My grandson’s wanted to be Groot and Rocket Racoon for Trick or Treating. (Mom and Dad added Gamora and Star-Lord) I know you can buy some pretty amazing costumes but what is the fun in that. For Groot I started with sweatshirt and sweatpants (I used black but really any dark color would work)
Other materials you’ll need
Large foam sheets 12′ x 18′ – I used 4
Fabric Glue or hot glue works ok too
Paint white, brown, and black
Kids plastic mask – I used a Darth Vader because it had a similar shape to Groot’s head
Cardboard – to place underneath shirt and pants so glue and pant doesn’t bleed through
I started by putting the cardboard inside the sweat shirt so I won’t glue the frontside to the backside and vice a versa.
I cut all the foam sheets into thick and thin strips to resemble bark.
This is the fabric glue I used – it was more expensive than hot glue but less of a mess and held really well.
I glued all the strips on leaving a little space in between. (you don’t need to worry about different shades of foam sheets because they all get painted in the end. I also didn’t glue all the edges down because I wanted it to be dimensional and look like bark.
I glued the entire front and back including the sleeves. I had some bulky yarn that I added for some accent.
I did the same process on the sweatpants
For the mask I added foam to the top – to build up the uneven tree look to the top of Groot’s head.
I covered the whole mask with the first layer of foam strips.
I glued another layer of foam strips and added mouth and eye details. Then started painting the head and the body. I used paint that I already had. I did like how the chalk paint added a dry brush look to everything.
I used an old brush to also help with the dry brush look and just kept layering paint.
The painting went quickly because you don’t have to make it look perfect.
I then painted some darker accents.
The last coat of was a light dry brush and I glued on some moss and little leaves and added some more green bulky yarn.
Groot was finally ready to wear. It wasn’t as stiff as it looks since soft foam was used. The sweatsuit kept my grandson warm too.
It was a little hard to see with the mask but it easily slides up and he wore it on top of his head.
read my next post and see how I made Rocket Racoon for my other grandson.
