Sexy Borg Cube 2.0 - New And/or Improved (Reusable! Collapsible!)

We are the sexy Borg cube. Lower your hot glue guns and surrender your sewing machines. We will add your foam pieces and glow-in-the-dark-distinctiveness to our own. Your PVC pipes will adapt to service us. Resistance is fun futile.

Back in 2020 - under lockdown, with nowhere to go and nothing to do - I made a last-minute refrigerator- cardboard-box Borg cube box for Halloween (because, why not?). It was stupid, fun, cheeky, and I loved the idea so much that, after recycling it, I decided I should make another one; something more resilient, worn with a bit more ease, and could be dismantled for storage, travel (and getting through tiny doorways) and reused for future costume parties, conventions, weddings, etc. So for Halloween 2021 my husband and I made the Sexy Borg Cube 2.0 - and this is how we did it.

(and yes I'm just getting around to making a tutorial about it, because Halloween time is always nuts! Next year's Instructables will hopefully be both earlier AND grander!)

Measuring Tape

You're probably going to be using this all the time.

PVC Pipe Fittings - BUY THESE FIRST BEFORE THE PIPE!

12 T pieces and 8 3-way-elbow/corner pieces. We couldn't find the 3-way-elbow pieces locally so we had to order them online; we bought them before the pipes themselves to make sure they would fit.

PVC Pipe

There are different types of PVC pipe you can get, that range in size, rigidity, weight and price. (we used 'Schedule 40' - as it worked best with our budget and the rest of the pipe fittings we could find). The pipes we bought came in 10 foot lengths and we bought 6 of them. This may change depending on how big you need your cube to be!

"Saw"

There's lots of ways to cut PVC pipe; your saw is probably better than ours! But PVC is fairly easy to cut so whatever you have should work fine. A miter box with saw

PVC Cement

After a bit of research, and not needing to make this project watertight, we used just PVC Cement and didn't get PVC Cleaner/Primer

Rubbing Alcohol

(but we did use this, already in the household, to clean the PVC)

Drill (with drill bit, to make hole for screws)

Machine Screws/Bolts, Nuts and Washers

The size of these can vary depending on the size of the pipes (you want them to go through) but we used 28 bolts/machine screws, 28 nyloc nuts and 56 washers.

Screwdriver

Head needs to match that of your bolts.

Sharpie

Or your permanent marker of choice.

Black Sturdy Fabric

I used about 11yards of an outdoor canvass fabric; this was enough for 4 full cube squares + seam allowance, and 1 square that was patched together with leftover strips.

Giant Black Zippers

These need to be the length of the cube; originally I had one, but I later bought 3 more to help with storing the Borg cube in a flatter format.

Black Velcro Pieces

Pins, Fabric Scissors, Thread, Needle, (Sewing Machine)

Black Craft Foam

I had lots of (leftover) craft foam pieces; you'll need enough for looots of rectangles.

(Foam) Scissors or Utility Knife, Ruler and Cutting Board

Hot Glue and Glue Gun

3D Glow-in-the-Dark-Paint

Black Tights

Green Fishnets

Black High Heel Shoes

(my husband was learning SketchUp at the time, and decided to make a mock-up of the PVC frame Borg design; this step isn't required, but it IS cool and makes it a lot easier to plug in measurements once you have your overall desired height)

The cube is made of a PVC frame that covers your upper body, and can be worn/carried by pipes running alongside the hips and/or resting on the shoulders. With that in mind, you need to measure and record:

The overall desired height/length/width of your cube (top of head to 'legs') - which ideally is not going be a bit smaller than the width of your own doorway so you can walk in and out of your house with ease. HOWEVER. Not all doors are created equal, so be aware some places may be a tight fit depending on how big you make things! We initially measured from my head to mid-thigh (I'm 5'11" on a good day) but this would have made too big of a square to fit through the door; we had to made the cube smaller than initially intended, so my cube was a bit "skimpier" than originally planned. (And there were a few doors I STILL couldn't go through). My overall height/width was about 82.5cm/32.5in.

The width of your head and shoulders - to determine how big a gap you'll need for your head to go through the 'carrying/resting-shoulders' section.

