Ramen Costume

October 29, 2019

Several months ago, I came across a bright, colorful blog that had a plethora of food Halloween costume tutorials. I had my eyes set on the taco costume but my friends thought it was too suggestive (my innocent mind never went there, btw). Instead, I settled for this ramen costume.
The trickiest part was papier-maching the bowl, which took some trial and error. I did the first three layers with Elmer's glue and water but then switched to Mod Podge and got sturdier layers. I also used a 36 inch inflatable beach ball instead of a balloon, which was perfect since I could reuse it after realizing my first four layers were pretty flimsy.
While I liked Aww Sam's ramen bowl, I decided to add my own touch to it by painting the bowl black, instead of white and by using more wheat-colored yarn. I also used a styrofoam circle to make my favorite part of ramen---chashu pork belly! And finally...I had an old pair of white suspenders from an old oompa loompa costume and they securely held up the bowl so I could wear it at my friends' Halloween party.
Ramen Bowl Costume adapted from Aww Sam
Supplies:
36 inch inflatable beach ball
newspaper cut up into long strips
Mod Podge
large paint brush or foam brush
black cardboard board/foam board
scissors
x-acto knife/utility knife
black duct tape
black acrylic paint
one skein of yarn (I used this in the color linen)
glue gun
green felt strips
2 8-inch foam circles (I found these in the floral section of Michaels)
styrofoam block
styrofoam egg (cut in half--had to use my kitchen knife for that)
yellow, pink, brown paint
white suspenders or thick white ribbon
Directions:
1. Blow up beach ball and brush Mod Podge onto newspaper strip and add to the ball. Continue until one layer of newspaper strips is covering the ball and let dry. Then continue gluing layers, one at a time and letting each layer dry before adding another. 4-6 layers should create a sturdy base for the bowl. Then deflate the beach ball.
2. Use scissors to straighten the edges of the bowl and use the x-acto knife to cut a hole on the bottom that is large enough for your legs to move freely.
3. Use the top of the bowl to trace a circle on the black foam board. Cut out the circle and use the duct tape to attach to the top of the bowl. Then cut a hole in the form board large enough for you to fit in but leave a border for the ramen fillings to sit on top.
4. Paint the bowl with black paint.
5. Unravel the yarn and arrange on top of the bowl border to look like noodles. Then glue onto the foam board with hot glue gun.
6. Roll felt strips into circles for the green onion. Hot glue to secure and then glue onto the noodles.
7. Paint yolk onto the egg shaped styrofoam. Use hot glue to adhere onto the noodles.
8. Paint one of the styrofoam circles with a dark brown border and paint the inside of the circle a pale brownish/pink for the pork belly. Then paint a dark brown swirl in the middle. Glue onto noodles.
9. Cut the other styrofoam circle with a scalloped edge and then paint a pink swirl in the middle of the circle. Glue gun the fish cake onto the noodles.
10. Cut long, thin rectangles out of the styrofoam block for the nori. Paint the rectangles black. Glue onto the noodles.
11. Attach the suspenders to the bowl or cut ribbon long enough to hold up the bowl around your shoulders. Glue with glue gun onto the bowl.

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