adjusting Robbie the Recycle Robot for older kids or grown ups

Oct 23

For older children and adults, create a mask to go with the Robbie the Recycle Robot costume. We used both pieces of a commercially available heavy duty disposable pie tin. We used a rounded wooden peg to push out a nose and eyebrow form in the malleable pie plate material, then CAREFULLY incised some shapes, opening eye holes and mouth with a screwdriver and hammer over a soft towel. (Hint: check the eye openings to make sure that the wearer can actually see!! Also, if the mouth opening is large enough, it isn’t necessary to add nostril openings.)

Using small pliers, we gently bent the edges of each opening towards the back of the mask and crimped the edge flat. With a round peg (a wooden spoon handle would work), we further rolled down the edges— then, though the edges were softer, we TAPED over each edge with sturdy duct tape until there were no sharp points. DO NOT put sharp points next to your face. EVER.

This mask form is NOT for small children.

Once all the inside edges of the face openings in the mask were safely covered, we cut 4 small squares of duct tape and placed one on the front and one directly opposite on the back on each side of the mask about halfway on each side. We made a small opening through the front and back duct tape squares. Using the large chenille stems, we poked from the back through to the front on each side of the mask and made a slight twist in the end of the chenille stem at the front to keep it in place. This makes for comfortable, adjustable mask holders!

Just because we like the decoration with a soupçon of additional unreality, we added small reflectors on the cheeks and secured the plastic top of the pie tin over the mask.