DIY Doug Funny Quailman Cosplay

by Cosplay and Coffee | Oct 20, 2021 | Cosplay Ideas

My Doug Funny cosplay was my first Instagram photo to go semi-viral. Where I was typically hitting 200-400 likes, the mirror selfie of my Quailman costume surpassed over 1K.

I couldn’t believe how many people enjoyed seeing a gender-bent Doug Funny costume(let alone a mirror selfie). It just goes to show that you don’t need to be an expert craftsman in order to make a costume that people will love and appreciate.

I’ve made a ton of 90s-related costumes since then. It’s probably my favorite cosplay genre (and a rarely popular one, to my surprise) and I love the reaction it gets from people. So because I’d love for others to experience my 90s-nostalgic joy, I decided to give you this quick and easy DIY Quailman cosplay tutorial. Seriously, you can make this costume in a day.

So grab your coffee, grab your cosplay supplies, and let’s get started. 

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What You’ll Need For Your Doug Funny Costume

The base pieces of my DIY Quailman cosplay came from my local thrift shop. The small tidbits (the headband, cape, ribbon, shoes, and the undies) all came from Wal-Mart, I believe. But as always, I’ll have links to Amazon because it’s the best.

(p.s. Patreon’s get the full video tutorial first!)

DIY Quailman Costume Supply Links:

• • Green Sweater Vest
  • Tan Shorts
  • White Underwear
  • Red Shoes
  • White Ribbon 
  • Red Fabric
  • Hot Glue Gun
  • Iron-On ‘Q’ or Dark Fabric Transfer Paper

Quailman Headband Tutorial:

• • Kids Craft Foam
  • Brown Paint and/or Pleather
  • This buckle thing
  • Hot Glue
  • Xacto Knife

To make the headband, take a string/ribbon/measuring tape and measure around your head.

Take that measurement and draw a line across your kids’ craft foam (color doesn’t matter). Then just cut out a rectangle to that length. My headband is about 1-inch thick. I had to cut 2 strips and hot glue them together in order to fit it around my head. Also, remember to cut out another strip for the center twirl piece. You can get it to bend forward with a heat gun or a hairdryer. 

Next, you’ll want to paint your foam with brown acrylic paint. You can also choose to glue brown pleather onto your foam strips for a more realistic look. I also used a Xacto knife to gently carve lines to give the foam the appearance of belt stitches. 

And finally, all you need to do is loop your belt buckle through the foam like you would a normal belt. Don’t worry about securing it with anything but hot glue. The band should sit on your ears to hold it in place. 

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DIY Quailman Costume Tutorial

You have a few options as to how you can do your Doug Funny costume. If you want to go the traditional route, grab the green sweater vest and a white t-shirt. If you want to go the more femme route, you’ll just need a green V-neck shirt.

For classic Quailman, you can paint the Q right on the front with red acrylic paint. I recommend doing a layer of white paint first so the red is more prominent against the dark fabric. You can also use Dark Transfer Paper and iron on your ‘Q’. I did this for my Jenny Bravo cosplay. Watch the tutorial here.

Femme Quailman (Quailwoman?) just needs one of the stick-on patches. These are always on display at Michaels, but there’s a link above just in case. I just hot-glued mine to the top left of my shirt and voila! That’s it.

Quailman’s cape is literally just half a yard of red fabric from Wal-Mart. It doesn’t matter if the edges or frayed– Doug Funny is an adolescent boy, after all. Then all I did was take a strip of 3/4-inch white ribbon and hot glue it to the bottom. You can tie the cape around your neck like the real Quailman or tie it to your bra straps like I did.

Doug Funny Facts

• Doug’s middle name is Yancy.
• Doug retold his adventures to his 6th-grade journal, which is why viewers hear Doug narrate the story at the end of the episode.
• Jim Jenkins created Doug Funny. Doug’s crush, Patti Mayonaise, comes from the names of two different girls Jenkins had crushes on in grade school. 
• Pork Chop is a Bull Terrier
• Directly from IMDb, “The Funnie’s neighbors are the Dinks. Their name stems from the acronym D.I.N.K. which stands for “double income, no kids”. This is a slang term that refers to a childless couple where both people work and are, therefore, more affluent than families with dependents”

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