Moogle Pom Pom - A Quick and Dirty Tutorial

 We here at...wherever we are...(you ever do that where you start a sentence with no clear idea how you intend to finish it?)

Anyway, we here at here are nothing if not notable for our supreme ability to take typically small costume accessories and make them larger than life, not to mention feathery. We seem to have a thing for feathers, don't ask me, I guess it's just not costuming if it doesn't get everywhere (and I mean it, I still have feathers lurking around my shop from three years ago not to mention the red feathers still clinging to the roof of Cassi's Eurovan after last year's comicon)

I've also wanted to make tutorials to some of the things that we've made over the years and since my collection of progress photos is starting to clog my laptop, it's time to do it! So here you go:

 

The Moogle Pom-Pom

I don't suppose if you've noticed but we have a sort of signature moogle ball that has repeatedly featured in over three years of convention wear. Moogles are small, teddy-bear-like creatures that help populate the world of Final Fantasy. They serve as save points, merchants and other useful purposes...but mostly their just there to be cute. Kupo!

Now, of course, most people when they cosplay moogles, they have a reasonably sized pompom to match the relative size of their head. Of course, when have you ever heard of a member of MY group of friends ever doing anything reasonably?
(You can't hear it but I'm chortling). Clearly to be so...normal would be beneath us.

He's sad because he's inadequate

Actually in all reality, if we wore something that small we'd never be able to pick each other out of the crowd. A serious concern with "The Group".

You think I'm joking.

 

No, in all seriousness, we (specifically Cassi, I believe) have a flair for making things bigger, better, flouncier. So when she opted to make a Moogle costume way back in 2008, it was simply not an option to have a small, standard Moogle ball. I'm not sure what all inspiration went into making the original design, but since then I have helped make tens of Moogle balls, and they are cheap, easy, relatively lightweight, versatile, and a great way to keep track of you're companions in a crowd!



Step 1: Materials

Not to mention stylish and classy

Seriously, this is really the easiest, cheapest thing to make. Really. Start with:

- A Styrofoam ball. You probably think that you need a big one but in reality, for the extra large pompoms you only need a ball maybe about the size of a very small fist i.e. mine (If anyone wants to give me exact measurements on what size ball that is go ahead). The majority of the size will be made up by the mass of feathers.

- A mass of feathers (speaking of which). We tend to buy maybe three or four bags of cheap red feathers, the kind you can get at any craft store. having a nice variety of sizes, like a cheapy bag will get you, is ideal.

- Hot glue. But I feel like this is a given in any type of crafty/costuming project really.

- Sturdy STURDY construction wire. I'm not sure where this is actually readily available as I got my massive horde of the stuff from a leftover construction project. It's thick, raw bendable wire, and kind of tough on the hands. I imagine you could probably get something similar at a home depot or other home construction store.

- Headbands. You'll definitely want good, sturdy, preferably covered in leather or some other none smooth material, headbands. The girls pick up a ton of them and cache them away every time they find some that are usable. Not all headbands are equal and you'll want to splurge a bit to get the good ones for this. After all, this is what is going to keep this thing on your head, a bad headband will make for a difficult convention. The girls also swear by having one or two soft, stretchy headbands to go over it and stabilize the whole ensemble.

Most of these things you can pick up at a Michaels, or even just a Dollar store on the cheap.

Step 2: Essentially Everything Else

I feel like these steps are fairly irrelevant but, lets move along shall we?

Generally you'll want to start by painting the Styrofoam red, I would recommend using acrylic paints, as they won't melt the Styrofoam underneath. I don't care how many moogle balls you're making, under NO circumstances do you ever want to spray paint Styrofoam. If it's paint, and it comes out of a aerosol container, it will melt the foam. I feel like most of your probably already know this, but it's worth a shout out regardless. Acrylic works best for me because I'm a sensitive ninny and hate the feeling of dried paint. Acrylic is nice and smooth.

I named this one Gertrude McFuzz

Generally you'll want the paint to be roughly the same colour as the feathers, but this is really just a measure to cover your bases (literally, cover your base...*rimshot*)

After that, just start shoving in feathers.

