DIY Yellow Minion Costumes the the Silly Ones

One eyed and Two eyed Minion — One eye or Two?

The minions have been a popular Halloween costume since these silly yellow pill-shaped incoherently-babbling scene-stealing sidekicks first debut in 2010 in Despicable Me.

We saw Gru’s silly henchmen/yellow children again in 2013, crazier than ever in Despicable Me 2. In 2015 after being the stars of several shorts they are back in The Minion Movie.

Pulling together or mashing-up, a basic minion costume is easy, especially if you already own a pair of denim overalls, black gloves and goggles.

Your hardest decision about your minion costume may be whether to be a one-eyed or a two-eyed minion.

Who are the Minions?

If somehow you don’t know who the Minions are from Despicable Me, this Behind the Scenes clip from Illumination Entertainment will give you a good idea about these silly, lovable, mischievous characters.

Compare – Yellow Minion (2010) and Yellow Minion (1968)

Comparing the two minions, the original minion (which is actually later in the time line) from 2010 and the new prequel minion from 1968 (Before Gru) one notices that they are almost identical. The 2010 are wearing the same goggles, overalls, black books and black gloves as the minions from 1968.

There are a few notable differences. The major difference with the 2010 minions is that these are the minions working with Gru, so they have the Gru “G” logo or Gru “G” symbol on their standard overalls. Another difference is that the computer animation has improved in the nearly five years since we were introduced to the minions.

Bob Minion — Yellow Minion – 1968
42 years B.G. (Before Gru)

How to Make an Easy, No Sew Yellow Minion Costume

With this easy DIY (Do it Yourself) no sew costume you can assemble your own yellow minion costume or an army of minion costumes for family and friends.

Here is the list of items (starting from the top) that you need to make your easy, no sew yellow minion costume:

Yellow Swim Cap or Beanie
Yellow Face Paint or Minion Mask
Minion Goggles
Yellow Top, Turtleneck or Sweatshirt
Blue Overalls
Black Gloves
Black Boots
Gru Logo* or Gru Symbol

* The Gru Logo is the main difference between the 2010/2013 minions and the prequel 1968 minions.

Some of the items need for a basic minion like the overalls or yellow shirt or yellow beanie you might even own, making it an easy costume to mash-up. The main assembling that needs to be done can be done with a bit of sticky felt or glue.

Note: The original “Make an Easy Minion Costume from Despicable Me: DIY Yellow Minion Costume from Despicable Me 2” on making a basic yellow minion costume is a costume breakdown that I originally wrote about for the Despicable Me 2 movie in 2013. It has been updated for the Costume Detective site.

Yellow Effects – Caps, Clothes and Makeup

The yellow minions are all yellow, so if you want to totally look like a yellow minion you will need to cover your head and your skin in yellow face paint.

Starting with a yellow cap or beanie and wearing a long sleeved turtle neck top means there is less face paint needed. You can get by without any face paint and create the illusion of being mostly yellow by just wearing a yellow beanie, long sleeved turtle neck top and if going as a girl minion, yellow leggings.

Cap or Beanie

If you want to make yourself look bald like the minions, there are a couple of options. You can use a bald cap with yellow makeup. A faster, better, no-makeup approach is to use a yellow beanie or swim cap. Put this on and a great part of your head is now minion yellow.

You might also want to make your own minion goggles to add to a yellow beanie. This is an easy way to create the minion goggle effect without needing to wear goggles over your eyes and one of my favorites.

See #2 of the Easy Ways to Make a Pair of Minion Goggles

Face Paint or Makeup

One of the best types of face paint or make up to use is the award-winning, water based Snazaroo brand of face paint highlighted in the Despicable Me Minion Costume Supplies above. This brand is is easy to apply and quick to dry.

Remember if you are doing face paint, be sure to get dressed (except for the gloves) and get your shoes on before doing your face paint.

Face Mask

The official Despicable Me Masks make it very easy to become a one-eyed or a two-eyed minion, without needing any makeup. Just put on a one-eyed Stuart mask to cover your own face or a two-eyed Dave mask to complete your minion costume.

