This summer we spent the month of July camping in our “tiny house” – it is a Winnebago literally called a “Micro Minnie” – so tiny is an accurate description. We love it! So, each week of July we left for a camping trip on Sunday and returned on Thursday. We spent Friday cleaning and restocking, and Saturday at swim lessons and tending to the yard. Each trip took us to a different state or national park, and each trip was between 3 and 6 hours of driving time…. so much driving!

We scored the best site at Prineville Reservoir for the second week of July!

So to occupy some of the travel time, James downloaded and played for us a podcast called “The Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian.” This, my friends, is an EXCELLENT podcast for kids. Go download it now if you have elementary aged kids. They are about 20 minute “episodes” and feature several characters of the human, alien and robot varieties. Todd’s favorite robot on the show is Bee Bop. Bee Bop ends up getting his own spin-off podcast called “Bee Bop Tales” which Todd also loves.

Why I am talking about camping and a radio podcast on a sewing blog? Because when asked what he wanted to be for Halloween, Todd replied “Bee Bop!”

Ok. I have to create a robot costume from of a podcast character… “Todd, you’ll have to draw me a picture to show me what Bee Bop looks like.” I give you Todd’s sketch of Bee Bop:

He was quick to specify that he “glows purple, but has blue eyes.” Sure… I can make you glow. (Gulp.)

Luckily, my in-laws bought some new furniture that came in huge boxes, so I had a large stock of cardboard to used for this robot project. My mother-in-law also has a Costco roll of heavy duty foil and some awesome spay glue. All I needed was to figure out how to make Bee Bop “glow purple.” A quick trip to Craft Warehouse solved that one! They had tiny “fairy” battery powered LED lights on sale. Bonus – they are remote controlled, so I can control when he glows!!! Yes! I bought a pack of pink (that are actually purple) for the body, and a pack of blue for the eyes.

To prepare, I measured Todd and started cutting cardboard with a utility knife.

For the body, I cut holes where I wanted there to be purple lights glowing through. I then glued on the foil, cutting slits in the foil and folding it through the holes to the back so all the opening were foil covered. I secured everything on the inside with duct tape. I mean, duct tape is essential for any robot project.

  

To create some fun button-like texture, I covered the holes with bubblewrap – again, securing with duct tape. I added foil covered sides to the body front with duct tape, then grabbed the lights.

I coiled lights into each of the openings, then used cans and pieces of cardboard covered in foil to create “backs” for all the openings and secured them in place with duct tape. I taped on the battery pack and tested the lights – so cool!

I used foil dryer venting tube for the arms. This looks great, but because of how Todd has to bend to get in and out of it, I decided I had to leave the back open. I’ll tape on some clips to secure the box in place along one side of the back and tape the other onto the side.

   

For the back, there was one special thing I needed to add before attaching it to the rest of the body. In the Alien Adventures of Finn Caspian, all the robots are powered by books. The robots kind of take on some of the characteristics of the book’s main character, so the book chosen is important. Recently, James read the first Brian Jaques’ Redwall book to the boys, so Todd insisted this would be the book that powers Bee Bop. I printed an image of the book and covered it in a clear vinyl, then taped it to a piece of foil covered cardboard and mounted it to the robot back.

Todd insisted that the robot head be larger than the body, so it is quite big. I used the same process as the body to create the mouth and eye holes. Todd will actually see out of the mouth, so I covered the mouth opening with a black mesh. I used the clear vinyl for the eye openings.

 

I love how this is coming together. So far, completely no-sew. I do think I’ll make him a pair of metallic silver pants to wear – simply because I have silver metallic fabric in my stash begging to be used.

I’ll post the final product this weekend, after we all get dressed up for a Halloween party!

There are very few things that can’t be made with duct tape, right?!?!

What have you made with duct tape? What costumes are you working on this week?

Tomorrow… fingers crossed… I’ll share my Blue Beetle costume fro Scott with you. Send me good sewing vibes for this one!

Cara

Author Cara

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