Seriously. That's it.

You don't even need to glue them in, just shove and go. The joy of working with a Styrofoam base is that you can generally just stick things in and they'll stay there. You'll want to be a little gentle about how you put them in, so that you don't break the Styrofoam or make a giant hole, but for the most part just putting the stem of the feather in about a half inch or so (deep enough that it feels stable) will keep the majority of your feathers attached. Granted, there's always going to be a bit of "molting" it's pretty non-severe, and you won't be leaving a trail of feathers in your wake, baring some sort of horrible wind.

Step 3: Literally Everything Else

Ignore the angry dog and look at the wire!

Alright, we have a ball. Now (and hopefully you're not making this as you read this the first time) leave a small hole in your feathers, I tend to be overly cautious and leave a hole about the size of a wineglass opening or so, but a whole big enough that you're not going to be worried about getting glue all over your feathers. Now grab a handful of those thick wires. I think my Pompom has three or four wires but I've seen them made with 5 or so. Take enough that you feel like they're going to be nice and sturdy, Ours are long enough that we can make them go around the headband and up into the Styrofoam ball with both raw ends, which is ideal for attaching them, but you'll have to work with what you have. Because ours can double back, I tend to take half as many as I think I'll need, typically two or three.

Now, braid them together. It doesn't need to be a nice, your-grandmother-did-your-hair-for-the-piano-recital braid, but just quick and dirty. Yes, people are going to see this part of the costume, but believe me, it's going to be overshadowed by the giant feathery ball-of-death.

Once the wires are all braided, and any uneven ends are clipped away, loop the middle (or where ever you feel is long enough). I tend to find that a wig maker's look around the stiff headband works best but experiment see what works for you. If you can't loop it, wrap it around the headband and make sure it's on there securely. I've never had to glue it on if I can wind the wire tight enough. Do be aware! Be careful when handling thick wire, I've been cut enough times to know that the ends are sharp. Make sure that if you're winding the ends of the wire around the headband, to leave the ends a little space to wind them back into the main stem so they aren't anywhere near your scalp.

Finally, take the long end of the wire, once you're sure it's long enough and well attached to the headband, and dig them nice and deeply into the Styrofoam. You'll want to get them almost as far as you can without creating a big gigantic concave hole. I'd say at least halfway into the foam. After it's firmly in there, seal the hole with hot glue, and build a nice solid hot-glue-barrier around the wire's stem to keep it from moving around in the Styrofoam.

After the wire is very firmly attached, and bent to a nice s-curve for maximum height and bouncability, fill in the remaining hole with feathers until the pompom is sufficiently fluffy!

Final Steps: Attaching and wearing!

 

See? That wasn't so hard. Making Pompoms is one of my favorite chores since it's simple, straight-forward and a great relaxer after the hurly-burly of last minute costume details.

 

There are many ways to modify a pompom, just as there are many different ways to dress as a moogle, depending on if you want to be a classic moogle, or a whole moogle society like we did back in 2010. You don't just have to wear it on a headband either! For my Wankstamoogle, I put the stiff headband inside a hat (the headband still was used as a base purely for the sake of stability). Not only was this totally effective, easy to wear and easy to take off for panels, but I think we can all agree it was extremely stylish.

For the basic headband though, I would, as discussed earlier, use a soft, stretchy headband over the stiff one to help maintain head-stability, (remember though folks, put the soft headband around your neck before putting on the moogle ball to save yourself a struggle) you can use this soft headband to attach your ears.

After that it's all downhill! Experience suggests that you find something soft (I use a small wad of cotton) to put between your scalp and where the wire wraps around the headband. I've never had any problems with headaches or irritation caused by this, but Cassi strongly recommends having ibuprofen on hand for just this reason, (though I would recommend ibuprofen as a standard part of any Con-goers kit).

The Moogle Pompom is a standard costume accessory around here, (wherever that is), and I highly recommend "Moogle" as a great basic costume for anyone looking to just go to a con, have a good time, and/or for those easily lost in a crowd. Also, be wary of low hanging ceilings

Moogle away!