R2D2 costume tutorial and instructions

Halloween was hectic and wonderful and perfect and crazy this year. With everything I have going on, making a Halloween costume was low on the priority list. In addition there were a lot of expectations on me from the Optimus Prime Transforming costume last year. When my son said he wanted to be R2D2 from Star Wars I thought it would actually be pretty easy. I looked up some ideas on Pinterest and decided that the peanut would pair well as Princess Leia. She had other plans and I ended up with an Elsa and R2D2 costume.

The Elsa costume started with my mom asking her what she wanted to be and her response being “Elsa”, because #Frozen. I was still going to make her be Princess Leia, but my mom purchased all the supplies for the Elsa costume and made it in a couple days. That was the end of Leia, but I had a super happy little girl and truly that is all that matters. I made absolutely no part of her costume this year which is a first, but it was still homemade and beautiful.

My little girl will not take this dress off at home. She walks around serenading us in everyones favorite Frozen songs and asks me to build a snowman in the 65 degree heat. It is all sorts of adorable. I thought it would be fun to take a look at our costumes over the last few years. The peanut has been an Elephant in a Tutu, a Peacock and now Elsa. I love it!

Then there is my son. Every single year this kid comes up with some insane costume idea and as mom, I am required to make this r2d2 costume because my mom made my costumes and I am pretty good at executing these huge ideas. This year he wanted to be a life size R2D2 that could “transform”. I am pretty proud of how this turned out and the cost on the costume was actually pretty low. We had many of the supplies just laying around and others we purchased at the Dollar Tree.

r2d2 Costume Materials:

Round Collapsable Mesh Hamper
Lightweight felt sewn to fit the outside of the hamper
Foam sheets to make the legs
Puff Paint and Acrylic Paint (silver, navy blue, black
PVC pipe connectors
Battery Powered Lights
Large piece of styrofoam that you found on the side of the road
Old bike helmet
All the Hot Glue you can imagine.

r2d2 costume instructions:

Flip the hamper upside-down and cut an “X” in the top for a head opening.
Take the light weight felt and sew it to fit the outside of the hamper. In addition using a gathering stitch, create a neckline over the top of the X in the hamper.
Next to create the robot legs, use the foam sheets. Cut out the basic shape of the leg and then using hot glue build a 3D model of the legs. You need to make two of these.
Using puff paint, paint the felt to look like R2D2. I painted all sides, front and back and sides as well.
To create the head, we used a block of styrofoam that my mom found on the side of the road but you could easily get from any big box store for free. using a knife and a sander, we shaped the head. Then we hallowed it out and shoved an old bike helmet into it.
Finally I used acrylic paints to paint the helmet and also pieces of PVC pipe connectors to create the details. I attached everything with hot glue. If you would like you can also add some lights by finding short strand of battery powered christmas lights and attaching them with both hot glue as well as pushing them into the styrofoam.
To attach the legs to the hamper use a TON of hot glue.

As a bonus here is my little guy throughout the years, I have made every single one of these (minus the turtle shell)! Halloween rocked and is getting more and more fun each year. My son already told me that he wants to be Captain America next year and I am pretty relieved to hear that it is something pretty simple! Now lets hope the tiny princess keeps it simple too!

How was your Halloween?

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