Lego Emmet Costume

This Costume was made with:

lots of cardboard ( about 20 medium and large boxes donated by a local store)

Duct tape: 3 roles

spray paint (some acrylic paint for details such as the smile)

"cardboard bolts" (see step 2)

air duct reflective tape

some thick metal wire I took from old lawn signs.

Unfortunately I did not have time while I was making it to take pictures of my process or exact cuts because of time constraints. However, I hope to give enough information in to the construction so that an experienced builder may be able to replicate the design with dimensions that fit them better.

The general process for making the legs was first creating two leg so that reach about your waist. It helps to make an outline of the side of the leg to see if it will fit your leg and looks generally like a Minifigure leg. one of the interesting parts of my costume is it has a built in suspension system. The legs are held up by rubber bands.

The whole construction of the legs works like trousers there is a belt loop enforced with metal that is attached with rubber bands to the legs and then attached to the legs by what I call cardboard bolts. They are made of plastic and hold up to a lot of weight. They are also reusable so I will salvage them from project to project.

The belt loop is then suspended by duct tape bands that loops over one's shoulders.

The last detail about the legs is some duck tape straps at the bottom of each leg big enough for your feet to fit in these work like flip flops giving you more control over the movement of the legs.

The torso is constructed similar to the legs I took a piece of cardboard for the front and guessed on the size and made adjustments. For keeping the pieces together I used a lot of duct tape to hold it together.

I attached the arms to the torso using rubber bands with the cardboard bolts holding each end in place.

For sizing of the arms I made the basic outline so that it was from the top of the costume to my wrist and then covered that with pieces that rounded out the look.

I made the "U" part first making sure my hand would fit inside, then added a circle of cardboard for the back

The simple shape of the head is a cylinder with the diameter from the torso top. the hair is newspaper with a covering of brown paper bag over it, painted to the right shade of brown. (this was the trickiest part of the costume because none of my tape was sticking If I were to do it again I would have used foam)

The smile I got from a down loaded picture of Emmet's face I liked this image because it has his mouth open a good amount so I can see out of it. I then took the image onto a text editor and filled the page (landscape), printed it out and tested it on the head to see if it was the right size. After finding the right placement I cut out the holes for the eyes and mouth. I then took some black fabric material that can be seen through from the inside-out but not the outside-in and duck taped it from the inside. I then painted on the teeth and tong with acrylic paint.

This whole costume took me 9.5 hours and $30 in paint and duck tape (I actually prefer Gorilla tape because of its heftiness but I use this sparingly for points of high wear because of its price) I also used simple tools since I built the whole thing in my dorm room.

my favorite tool is box opener with a sharp blade.

I think one of the most important things about costumes is adding those small yet important details such as the Emmet name tag, or using reflective air duct tape for the legs and torso. These help to cover up imperfections and add to the character of the costume.