When Allie brought home the latest school project I sighed at the prospect. The task seemed daunting for a second grade project. She had to choose a U.S. President to report on and create a “bottle buddy” replica of her president she chose. We had two weeks to complete it. We’ve included the steps we took and the Bottle Buddy instructions to create your very own Bottle Buddy.
We were given a gentle suggestion from the teacher to choose a president that was not George Washington, Abraham Lincoln or Barrack Obama. The teacher was looking to have some variety in the project. We began searching for a president that would spark our little scholar’s interest and search we did. I suggested my favorite president—Franklin Delano Roosevelt. We suggested Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Thomas Jefferson and Ulysses S. Grant. Mr. Bear’s dad’s name is Grant, so we were really pushing for Grant or FDR. Nothing seemed to suit her.
Finally, she saw the picture of Grover Cleveland and she was sold. She loved that he was a big guy and she thought he would suit her needs. Mr. Bear and I couldn’t think of anything concrete that we knew about Grover Cleveland, so we acquiesced. Grover Cleveland it is!
On the following library day, Allie came home with her Grover Cleveland biography book and she eagerly began learning all she could, while taking notes. Who is this kid? She did a great job retelling all she could about our 22nd and 24th president, which left the bottle buddy.
According to the instructions, a bottle buddy is made out of a plastic bottle and is fashioned to look like the president of one’s choosing. We knew right away it was going to be a big project. I headed over to Michaels and got all the supplies to make our fancy guy.
What You’ll Need:
- Black felt for the suit jacket and pants
- White felt for the white dress shirt
- Styrofoam like these round ones, but chose these egg-shaped ones instead
- Buttons
- Yarn for the hair
- Googly wiggle eyes and we found these creepy ones with a colored iris in green. AWESOME!
We came home with our loot and I immediately questioned how we were going to do this. Mr. Bear had some great ideas for the head. I had no ideas. They began by fashioning yarn “hair” to the Styrofoam egg “head.” I don’t know how Mr. Bear did it, but it turned out amazing!
I began trying to figure out how to make clothing out of felt to dress a 2 liter bottle. To say it was a huge task is an understatement, especially since I really didn’t have an experience with making clothes for a beverage bottle. Try as I might, I was able to come up with some pretty good ideas. Allie wanted a hat of course and she got it! I hand sewed all the felt and even made the hat by hand. It was a lot of work, but it was a success and she loved working on it.
So, yeah. Allie’s project became our project. She did a great job on her project and while my fingers were sore from poking myself with the sewing needle OVER and OVER, it was well-worthwhile!
Awesome!! How did you get the hat & shoes to stay on? Thanks!
The shoes were from a Mr. Potato Head pumpkin dress up kit. I was able to use them to stand up the bottle buddy. The hat was pinned on the Styrofoam. Totally easy. 🙂
Awesome! We have to do one for Texas history and I am not crafty AT ALL! Your buddy looks amazing! What kind of glue did you use to get everything to stick good?
We used a glue gun to make it stick. User a high heat glue gun, or the glue doesn’t get hot enough to really stick. The buttons and such were hand stitched.
Good luck and have fun!
This is amazing! How did you make the clothes?
Hi Alison! I just worked the felt the best I could go make it look like clothes. I used straight pins to hold the “fabric” in place and then I hand sewed them. Really, it was trial and error! I used my husband’s suit jacket as an example.
Hope that helps!
Hey
My son has to do a president as well. I’m not crafty, I think your ideas are great and duly noted. I will get the crafts and try my best, can you glue the felt? How expensive is it for these items? Yours came out great, he wants to use construction paper, I think felt looks better.
You can use a glue gun for the felt. Everything is very reasonably priced. I think we spent $1 for each piece of felt. Good luck and have fun!
I’ve done Hilary Clinton for women’s awareness month WTH my granddaughter and now I’m helping another granddaughter with Martin Delany. These are great ideas however we have trouble with the clothes. Thanks for your examle. Off to make a Union soldier…
Hi. Im so glad I found your page. How did you make the nose on the bottle?
The link for foam ball for head did not work what size did you use
We have to do stonewall jackson and i gave no idea on how to do his haif and beard? How do u do the arms?
Hi how did you stick the head to the bottle