Despicable Me Minions Party Face Masks — Official Despicable Me Two-eyed Minion Face Masks (Set of 6)

Minion Goggles

The goggles or safety glasses are perhaps one of the most distinctive part of their ‘uniform’ or standard wear. These goggles divide the minions into those with one-eyed and those with two-eyed goggles (Unlike Dr. Seuss’s Sneetches, there doesn’t seem to be any difference between those with one eye or those with two).

Pre-made Minion Goggles

There are several different types of pre-made goggles from official Despicable Me goggles to the Steampunk Safety Goggles (which can be reused for any Steampunk cosplay costumes).

Paper Despicable Me Goggles (8 Count) — Paper Minion Goggles
(8 Count)

The goggles may be one of the things that you want to purchase or if you are crafty or want a more industrial look you can make you own pair of minion goggles.

Make Minion Goggles

After looking up all of the many ways of making a pair of minion goggles, we finally pulled them together in the the 5 Easy Ways to Make a Pair of Minion Goggles page. Here you can find several simple ways to make a pair of one-eyed or two-eyed goggles.

Printable Minion Goggles - One Eye — Printable Minion Goggles – One Eye

The page also contains links to several images of my favorite minion goggles, the downloadable printables (both one-eyed and two-eyed) that were available for the first movie, Despicable Me and a slightly different version for Despicable Me 2.

These printables may be the best option for making a one-eyed minion goggle.

Just download, print onto cardstock, and assemble and you’ll have a your own pair of minion goggles.

Yellow Minion Clothes – Turtleneck Top, Overalls & Gloves

The minions uniform, work and play clothes consist of stonewashed denim overalls, black gloves and black boots that they wear over their bright yellow pill-shaped bodies.

Yellow Turtle Neck

To create the illusion of being a yellow minion too, wear a long sleeved yellow t-shirt or a turtleneck top which will make your neck yellow.

Another easy and useful option is to get a yellow hoodie or sweatshirt with a hood. With a hooded sweatshirt you don’t need to have a yellow beanie and you can add in pipe cleaner hair, if desired to the hood, plus it is added warmth for a Halloween costume.

With a bit of sleuthing you can find yellow shirts on Amazon. I’ve found two yellow shirt options for men and children.

An option that involves getting your fingers dirty is taking white shirts, turtlenecks, sweatshirts or hoodies and then dying them Minion yellow (in this case Golden Yellow) with dye.

Men's Yellow Long Sleeved Shirt — Men’s Yellow Long Sleeved Shirt

Overalls

We see in the new Minion Movie that the Minions ‘uniform’ was almost a tie-dyed shirt, but instead they decided on the more functional overalls that they wear over their bright yellow bodies. Overalls may be a clothing item that many people already own, or can find in the attic, at Grandma’s or at a thrift store.

Here are three overall options that we found for men, women and children:

Men's Stonewashed Overalls — Men’s Stonewashed Overalls

Women's Faded Blue Indigo Overalls — Women’s Faded Blue Overalls

Youth Washed Denim Bib Overalls — Youth Washed Overalls

Black Gloves

Don’t forget to get or wear a pair of black gloves to complete your minion costume.

You can find magic stretch gloves many places, like on Amazon and often for less at Joann’s, Target or your local Dollar Store.

I like to keep several pairs of these around because they are so handy to stuff into jacket pockets, so you always have a pair of gloves handy.

If you have a pair of black leather gloves or black ski gloves those will work well too for the costume and for later.

Gru’s Logo

Gru Logo Sticker

Be sure to add the “G” logo (for Gru) to the overall pocket. This is the identifying mark for of Gru’s good yellow minions henchmen/workers.

There are several different ways to get the “G” logo onto overalls.

Get a Gru Logo Sticker (like the one to the right)
Draw a Gru Logo onto overalls with a marking pen. (Make a stencil of the “G” to make it easier).
Cut a Gru logo out of Duck Tape® , fabric or felt using our template and glue or stick to the overalls.

Note: For the minions, the only part on the overall’s is the black part, the “G” is where the blue overall fabric shows through. In making your Gru logo, you just need to cut out the black parts in fabric, Duck Tape® or felt.

Gru “G” Minion Logo Template or Symbol
© Kirsti A. Dyer, The Costume Detective

To use our Gru “G” Minion Logo Template or Symbol

Download and print out the “G” logo into paper or fabric.
Cut out the black outline of the Gru “G” from duct tape, fabric or felt.
Stick on the logo to the overalls of your Yellow Minion Costume.

