BASE LAYER:

• Start by sewing pants and shirt in the Gold Fabric.  I used #1’s clothes and used as patterns.  Keep them pretty tight, so they will fit under the armor.
  Note that the shirt ends above the belly button. I duct taped the hem after the whole outfit was put together in order to get the exact right length.
• Cut the hair bands , so you have long strips.  Glue them onto the upper-middle to bottom of the shirt.  (Make sure to put newspaper inside the shirt so the glue does not go on the other side.  Wait until completely dry, do another section of the shirt. Repeat.
• NOTE: The shirt will get VERY heavy, so be prepared that it will stretch and hang lower than expected.
• Using black thread, sew the hair bands in place at the top, bottom and in the middle. (Since the glue will crack in sections.)  I tried doing it on my sewing machine, and it did NOT work.  This was by far the most time-consuming part of the costume.

“ARMOR”:

CHEST:

• If needed, shorten the 2 chest plates – they should end at about the belly button. I recommend marking with a sharpie first, then cut with your old scissors.  Be careful so the plastic does not crack.
  Don’t forget to remove any fabric/string/plastic attached to the plates intended for wearing – you will add your own later.
• Glue the small plastic lid in the center of the larger lid.  Then glue soda cap in the middle of the mall lid.  Let dry.
• Glue large lid in place of the front chest plate.  Let dry.
• Cut the sides of the rectangular container so it sits snugly on the armor on the upper back.
• Cut rectangles of craft foam and glue on the bottom of the box.
  (I also ended up glueing  several strips together and gluing them on the inside of the plastic box.  I had a hard time getting the box to stay put on the chest plate, since the glueing surface was so small.  Adding the foam underneath greatly increased the surface, and helped everything stay in place.
• Let all pieces dry thoroughly. (at least 24 hrs)

• Cut the top and bottom off, of the 1 and 2 Liter soda bottles using an X-acto knife.
• With 1 cut down the side, cut the 2 Liter bottles into “sheets.”
• Remove any fabric/string/plastic attached to the forearm guards intended for wearing – you will add your own later.
• Using an awl, make the wholes in the upper arm (1 Liter soda bottles) and forearm guards.  This is where you will attach the gold elastic and 2 gold straws.
• Cut straws in to about 3″ pieces (size will vary depending on how big you costume is).

Spray paint all the GOLD parts (Brown primer optional).  Repeat as needed:

Initially I was going to have both legs gold, but I changed my mind after we painted them. If you check carefully, you can see there are hand guards. They looked too clunky, so we didn’t use them.

• Completed Front and Back chest plates (except the silver com-unit)
• Forearm Guards
• 1 Liter Soda bottles (Arm guards)
• Straws
• Face Mask (you want it to be the same color as all the other pieces)
• 4 Cut 2 Liter Soda Bottles (Thigh guards)
• Left Boot

Spray paint all the SILVER parts (grey primer optional). Repeat as needed:

• Right Boot
• Medicine measuring cup (Com-unit for front chest plate)

Assemble all Parts:

• Connect chest plates with loops of gold elastic.  It’s easiest much easier to make adjustments if you do this step while your droid is wearing the pieces.
• Connect the forearm guards with gold elastic loops.
• Tie a large bead to one end of a 10″ pice of gold elastic.  Thread it though from the inside in the hole you made in the upper arm piece.   Thread 2 pieces of straw on the elastic.  Thread the elastic through the hole you made in the forearm guards.  Tie off with another bead on the inside.  Repeat with the other set.  Again, this step is much easier to get “just right” if the droid is wearing the pieces.
• If your droid is still willing to model AND willing to wear all the base layers, take 2 flat-ish pieces made from the 2 Liter soda bottles, hold them up against the thigh and duct tape the pieces together so they fit snuggly.  Cut off any excess plastic off.  Repeat with the other thigh.
• Glue com-unit onto the right side of the front chest plate.

HIPS & NECK:

• Using large pieces of paper, make patterns for the hip and neck pieces.
  (You can download, size, and print out the picture of below if you want)
• Try the paper pieces on and make any adjustments.
• Trace the patterns on 1/4″ beige craft foam.
• Cover the other side of the foam with gold Duct Tape.  Make sure to overlap each strip a bit.
• Cut out with an X-acto on self-healing mat.
• I used gold Duct Tape to close the hips (or the “diaper” as my kids call it) and used velcro strips for the neck.

HAIR:

Since #1 has long hair, we made braids and pinned them to the top of her head so they mimicked the “ridge” around C-3PO’s head.  Then we used gold hair color spray to get a nice shimmer.

Tips:

Gold Duct Tape RULES!  It is strong, flexible and can fix just about any on-the-spot wardrobe malfunction.

The Foam/Duct Tape combo is fantastic.  It is strong, durable, flexible and the shape bounces back if you bend/sit.  If I did this over again, i would skip the soda bottles, and make more parts of the duct tape-covered foam.

I had some problems with my glue selections, so I don’t want to recommend those types of glues.  I’ll do some research and will add recos at a later date.

Get Supplies:

• Gold Fabric
• Black T-shirt
• C-3PO Mask
• Tall Boots
• Gold Satin Gloves
• Robot Chest Plate
• Knight Forearm Guards
•  Beige Craft Foam

• Gold or Beige Thread
• Black Thread
• Gold Elastic Cord
• Large Beads
• Elastic
• Gold Duct Tape
• Gold Metallic Spray Paint
• Silver Metallic Spray Paint
• Grey Primer Spray Paint
• Brown Primer Spray Paint
• Temporary Gold Hair Color Spray
• Good Scissors
• Awl
• Sharpie
• Sewing Machine
• X-acto Knife
• Self-healing Cutting Mat