Sunday, September 9, 2012

Shredder Costume- How To Make Armor

I made 4 pieces: 2 shoulder pieces, 2 wrist pieces, and a small Shredder claw using craft foam and duct tape. I bought the craft foam at Dollar Tree. It came in a big pack like construction paper.

1. Measure your arms so you can determine how big to make the pieces. You're going to make 4 rectangles.  Here is a picture of an arm. I marked the areas where you need to make measurements using blue lines. Please ignore the red, because I don't know how to get that off the stock photo.

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2. Draw your pieces on a piece of paper and use the pattern on your craft foam.

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3. Cut out the craft foam pieces. Then you're going to need to curl the foam pieces using heat. Easiest way to do this is to turn on your gas stove and hold the pieces about 6-8 inches away from the flame for a couple of seconds. Wait for the foam to start to wilt and mold the pieces to your shoulder and arm. I just shaped my pieces over my shoulder and arm.

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The piece should look like this when you're done.

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4. Cover your pieces in duct tape.

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5. Draw a fin pattern and cut the pieces out of foam. I used 2 fins on the shoulder pieces and 4 fins on the wrist pieces. I made them all the same shape and size.

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6. Cover the fin pieces in duct tape.

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7. Tape the fin pieces onto your arm and wrist pieces. The pieces should look like this when you're done.

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I taped ribbon on the underside of the armor to attach it to my costume. This was good for the wrist pieces, but not good for the shoulder pieces. I think sewing or taping the shoulder pieces directly to the costume is more effective, but I made my Shredder costume a tube top, so that wasn't an option for me. I also didn't make a helmet.

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