"Sir, You Are Being Hunted" TweedBot Costume

My son, Vincent (10 years old), has been playing a video game called “Sir, You Are Being Hunted” by Big Robot. He was terrified by the robots (or “Tweedbots” as they are sometimes called) because in the game, the robots are hunting ‘you’, the human. The robots are trying to be Victorian gentlemen who enjoy hunting. My husband suggested that he dress up as one of these robots for Halloween this year and hopefully become slightly less afraid of them.
In the game, the robots wear a myriad of clothing, so we just zeroed in on one particular look that we liked.


It has taken me over a month to finish this project. It was much more complicated than I originally thought.
I got lucky and found several yards of navy blue corduroy fabric at a local thrift store. I used that for the jacket. I had to salvage a very old 1970s suit pattern for boys and change it to match my needs. I bought 20 old silver and black buttons with horses on them (also from the 70s, I believe) from eBay for use on several pieces of the costume.
I had never made a male suit jacket before this. It was a learning process. I had to learn how to do something called a “padding stitch” for the lapels (learned by watching YouTube videos). Also, everything had to be sewn twice (basting THEN actual machine sewing) because corduroy is very slippery and moves around too much if you don’t baste everything first. (Being a self-taught sewer, I learned this the hard way).
I also made the striped pants from a simple pattern of my own creation. It just has an elastic waist.
The vest was also made using the horse buttons and some scrap material I had on hand. I bought the striped fabric and gold leaf fabric (for the vest) at a local fabric store.
I also made the shoulder ammunition pouch. I just made it up as I went – no pattern. It has one horse button on it.
The hat was made with papier-mâché and felt. It took a really long time to mold the brim. I used popsicle sticks to reinforce it (had to strategically break them at certain points to create a curve). At first, it didn’t fit the mask I’d made (I think the papier-mâché shrunk down a bit) so I had to hack away at the underside until it did!
The mask took several weeks. I first made an initial shape with papier-mâché (using basic head measurements from my son and a Styrofoam head that I “built up” to be the right size). I left a rectangular hole for the light-up ‘eyes’ and took careful measurements to put mesh in place of where my son’s real eyes would be (so he could see). I also left a rectangular breathing section near his mouth. These I covered with a fine mesh (like cheesecloth) material. I sandwiched that between layers of papier-mâché. To get it smoother I used Venetian plaster (several thin layers to avoid cracks), then painted it (three coats at least), along with a finishing spray. The mesh on the eyes was carefully painted the same color, but he can still see through them.
I made a mustache out of foam core, fabric, and Venetian plaster. I wrapped strips of brown fabric around a cut-out of the shape I wanted, then put fabric glue over that. Plaster made the next layer, and then it was painted. A finishing spray was applied, and then I hot-glued in onto the mask.
I had to get help from a friend for the lights. He procured a strip of LED lights online and attached a battery to it. I made a custom pouch for the battery goes directly under the top of the mask and over my son’s head (I made the mask large enough to stick something in there). It looks like a round pillow with a pocket opening for the battery, which I wrapped carefully in plastic. I laid a layer of red craft film in front of the LED’s and duck taped it all inside. The red film was a bit too thin, so I added some red cotton material to emphasize the color but remain transparent. I also lined the inside of the mask with soft felt for comfort. Despite these efforts, it turned out pretty tight and uncomfortable. This is the most disappointing aspect to me since I worked very hard to make it comfortable.
I had to add a black neck and head ‘sock’ so that his hair and skin wouldn’t show. You can’t see it well in the pictures, but I painted on a robot ‘neck’ in the front, under his chin. This part was really tricky and the Velcro I put in the back to close it isn’t able to close all the way. Fortunately the collar from his white shirt and cravat cover up any imperfections.
I also made a very simple ‘cravat’ out of crepe back satin. Very easy. We bought the shoes (which I added horse buttons to) and the shotgun.
The hands were made with papier-mâché, foam core, Venetian plaster, black elastic, paint and glue. I molded them to my son’s hands. They aren’t very flexible but they look cool. I had to add a sort of ‘wristlet’ to them so they would stay on. They are attached to the wristlet with thread and elastic. I got sore pulling and hammering the elastic through each of the 94 little holes they had to pass through to connect each of the 14 pieces that it took to make two hands.

- What reactions did you get when wearing this costume?
He has not worn this out in public yet but he will soon. I sent pictures to my family and they said it looked fantastic. My husband was VERY impressed. He is also a fan of the game.


Ultimately, I feel this costume is a failure because it isn’t comfortable, but dang it looks great! My son may resort to wearing just the clothes with the mustache and some light up visor-glasses I bought online from Hong Kong (I couldn’t find anything that looked right sold in America).
Let me re-phrase, the mask is uncomfortable, and the hands aren’t very flexible, but I feel I have learned a great deal doing this and look forward to next year.