyepieces”. The rectangles are 1/2” wide and as long as the circumference of the ovals. I then traced the hourglass shape between the two eyepieces out on foam like so:

The three pieces should fit neatly together because they will be getting glued like that.

I then traced all of these shapes out in worbla and cut them out.

My next step was to hot glue my foam oval and rectangle pieces together to create the 3D eyepieces. At this point, I marked and cut the slits in the lenses. 

Now I covered the foam in the worbla. I cut the slits in the worbla while it was hot with an exacto knife.

To glue the lenses to the hourglass, I cut a small piece of foam, long enough to span the hourglass and have about 1/2″ tucked up into each side of the lens

I glued the hourglass to the foam first, then glued the ends of the foam into the lenses.

I made the mistake of not priming before painting, which is part of the reason it doesn’t look very good. How to prime worbla 

After a couple layers of white paint, I cut the fabric for the band: the measurements were 4.5″ wide by the circumference of the hat minus the total length of the lenses PLUS 1/2″ on each side for seam allowance.

I sewed the band in half (with 1/4″ seam allowance), turned it inside out and glued the ends into the lenses. 

Finally I mounted the goggles onto the hat. It’s a good idea to either stitch or glue the band at the center back and sides to stabilize it.