Making a Costume - R2D2

So I promised I'd show ya how I did Bethany's costume, ya know, just in case anyone should ever get so adventurous. Actually I kind of wanted to post it just so one day maybe Bethany could see just how much work went into it.

Step 1: Decide which "design" is best for my daughter's costume. Do I use paper, a hamper, or a garbage can? (funny how I can't find the links to all those designs now) . I chose garbage can as it is sturdy and resembles the little robot the best. Plus I didn't want to do paper mache, as the poster board costume called for it.

Step 2: Drive all over town for a few weeks scoping out the trash can section of every store I visit looking for a "bullet style" garbage can. Apparently they are not in current fashion. That is, unless you're looking for a metal one, then they are much easier to find. Finally Yohn said let's try Home Depot. Hmmm... Why didn't I think of that? Home Depot to the rescue! But alas it only came in this tan color:

Step 3: Cut hole in the top, or should I say the bottom, for the head. Then cut two holes on opposite sides for the arm. Smooth out the rough spots so they won't irritate the skin:

Step 4: Spray paint the bottom half white several, and I do mean several times:

Step 5: Using this picture as a guide I drew in the design for the front of the costume. Thankfully its mostly just squares and rectangles, so nothing too complicated (hopefully you can actually see the lines):

Step 6: Trace over the lines using a sharpie. I had planned to use a blue sharpie to color in the blue parts but found out that coloring with a sharpie on a painted surface really doesn't work too well. It's one of the those things that I kind of went Oh Yeah, I knew that wouldn't really work (because I did) and wished I had thought it through a little better before getting started on that part. I did, however, manage to make the silver sharpie work long enough to get the job done:

Step 7: I had to go to the craft store to get some blue acrylic paint so I could make the blue parts blue (I actually took this picture after Halloween because in preparing this post I realized that I had forgotten to take a picture of this step, hence the reason for the scratches and nicks in the paint):

Step 8: Finally figure out after a suggestion from a friend that if I used double sided foam craft tape I could secure the flip top on the lid. I also had to pad the inside with foam so I would know where to cut the hole for Bethany to be able to see.

Step 9: Spray paint the top silver. This was a much better quality paint and it only took one coat to make it look good. So where I didn't save money on this paint at least I saved time:

Step 10: Using the same picture as a guide I drew on the lines for the design on the top. This was much harder than drawing on the bottom half as the lid is much rounder and the angles end up different. Thankfully, pencil doesn't show up so much on silver so any mistakes were easily hidden (no picture because you couldn't have seen the lines anyway).
Step 11: Paint in the stenciled surface with the blue I purchased before. I chose not to outline it in black because I had such a hard time drawing the shapes in the first place. I thought it looked good as it was. I then took a cardboard tube from the inside of the aluminum foil and cut and painted it for the little tubey thing in the front. I also cut a circle from seran wrap and painted it blue to give the front circle a "window" look:

And that's it! I had to pad the inside of the bottom half so her shoulders wouldn't get sore. The foam padding kept falling out of the top all night but she didn't wear it too much anyway, so it didn't really matter. She loved this costume and since it was in the back of the SUV, showed it so a checker at the grocery outlet the next day. She says next year she wants to go as the girl R2D2. Is there such a thing? She's convinced it is pink with a pink bow on top. Ummm.... Let's just see what next year brings, okay?

If you didn't already see her in it just click here to view the post with the actual costume in it.