The Iron Giant Costume

A couple months back, my adorable nephew Henry

woke up one morning wishing he could dress as his favorite character - The Iron Giant

which apparently is a film from 1999 that is available on Netflix

Since it's a movie from the 90s - there aren't a lot of costume options out there, so I decided to construct one from scratch!

I looked at a pic online, drew out a sketch and went shopping for supplies.

I cut up and sewed a metallic table runner onto a black T-shirt.

Then I freehand drew the shape of the shoulder piece, and cut out strips of cardboard where I needed dimension.  I used hot glue to add all the strips.

Then I spray painted the shoulder piece with a hammered metallic spray paint. 

I cut this piece out of the metallic fabric and added rivets.

I added a bunch of rivets and screws to give it a realistic robot look.

I sewed arm and leg pieces, stuffed like pillows. with Velcro straps.

I decided to attempt a helmet.

I used a balloon and a piece of poster board as the base for paper mâché.

I was pretty happy with how it turned out

And it was ADORABLE to see Henry giving me his best Iron Giant stare!

The mask wasn't that comfortable/wearable, but pretty cute on Henry.

♥♥♥

This was a really fun project for me.  Problem-solving is one of my favorite things and I loved starting from a picture - with no instructions or blog posts and figuring out how I could replicate it.  With Halloween coming up - you might have an opportunity to do the same thing!