The width of your hips - to make sure you don't put the 'carrying' sections too close together.

You'll then need to measure out the length of various PVC pipes to get that overall measurement. Take into account the PVC pipes fits into the joints so you 'lose' some of the length to that connection. And the joints that are used in some sections are reused in others, so please refer to the included diagram to hopefully make this easier (and less confusing!) You will need:

A. Top/Bottom frame length = PVC pipe + 3-way elbow joint = 82.5cm/OM (for me). You need 4 of these for the top frame PLUS two for the bottom frame.

B. Side-frame-length = 3-way-elbow joint (same one used for as top-frame) + Small PVC pipe + T-joint + PVC pipe + 3-way elbow joint = OM. You need 4 of these.

C. Front/Back Bottom frame pieces = 3-way elbow joint + small PVC pipe + T-joint + PVC pipe + T-joint + small PVC pipe + 3-way elbow joint = OM. You need two of these

D. Front/Back Shoulder frame pieces = T-joint + PVC pipe + T-joint + small PVC pipe + T-joint + PVC pipe + T-joint. You need two of these.

E. Hip-Carrying pieces = T-joint + PVC pipe + T-joint. You need two of these.

F. Shoulder-Resting pieces = T-joint + PVC pipe + T joint. You need two of these.

Your also need your 'sight-height' - distance from the top of your head to the middle of your eye, or from the floor to the middle of your eye. You'll need this much later.

Cut all your pipe pieces out, do a 'test' assembly (no screws or glue - yet) and label/coordinate all pieces; this will make putting the cube together easier and faster. We wrote numbers plus lines-to-line-up on the pipes and joints with a sharpie. Then we dissembled everything.

If you want your cube to permanently be in a cube-shape, you could clean all the PVC pipe ends and joints with alcohol and glue everything together with the PVC cement (following instructions on label). Or you could make permanent sections of the cube and assemble the sections/"walls" later. I wanted mine to break down into 'singular' PVC pieces that could be held in a bunch with a few elastics. So we ended up with a bunch of PVC pipe pieces glued to one or more joint piece(s) that all had a similar length.

When everything cured we reassembled and drilled holes though the overlapping joints/pipes sections that were not connected by glue. Everything was then secured in place with the bolts, washers and nuts.

(to store/transport frame, unscrew and collect bolts, nuts and washers in a bag. Separate PVC pipes from unglued joints, then bundle together with all other PVC pipe pieces and tie together with string or elastic)

Cut out 5 squares that are of the width/length of your cube plus seam allowance. (I generally add 1/2inch to each side). Sew four of the squares along a side of the 5th one (you will end up with a stitched fabric piece that looks like a '+'). Pin and sew your 4 super long zippers down the remaining opening sides, with the zipper openings facing the bottom. Cover your PVC frame and make any adjustments with seam allowance as you see fit.

While wearing your cube-with-cover, mark your 'sight-height' on the front fabric square; cut out a horizontal-rectangle section along with sight area, big enough so you can see comfortably.

Take leftover pieces of fabric and cut out 8 strips the same width as your velcro and long enough to loop from the bottom of the fabric cover, around a PVC pipe and back again to the cover. Stitch velcro pieces on both ends of the fabric strips (the velcro should latch to itself when the strips loop around). With the velcro side facing out, pin the strips along the bottom of the fabric cover need the sides; secure the fitted fabric cover to the PVC frame by looping the attached stripes around the pipes and back to themselves.

(to store cover, unattached velcro strips and unzip zippers. Remove from frame. Fold squares onto themselves, store flat as one big square.)

Cut out a whoooole bunch of rectangles and squares of various sizes from the black craft foam. Dot on one side with dimensional glow-in-the-dark-paint. Let dry. Hot glue pieces onto the fabric cover, covering each side but leaving a bit of a border around each foam piece. Glue additional pieces on top to create extra depth.

Put on your black tights, Borg-green fishnets -bonus if they glow in the dark!- and heels. You can wear whatever else you desire underneath (from comfy sweater to shorts that say 'Prepare to be Assimilated). Go out, live long, and prosper!