I love Halloween and so does my family, but it’s completely at odds with my efforts to declutter. Each year we accumulate more homemade and commercial ’stuff’. My family likes to decorate, but I don’t like keeping the items around. Decorations that pack flat are often boring. My favorite decorations are interesting and large. Costumed mannequins look great, but mannequins are expensive and awkward to store..
This project is a PVC mannequin that can be built in approximately ten minutes. The mannequin (or perhaps more accurately described as a costume hanger) is made from a variety of 1/2″ PVC tube lengths, slip (no threads) elbows, and slip t-joints. You can either glue it or leave it largely unglued so the materials can be packed flat or reused or mixed and matched for even more wild mannequins (dogs, multi-armed creatures?).
From your hardware store purchase approximately
The entire cost for one mannequin is about $6 depending on what you have on hand.
The photos themselves show the assembly I used. The base splays out in both directions to allow it to be weighted. I just used exercise weights or plates on the base.
The chest is made from three t-joints (joined with <2″ pieces near the neck) and four elbows. If you don’t glue the shoulders you can pose the arms.
Here’s the view of the whole thing. By adjusting the body lengths you can make anything from a dwarf to a giant.
Wadded up newspapers or polyester floss makes good padding for the arms and shoulders to add volume and round them out so the costumes lay more naturally. A light pillow or wadded up papers near the chest can add bulk there. You’ll also want to stuff the mask and gloves that go onto the mannequin. You can optionally place lighting (LED is suggested for safety - hot lights and paper/plastic are not the best mix) inside the costume or mask. The mask pictured above has a nice little changing LED glowing light in it. The battery powered tap-lights work ok as well, but the non-LED ones chew through batteries quickly.
Cement (gluing) is optional. The mannequin will stay together well if you take the time to push and lightly tap them into the joints with a hammer. If you want to take it apart, don’t glue it, but be warned that the parts near the base have a tendency to rotate forward and backward once weighted so gluing these bits may be advantageous. Even with the base glued you’ll still be able to take it apart for easy storage.
There are websites showing more elaborate mannequins (and more humanoid) using 3/4″ or 1″ PVC, in particular the Star Wars folks seem to like use these to display their costumes. Some folks have made special moveable joints and hands. Some folks have made much more elaborate poseable joints via PVC.
This mannequin stores well and forms a large and imposing hanger for costumes. When costumed menacingly and placed near a door or entrance it gets attention and comments. This is a fun, safe project to make to with your kids (although they must wash up after playing with PVC and adults should do the cementing in a well-ventilated area). It gets the costumes out of the play box and visible – which may well have benefits to your family well beyond Halloween. The mannequin from 1/2″ pipe won’t support rough-housing or active play. It could obviously be modified at higher cost into the 3/4″ or 1″ pieces.
If you make interesting upgrades to the structure or want to share your photos, let me know, I’ll be happy to add them.
If you’re ready to dive deep on PVC and need access to some truly interesting connectors and pieces check out www.pvcplans.com.
If you liked this project, you might enjoy my other Halloween projects:
General Grievous animated costume
Rocking Gravestone using K’Nex
A Modular Halloween with Grid Beam
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