One of the easiest, fastest, temporary ways to make a Gru “G” is using black Duck Tape® or sticky back black felt.

Black Duct Tape — Black Duck Tape® Duct Tape

Black Adhesive 9 by 12 Felt, (Pack of 12) — Black Adhesive-backed Felt 9 by 12 (Pack of 12)

For the final touches, put on your goggles and pull on your gloves and get your silly grin on.

Practice Minion Phrases

To get fully into the minion character watch a few of the many silly minion video clips to get some of their key phrases down, like Bee-do, Bee-do.

Here are some of the minions favorite words and phrases (listed alphabetically):

Bee-do Bee-do
Banana!
Butt!
Papoi?
Potato
Tttthhhppppbbbtttt! (or blowing a raspberry)
*Whaaat?*

You might also want to get the words down to the Banana/Potato Song from the Despicable Me 2 Teaser Trailer.

Official Minion Costumes

You can see in this red carpet movie premiere picture from the Despicable Me 2 movie that the official minion costumes are a little different that the DIY versions. One thing that is in common are the goggles though there aren’t any one eyed versions.
.

despicable_me_2_premiere — Official Minion Costumes on Guests at the Despicable Me 2 red carpet movie premiere Sydney, Australia. Photo by Eva Rinaldi

Photo by Eva Rinaldi. Used under a Creative Commons License.

Ultra Easy Yellow Minion Costume

Men's Yellow Minion Face T-Shirt — Men’s Minion Face T-Shirt

For those who want to wear a Yellow Minion Costume, but don’t want to put in too much time or energy into making (or assembling) a costume there is a super easy way to create a Minion costume.

Most minion fans will already own a minion tee shirt, so to create an instant Minion costume, just throw on a Minion Face shirt and Voilà, instant costume.

The hardest part is picking a favorite silly face expression from all of the many Minion Face Shirts. Fortunately, the minions have become so popular in the last few years that they are available in sizes from toddlers and teens all the way up to adults.

The shirts even come with one-eyed and two-eyed versions so you can look like your favorite minion.

Yellow Minions To help get your goggles done or if you are interested in putting together a later version of the Minion Costume (with Gru we have pages on how to easily putting together your own yellow minion costume using (mostly) materials at home.

The new minions from the Minion Movie are actually older version minions—minus the Gru logo—from 1968. The original Minions, the ones on this page are from 2010 Despicable Me and then reappeared in 2012 with Despicable Me 2.

Scarlet Overkill

Scarlet Overkill is the super villain in the Minion Movie, who the minions worked for 42 years before they worked for Gru. Group costumes with Scarlet and her three minions, Stuart, Kevin and Bob, are likely to be very popular both at the premiere and for Halloween.

To help you complete your Scarlet Overkill look with costume, makeup and hair take a look at the related pages to get you started:

Purple Minions

It is not likely that the purple minions will make an appearance in the latest Minion Movie since it is based in 1968 and the purple minions were created by El Macho 42 years later.

For those, like me, who like the crazy purple minion we have information on making a costume and how to do purple minion makeup and hair pages so you can create your own unique minion costume for Halloween or any other time.

Our Pinterest Board for DIY Yellow Minion Costumes

To share our ideas and inspiration for making your own yellow minion costume and to collect ideas from other Minion fans we have a Pinterest board especially for the DIY Yellow Minion Costume Ideas and Fun. Be sure to pop over to Pinterest and follow us for updates.

This board is a collection of Yellow Minion images from Despicable Me, Despicable Me 2 and from the Minion Movie that inspired the costume, hair and makeup. You can also find many of the creative ideas for DIY fun from drawings to food to parties with the silly yellow minions.

Follow The Costume Detective’s board DIY Yellow Minion Costume Ideas and Fun on Pinterest.

Minion Images from Despicable Me on Facebook.

Costume Breakdown History

This costume breakdown tutorial was originally featured as the Make an Easy Minion Costume from Despicable Me originally published as lens on Squidoo in July 2013, moved for a time to HubPages and finally updated for The Costume Detective. Minion Images from Despicable Me on Facebook.