Who’s ready for another fun costume? As soon as we started watching The BFG in the theater last month, I knew I wanted to make a Big Friendly Giant costume.
The BFG costume is my favorite kind of costume because that can be pulled together inexpensively depending upon what you have on hand or can borrow.
Big Friendly Giant Costume Essentials
- White or cream shirt
- Brown leather vest
- Green pants
- Big ears
- Dream catching net
BFG Costume Shirt
For the BFG’s shirt, I wanted to find a rough peasant style/linen shirt. I love this baby muslin shirt but it wouldn’t work for us since I was making the costume for Quinn.
For adults or older kids, this cotton shirt is a pretty good match. I ended up finding a thin button-up shirt at a thrift store that I made work. It was $4 so a total win for me.
The shirt already had a Mandarin style collar. I removed the buttons and added velcro using a glue gun like I did for the Prince Charming costume shirt.
The BFG shirt was actually easier since I didn’t need to add any decorative buttons to the front. I left about 2 inches at the top velcro free so the shirt would stay open near the neck.
Our shirt also had a front pocket which isn’t ideal but the vest ends up covering most of it up. Roll the sleeves up the elbow and you’re done!
BFG Costume Vest
The big friendly giant wears a distressed brown leather vest. We had no one to borrow a brown vest from so I ended up making one out of duct tape. You could get lucky and find something at a thrift store or splurge on something like this leather vest online.
To make the vest I decided to cover a safety vest from the dollar store in brown duct tape. Last year when I made the Inside Out Fear costume, I attempted a vest template which worked ok but I figured just covering an existing vest would be easier.
The safety vest was a one-size fits a very big adult, so I had to modify it a little first. I had Quinn try on the vest and then I folded and taped it in place to make it fit better.
Once I had the vest sized down, I started covering the entire vest, front and back in strips of duct tape. I ended up using 1 1/2 rolls of brown duct tape.
I added an oversized tan button to the front of the vest with a hot glue gun and then put a strip of brown duct tape on it to mimic the button on the BFG’s vest.
Big Friendly Giant Costume Pants
Quinn already owned a pair of green cargo/khaki style pants that worked well. I did roll the legs up a bit but that was all I had to modify.
Big Friendly Giant Dream Catching Net
The fishing net we borrowed had a short handle, so I attached a stick to it to make it a little longer.
Big Friendly Giant Ears
The BFG ears were rather easy to make using this awesome tutorial I found. All you need is flesh colored felt, a headband, and a hot glue gun. You could also just buy a set of large costume ears.
Additional BFG Costume Ideas
If you want to portray the BFG as he roams London, you could also wear a hooded robe and carry a long trumpet. Sometimes you can find a premade BFG costume online, but not always.
More BFG Ideas
- Printable BFG Bookmark
- Easy BFG cupcakes
- Parental Guide to the BFG movie
This post was originally published July 20, 2016.
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