An easy to make cassette tape costume based on the Awesome Mix Vol 1. tape from The Guardians of the Galaxy. the costume works for 80's theme party's as well as an unusual one for super hero themes.

The instructable aims to be easy to adapt to different sizes or uses. The design would also work well for a child's costume or even a mask.

Step 1: What You Need

Ok first you need to get your equipment and materials together. You should be able to find all the things needed around your house.

Cardboard: Get a large flat box such as a TV box or one used to flashback furniture.
Tape: Masking tape for the ouside painted areas and Packing tape for inside strength.
Adhesive: White glue, Prit-stick or Double sided tape.
Paper: Flipboard paper or wallpaper lining paper works great.
Paint: Poster Paint as its cheap and dries quick. Black, White, Red and Yellow
Tools: Cutting board, Craft knife, Compass, string, Chalk, Marker Pen, Ruler/Tape Measure, Paint Brush

Step 2: Plan the Costume

Since the costume is based on the tape from the movie I have used a still from the movie and an old tape I had lying around to work out the design of the costume. The key dimensions are all you need in order to get the proportions right.

With these basic dimensions determined you just need to multiply them my the scale you are going to make the costume. I'd recommend you don't scale it up by 10 like I have as it is a bit large. If i was doing it again i would probably go for a scale of 8 to 1.

The basic design will be a sandwich board style 2 part design that goes over the shoulders.

Step 3: Mark Out, Cut Out, Tape It Together

Marking Out: Using the plan we just made mark it out on the inside of each piece of cardboard. On a separate piece of cardboard mark out the toothed wheels (My dimensions used saved as notes in diagram). Don't worry about being perfect as at this scale people won't be able to tell.

Cutting Out: Then using the craft knife and cutting mat carefully cut out the small circles (Red) and the 2 big middle circles (Blue) for both pieces of cardboard. Keep the 2 big circle cut outs for later. Do the same for the toothed wheels.

Then cut along the line Green line to separate the trapezoid shaped section from the main body. Cut 3 strips of card to go round the top and side of the trapezoid.

Assembly:

Attach the strips to the trapezoid making sure to use masking tape on the outside. In my costume I raised the trapezoid by 20mm and then folded the excess flush to the inside of the main body and secured it using Packing Tape.

Finally cut 8 cardboard squares and stick them to the inside of each corner. This creates the recessed screw holes.

Step 4: Painting

Now on to the painting. Put newspaper or a sheet down to protect your surfaces.

Mix a dark grey paint for the cassette body. I used ~ 4 to 1 ratio of black to white poster paint.
Use pure white for the toothed wheels.
Use pure black for the Big circle cutouts you saved from earlier.

The grey and black should only need 1 coat but the white may need a couple of additional layers.

Step 5: Making the Label

The label is fairly straight forward. First cut your paper to size and then mark out in pencil the line spacing's, the middle cut out and the text. The dimensions I used are in the plan above.

Next mix up yellow and red poster paint to get the right shade of orange. Paint your stripes either using masking tape to define the edge or by carefully keeping to the pencil lines you have drawn.

Finish the label off by tracing your text with a big black marker pen.

Step 6: Putting It All Together

Add the reel wheel: Stick the black circle cutout to the back of the white reel wheel. Then attach it to the inside of the cassette body as shown in the images.

Drawing the tape reels: Tie a piece of chalk to a length of string and use a push pin to create a pivot point. Create concentric chalk lines by adjusting the length of string. You only need to draw the reel where the label won't cover. Add extra detail using dark Pastels/Graphite/Markers.

Attach the label: Glue or double-sided tape the label into place. Leave the edges unstuck to give a more aged and worn effect.

Step 7: Create a Harness

Next up is to make a simple harness. This design will keep the two sides of the tape parallel to each other. If you don't use this style of harness make sure your design doesn't create an A shape as it will be very uncomfortable around the neck and look a bit stupid.

Main Supports: Create a pair of stiff supports between the two sides. I folded some spare card together and held it in place using tape.

Extra Strapping: To add extra support and stop the costume slipping you can add extra shoulder straps that attach at the middle of main supports and about a quarter of the way down each cassette. See the diagram for a clearer explanation.

You should now be finished. Well Done.

Step 8: Add Your Own Sound Track

A cool addition is to add some battery powered speakers to the inside of the costume and attach them to your preferred music playing device. Then create a playlist for your mix tape and start playing out some great 80's classics.