Converting a "binary string" into a byte or char?

[PSYCHONAUT]

I've been trying to figure this out for hours now, and I've given up on trying to solve it myself. Basically what I need to do, is convert a "double octet" binary string, such as "11010011 01011101", into a byte or char type if possible.

I use the following code to convert my Unicode text into binary:

    Private Function ByteToStr(ByVal bt() As Byte) As String
       Dim st As New StringBuilder
       For Each byt As Byte In bt
           st.Append(Convert.ToString(byt, 2).PadLeft(8, "0"c) & " ")
       Next
       Return st.ToString
    End Function

    Private Function TxtToBin(ByVal Str As String) As String
       Return ByteToStr(Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(Str.ToCharArray))
    End Function

And that seems to work perfectly, I get the results I'm after. But how do I then convert those results back into a string? So far, the only code that has worked for me is this:

     Private Function BinToStr(ByVal BinStr As String)
        Dim str() As String = BinStr.Split(" "c)
        Dim bt As New List(Of Byte)
        For Each s As String In str
            For Each d As Byte In Convert.FromBase64String(s)
                bt.Add(d)
            Next
        Next
        Return Encoding.Unicode.GetString(bt.ToArray)
    End Function

But that gives me weird results. The "Convert.FromBase64String" obviously isn't what I'm after. Any help would be great. If I can convert the "binary string" into a bytes or chars I can get it into a string.

EDIT: I suppose I'm dealing with the hexadecimal base, 16 bits? I really don't know much about base numbers or encoding...