Child’s Cardboard Groot

I am Groot!
This is a Groot costume that is easy and inexpensive.
It can be completed in a couple of hours.

Cardboard
Heavy duty scissors and/or box cuter
Hot glue and glue gun
Loose fitting long sleeve Tshirt
Loose fitting long pants
Stuffing: paper, plastic bags, leaves, whatever
Sharpie markers: brown , green, red, black
Green craft paint and small brush

Gather you supplies and find a large work area.

Use the stuffing materials to tightly fill the shirt and pants.
Try to stuff well, but don’t overstuff. You want the costume to fit slightly loosely. If you overstuff , it will be too loose.

After stuffing the shirt, lay it flat on the ground. Cut out strips of cardboard. Some of the strips should be fairly straight and a few should be curved like roots.
The strips should be the length of the sleeve of the shirt. I made my strips about 1.5 inches wide.
Now, use the brown sharpie to draw lines the length of the strip from shoulder to wrist.
Use the hot glue gun to apply glue to the underside of the cardboard.
You can lay out several strips until you get a pattern you like. I just alternated . I would glue down a couple of straight strips then add a curved strip. Try to cover the fabric, but don’t layer more than 2 or maybe 3 strips.
Cover all the way around the sleeve.
If you want a more flexible costume, you can cut the cardboard at the elbow. Cut the cardboard only , not the sleeve of the shirt.

The hands are about 2 times the size of mine. You can place the wearer’s hand on the cardboard and sketch out a hand twice the size of the wearer.
Cut out and add the brown sharpie lines from wrist to finger tip.
Bend the hand into a circle and glue the pinky side to the thumb side.

The chest and back are constructed the same . There are 6 overlapping chest plates.
Everyone is a different size , so calculate what a third of the shirt measures from shoulder to the bottom of the shirt.
Cut out 6 plates that will overlap by a couple of inches at the middle of the chest or back.
Use the brown sharpie to draw angled lines that point down towards where a belt buckle would be.
Starting at the bottom, glue the bottom 2 plates on overlapping in the middle. Now glue on the next 2 overlapping the other way. Lastly, glue on the remaining 2 making sure that you are covering all of the fabric at the shoulders and neck line.
Don’t like the way it looks? Pull them off and reglue.

For the front of the pants cut long strips that go from the waistband of the pants to about 10-12 inches past the ankle depending on the size of the wearer.
Like the sleeves most strips will be about 1.5inches wide and fairly straight. A few will be curved.
Draw on the long lines with the brown sharpie.
Now start layering the strips trying to alternate with straight and a few curved strips .
For the back the only difference is that the strips end at the heel .
My costume had about 5 long roots for the feet.
I created a cardboard tube that a shoe could slide into and glued the foot roots onto the tube.

The mask should be cut for the size of the wearer. Measure the size of the head at its widest point and cut the headpiece a couple of inches larger.
Draw the brown sharpie lines from top to bottom.
Draw on the eyes , brows and mouth with the black and red sharpies.
Roll the cardboard into a tube and glue at the center back.
Place the headpiece on to the wearer and estimate where the eye holes should be. I put mine on the black part of the eye to be less noticeable. Mine are only about the size of a nickle, but you can make them larger.

Using the green craft paint and brush add green accents to the top of Groot’s head . Add green to the tips on the chest and back. Also, paint long lines on the arms , legs,feet and hands.
Congratulations! You have completed your Groot costume!!