IRON GIANT PAPER MACHE COSTUME

Colby decided to make this costume for Avery since IRON GIANT is an older movie and you can not buy hardly anything for it. Avery is still obsessed with the movie.
This costume is made with cardboard the he just glued together with hot glue to make the foundation of the chest plate.
For the hat we first started with a plastic helmet that you can get at any party store. This was a construction helmet we used for another party earlier that year. We cut off the rum and used the rest so it had some strength being that we know our 3 yr old is going to be very hard on it. Colby then added the other aspects that made it Iron Giant.
Then came the paper Mache. It is a mixture of water and flour you can find a recipe online anywhere. Ripping the newspaper into small strips you lay it into the flour mixture then lay it on the foundation piece. until it is covered well. we did it in two layers drying once both where done. It dried over night and he was able to paint it the next day with just some acrylic paint.
You can if you wish put a layer of machei over it that has been blended up to give it a smoother more solid look, although because of time and what it was fore we decided not to. Later we regretted it and wish we had because it would have made it much stronger. I later had to put duct tape around all the edged because of how hard he was on it and the newspaper stared to peel off. Duct tape was very serendipitous for us since our costume was already silver to begin with!!

He just drew the stripes and bolts on with a sharpie marker. But to make it look better I would suggest painting them on and taking the time to tape it off with painters tape for good hard solid lines.

Avery loves his costume, he is sure to point out every little dectail in the movie, notice the bump on the head and the mohawk hair, he'll say. He wears it every day and will as long as it holds up I suspect, for months if not years to come!