Halloween!!! I actually made a costume this year and it rocks!

Halloween!!! I actually made a costume this year and it rocks!

• 10.31.2012

Big news from a DIYer at Halloween! I haven't had a reason to make a costume in years, and in college when I had parties to go to I usually just wore some funky vintage combination and called it a character. But this year I'm so excited--I actually made myself a super awesome costume, put a lot of work into it, and had lots of fun!

In August I finally saw The Avengers, and decided: Yep, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow would be a pretty cool Halloween costume. Gee, if only I could sew my own... (I'm sure there are storebought ones out there, but I've never liked the look of those packaged Halloween bag costumes... I'm a DIYer, anyway.) Here she is:

Jumpsuit with cool accessories, right? I studied it closely, and bought some heavier stretch suedecloth from JoAnn and used the wrong side, which looks kind of like the neoprene-ish fabric of her suit. I couldn't find a unitard or jumpsuit pattern, so I bought a dumpy fleece jacket pattern and cut it WAY smaller for the bodice. Then I traced a pair of skinny pants and cut them way larger, and then folded halfway down the center front and back of each leg and made a tuck, which I topstitched for the center seam look. I sewed the pants and jacket together, and the seam is covered with the waist belt.

Ta-da!

Another photo I studied, for the sleeves, collar, and V-shape panel details...

My version!

I was so excited about being something from a cool movie that I really wanted to do themed costumes... I wanted my husband to wear another cool costume from the Avengers, but the only one he wanted to be was Iron Man. And of course you can't just be Iron Man, without a 12' tall metal suit and all... but as we were getting the fabric cut for my costume, the girl at the cutting counter mentioned that ThinkGeek makes an LED arc reactor t-shirt that lights up and everything!

That gave us an idea. I figured, we could buy it for the $30, not too bad, or... maybe we could make one. So I picked up a bunch of stuff at Dollar Tree and I MADE this little "arc reactor" out of a closet light, circular pill organizer, and some strategically trimmed tape. I found a sort of sheer but dark t-shirt at Goodwill that the LED light showed through super well. It was a closet light base, so it already had an adhesive circle, and he just stuck it on under the shirt! Haha!

So we had a pretty cool themed costume look to wear at a party last weekend. If you follow me on Instagram (@adventuresindressmaking), you saw the sneek peek! Jason tried to make a smug Tony Stark face, haha.

My IG

I do really like Halloween, and love when everyone gets creative and dresses up! But like I said, never really made myself something before. I hope I have an inspiration next year and can do it again (although, this Black Widow costume will have to come out of the closet again sometime... too much work and too cool not to wear more than once!). Did you DIY your costume this year??!