Make Your Own Bobsleigh Costume Instructions
Ever thought of making your own bobsleigh costume? No me neither before this post, however the kids school has an annoying habit of organising themed house days. The kids are expected to come to school in topical themed fancy dress. Great fun for the kids. not such fun for the parents, as we don’t often get a lot of notice. Whinge over, we decided to embrace this terms theme which is the Sochi Winter Olympics.
If you find yourself in need of crafting a bobsleigh costume, you have my sympathies. Here is what you will need:
Materials:
- Large cardboard box (or sheets of large cardboard if you can’t get one with the dimensions you need)
- Craft Knife
- Double sided tape
- Packing Tape
- Paint (in a variety of colours)
- Tin Foil
- Black clothes, a black t-shirt, and puffy paint (optional)
Method:
We have a furniture shop round the corner from us. For some reason, it always seems to yield up the perfect size of cardboard box for our crafting activities. They are always happy to give us the packaging, as it saves them disposing of it. And it costs us nothing, so yay!
Making the frame
First take a large box, and use a craft knife to trim equal ridges down the side of each, to make it look streamlined.
If you haven’t got a handy cardboard box the right size, use 4 separate sheets of cardboard. Cut to size and shape, folding over a tab about 1 inch thick on the LHS of each piece. Double sided tape that tab to the RHS of the other panel, to make box.
Once you have the basic outline, build in the nose. Make a template by placing the bobsleigh onto a larger sheet of cardboard. Pencil, score lightly with a knife and bend the cardboard at these points. Apply double sided tape to the tabs before attaching to the inside of the bobsleigh cabin.
Apply packaging tape around all the joins to strengthen the structure.
Decorating the Bobsleigh
Obviously take it out for a test drive before you start to decorate. Its a pretty tight fit, but bobsleighs aren’t meant to be roomy.
Basic white undercoat is a perfect base to minimise the amount of more expensive paint on the top coat.
Leftover paint from any DIY projects is perfect for this type of craft. Our front door had recently been given a makeover. Its almost black, so perfect for this project. paint in any colour or design you like.
Adding the Blades
The pieces of cardboard that were used to shape the bobsleigh can now be used to make the blades.
Trim as required, cover in tin foil, and using double sided tape, stick them inside the bobsleigh cabin, so that a few inches are showing.
Decorating
Go wild with your decorations. Odds and sods of house paint, supplemented with acrylic pain from the craft box made the Jamaican Flag on the front of our bobsleigh.
An old ski hat made a great addition to the costume. We used black sports legging and a top, and decorated a plain black t-shirt with puffy paint.
Yellow cut out letters stuck on the side with double sided tape was our final decoration. Cutting out the paper is far easier than painting them on.
Update
Abbi loved wearing this to school. In hindsight, we should have attached elastic so that she could wear it without having to hold it up. A couple of strings of elastic diagonally would be easy to add to this, and wouldn’t fall off the shoulders.
Comments 4
Wow Abbi! Super cool.
Author
Thankyou Paula. Ready for the next winter olympics.
That is crazy man! Such fun.
Thankyou Jasper. Have a great day.