DIY Halloween – Wonder Woman Costume

 

 

If you’re anything like me, you love Halloween.  Well, I probably get into the entire idea of it because I was such a sheltered child.  I wasn’t allowed to participate in the entire ordeal.  My parents took me to our church and we had a little carnival and we all dressed up as bible characters every year.  That ended when one kid dressed up as Mary Magdalin though.  Of course, none of us kids knew that she was a prostitute in the bible.  Heck, we all wore long brown, gray or maroon dresses…

Then, one year while in church, our house caught on fire and burned down Halloween night.  I remember thinking “Those Devil worshipers burned my house down” while on the way to meet my parents who had left in the middle of service to hurry and get to the house.  Of course, it was the coffee pot that started the fire but being that I had been taught my entire life that Halloween was the Devil’s holiday, I was convinced an evil Trick Or Treater did it.  LOL!

After that, I always had this anger inside towards my parents for not allowing me to “be a kid”.  It was part of growing up.  I never even got one of those five dollar plastic masks that are considered deadly now days.

When I had kids, I would take them to visit the grandparents in one costume and they would trick or treat in another.  My step mother sewed as well so the girls had some pretty good costumes.  They usually had three or four to choose from come time to race for the candy.  Of course, Avery, my youngest had to pee in my cheerios three years in a row and wear her Tinkerbell costume.  Every year, I would buy her another or encourage something else but she insisted on that dang Tinkerbel.

Didn’t she realize I was living through her!!!!

A few years ago, I got invited to a Halloween party.  I had been invited to some before but by me making such a big deal out of Halloween every year, I didn’t have the money for me and the girls to dress up. They were in high school by now and for some reason they did not care to dress up. So, I actually was going to be able to dress up!!! Yay!! I was so excited!

I have never been one to buy a costume. Every costume the girls ever had was homemade. I hate those cheezy costumes at the party places that cost a fortune and never fit right, etc. I totally refused to pay that much money for something so cheap!

I have always had an obsession with superheroes. My room was in Incredible Hulk and I am a girl. Okay, I had to share a room with my brother when I was a kid so maybe that was why but I also don’t ever remember minding that I had an Incredible Hulk room.

I am not a skinny mini with some hot body so no leotard would be allowed. Plus, who wants to worry all night making sure everything is still in place? Not me! I want to have some drinks, take some shots, and get in my invisible plane and go home!

Of course, I got on Pinterest and searched DIY Wonder Woman Costumes. There are some good ideas on there. But, I wanted to be original, blingy, and comfortable all the same time.

Here is what I came up with! I totally love it still. And every girl needs an excuse for Super High Red Velvet Red boots right?

For the top, I decided on this leotard in garnet.

For the bottoms, I ordered me a pair of navy soffee shorts in size medium. I usually buy large in these because they’re my comfy, spill anything on them shorts.

Next, was the accessories. Now, I am on a major budget and was stressing since I already spent over $20 on this costume.

I looked at many options for the shoes and certainly there were cheaper options. You can buy the cheesy boot covers from random places, you can spray paint boots from a resale shop, etc. But, I had never dressed up and I wanted these red boots! I tried justifying them and saying I would wear them again but I haven’t been able to yet. Surprisingly, they are actually comfy and I left them on all night as well. The heel is mighty high but since its’ a wedge it isn’t so bad.

Now for the “small stuff”. This took LOTS of time. And, I don’t have pictures anymore because I wasn’t blogging but it isn’t really complicated.

I went to Hobby Lobby got the following:
1/2 yard yellow felt
3 bags of the larger (1/2 inch I think) gold sequins
mustard yellow thread
regular sewing needles
Velcro strips
clear small beads
I measured my waist and cut an 8″ wide strip of felt to go around and doubled it over and sewed them all on individually. Yes, it takes forever but I think it was worth it still. It is actually relaxing too. I would just come home in the evenings and work on it for about an hour. I did start this in September though so it took awhile and I wasn’t doing it everyday.

On the bracelets and headband, I got smart 🙂 I cut 6 inch pieces the length I wanted and folded over. I cheated though and went to buy the three inch sequenced strips for them though. I sewed them in the middle and then sewed the individual sequins around to make sure no ugly yellow felt that could be seen.

***** On all the accessories, be sure and leave some space on one side to fit your Velcro so you can so it on. I put the rough part on the side of the sequins on top of them but left room for the furry part on the plain yellow side. I wanted to be sure no felt would show.

For the stars, I just drew some stars on plain paper and pinned my favorite one to the felt and cut it out. For them, I used the extra small sequens though cause the big just didn’t look good. I am sure you could buy some fancy gold material though and that would work. I wanted the sturdiness of the felt though and I didn’t want different shades of gold, etc. Plus, I still had 3,000 beads left.

For the white stars, I got sparkly white strong scrapbook paper and hot glued them on. 

This was in 2013 in Texas. It was still pretty hot so the cape wasn’t necessary to me. Yes, it would’ve been awesome but I estimated the fabric and it would’ve been about $80.

My party was a couple of weeks before Halloween actually on a Saturday night. My friend had a wedding that day and I still wasn’t finished with my belt!!! I took my stuff and sewed the sequins on while the hubs drove us to the wedding. The party had started at 8:00. We left the wedding at 9:00 to head on out to the party BUT MY COSTUME STILL WASN’T DONE. At this point, I realize I hadn’t even taken the leotard out of the package to see if it fit! We drove home with the interior light on of the car and I finished sewing the belt. When I got home, I put all the Velcro where it needed to be and headed up stairs.

For the WW logo, I googled “Wonder Woman logo” and just searched images. I did the same steps as above. The most difficult part of blowing it up on the printer and making it the correct size.

Oh! The Wig!!!! I had searched Amazon consistently trying to find a wig. If it had the logo for “Wonder Woman” it was crazy expensive. I found this wig on Amazon.

Here goes nothing! Please fit, please fit!

I run upstairs and open all my packages praying it all works. I mean, at this point, I really have no clue what I would’ve done after all this work!

But, everything fit perfectly!!!! Even the leotard. I did buy some panty hose so my mayonnaise legs wouldn’t be scaring everyone and hide any bruises or any cellulite I may be having to worry about showing. I am all about carefree costumes!

I think it turned out great! I was so proud I had tears in my eyes! Not that I thought I did perfect or anything but that it all fit! Didn’t have to drag out the hubs white business shirt and do the last minute Risky Business thing.

   
   
When I came downstairs, the hubs was like, “Wow”!!! I did look cute I have to admit. LOL! I got my laso and hooked it on. Then I jumped in my plane and headed out. Here is a picture of it!