Seeking Advice on Sewing a Robot Costume
 

I’m hoping someone can advise me about sewing robot costumes for myself and my children...

I love Halloween! And my son wants all of us to be robots. But my youngest is one, and I might need to pick her up, so I can’t just spray paint boxes for the three of us. I’d like to sew them costumes they can keep and use for dress up play, but I’m stumped about how to make the costumes stiff enough to be robot-like shapes, but still flexible enough to be able to pick up my daughter. The owner of my local fabric shop suggested using thick interfacing, but she wasn’t sure how that would hold up to washing. I don’t necessarily need us all to be rectangle shapes, but I do want to be machine-looking.

Does anyone have any ideas for me?

Thanks for reading! :-)

I think foam would work perfectly, but my husband won’t let me use foam, because he is a chemical engineer and a health nut and tells me that most types of foam give off toxic fumes.

Hmmmm, actually, I might call Bosal in the morning. I’m trying to figure out what’s in it, and it looks like it might be all polyester, which I think he’d be fine with. I’m assuming what he’s worried about is the polyurethane foam...

For the baby, I would try black or white leggings and a long sleeve onesie, then use fabric paint to paint the robot on. A Cheap pair of shoes could be used and spray painted to be the robot shoes. Similar thing for you, since you have to be 'bendy' to pick up the little one.

You could use card board from cereal boxes for your sons' robot costume. Two for each leg in front, two for each leg in back, painted whatever way you want, then use shoe lace to create a flexible link between the top (thigh) and bottom (shin) of the leg and do the same for the back of the leg. Another set of shoe laces could be used to keep the front and back of the leg together - so they aren't flapping all over the place.

That should get you started. Would love to see the finished products...

Thank you :-)

For yourself, maybe think a glorified sandwich board using posterboard. You could spray paint it metallic grey, and jazz up the shoulders and arms with thin cardboard and still be able to bend to pick up your little one. Or use fabric on cardboard because the paint definitely has toxic fumes. Or multiple layers of aluminum foil secured with grey duct tape. Point is, your costume needs to be thin. Fun to think through the possibilities!

Not exactly a robot, but I thought you might be able to incorporate some of the features when making a robot costume.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jU_fq_VRS0w

More inspiration:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7oOLYTMn98


By the way, if you wanted to make something like this, you could use light sticks in the place of the lights that you see here. One year I made an alien in a spaceship costume for my daughter and I used a series of light sticks for the rim of the flying saucer. Her costume won first place for the entire town. You need to think outside of the box to find possible materials that would work... Anything is possible if you use your imagination.