I never got around to sharing my process for making our family costumes, mainly because I was waiting to get a decent family shot of our Avengers unit of heroes. I have given up on that for the moment, but I still wanted to share our costumes and wish you a Happy Halloween!
As you know, I have been looking forward to today for awhile. I LOVE Halloween! Yay! Luckily, I also love Thanksgiving and Christmas, so I’m not sad, just excited. October kicks off my favorite three months of the year.
Last year we were Peter Pan characters when we were on a trip to Disneyland, so my son thinks that now we have to have fabulous family costumes year after year. We will see how long that lasts! This year he decided that he wanted to be The Avengers. However, he only knows The Avengers from the cartoons because he is way too young for the movie, so he is familiar with all sorts of the original Avengers and less well-known characters. Naturally, instead of choosing to be Iron Man, Thor, or The Hulk he wanted to be Ant-Man. The one costume I can’t buy! Sheesh! He also decided that he wanted his sister to be The Wasp, who is Ant-Man’s wife in the comic books, so it worked out well. He wanted his Daddy to be Hawkeye, but dressed like the cartoon Hawkeye, not the movie Hawkeye. At least I convinced him to let me be Black Widow so I could just throw on all black. Now let’s see how I pulled together the other three costumes.
Let’s start with Ant-Man, since it was the trickiest. (This is the traditional Ant-Man costume based on the comic books.) Let’s start with the body part. I wanted a tight outfit for him, but I couldn’t find anything that matched up well. I ended up heading to Walmart and grabbing some Superman pjs for the pants. Then I found a shirt to match them in the girl section. (Shhh! Don’t tell my little man!) Finally, I grabbed some blue boxer briefs. I was unsure about how to create the harness-looking part of his costumes, along with his belt, so I decided to use felt and black ribbon and Heat & Bond. Let’s take a closer look.
First I used the spool of ribbon as a stencil to cut a circle out of felt. Next I ironed some Heat & Bond onto the back of the circle.
I used two strips of ribbon onto the center of the shirt to create the “belt.” I used the strips of Heat & Bond to attach the ribbon onto the shirt. Allow it to sit and cool so it firmly attaches. As you can see, I also used ribbon to create the other parts of the “harness.” (The ribbon did make the shirt a little tight to pull on and off. You may want to use extremely thick black elastic if you want an even snugger look.)
Once the front had cooled I ironed on the back part of the ribbon. Finally, I sewed down the ribbon to firmly secure it into place.
After the ribbons were firmly sewn into place I ironed the felt circle into place using the Heat & Bond, allowed it to cool, and sewed it into place as well. Now it’s durable and ready for washing so that it can stand up to multiple Halloween parties!
My main concern was the helmet. I thought and thought about it, and after driving around for awhile I finally spotted a helmet that I could modify for it. And, while we are at it, let’s discuss Hawkeye’s mask.
For Ant-Man’s helmet I used a spaceman helmet from the education toy store. I pulled the mask off of it and prepared to spray paint it. For Hawkeye’s helmet we bought a Wolverine mask. In the comic books Hawkeye has a big mask like that.
I prepped both pieces by using a Rustoleum Plastic Spray Primer. I gave them a good through coating and allowed them to sit and set for about 24 hours.
Once the Spray Primer had set I sprayed the helmet with silver spray paint and the Hawkeye mask with this fabulous purple spray paint. I love the way that they both turned out. That Plastic Primer is amazing stuff!
To create both Ant-Man and The Wasp’s antennae I used pipe cleaners, pom poms, and a hot glue gun. I simply put a strip of hot glue onto the end of the pipe cleaners and rolled them around the pom poms. For Ant-Man I also wrapped duct tape around the pipe cleaner/pom pom combo and then duct taped them to the helmet. The Wasp’s antennae were wrapped around a headband. It turned out exactly the way I was hoping that it would!
I think my little superhero is pretty pleased with his ensemble, don’t you?
Let’s take a moment to admire Hawkeye as well. My son was HORRIFIED when I said we were heading into the women’s section for Daddy’s sweatsuit. In fact, he was practically in tears, so I changed my tune quickly and said that it wasn’t actually the women’s section, it was the sweatsuit section. 😉 And, I’m sorry, but there is nothing sexier than a man who is willing to wear an XXL purple sweatsuit from the Walmart women’s section just to make his son happy! I love that good-natured man!
My fierce men. I love them!!
Now on to my team of cuties! I adore these two! They are a joyful pair. Every single morning without fail the first word out of Jade’s little mouth is “Bru-bur?” (Brother.) She is so in love with him. I love them together.
Now let’s chat about her “Wasp” costume, aka a bumblebee costume. She is obsessed with it. “Bee bee…..be a bee???” She kills me! I was going to make her a tutu, but I spotted this one at JoAnn Fabrics, along with the wings, marked 75% off, so I bought them both and saved myself some time. To create her top I dyed a onesie yellow and did the same thing with the Heat & Bond and sewing of ribbons onto her costume. However, it made it a beast to get on and off her. Ribbon doesn’t stretch. Elastic or fabric paint may be a better option. FYI.
When she came out for pictures she sat down and put a pumpkin in her lap. And then she leaned over, picked up one for her brother, and placed on in his lap as well. I am training her well. 😉
Thanks for stopping by, and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!
You should also check out our other Disney-affiliated family costumes! I went all out with them since we were going to Mickey’s Halloween Party (more details below).
Elsa Tutu Dress Tutorial & Frozen Family Halloween Costumes
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(Affiliate Links below – This means I get a small credit for referring you to the company, but it doesn’t cost you any extra.)
If you want to go meet some “real” superheroes then maybe you should head to Disneyland this year for Mickey’s Halloween Party, which is one of my FAVORITE things ever!! The park transforms, the villains come out to meet you, the Dapper Dans wear ghoul makeup and float down a misty river singing songs from The Nightmare Before Christmas, the ride The Haunted Mansion is transformed to be The Nightmare Before Christmas themed, there are special Halloween-y treats available around the park, and you can go trick or treating as you walk from ride to ride!!! *SWOON* If you are thinking about taking your family to “The Happiest Place on Earth” this Halloween season then you should check out the travel agency Get Away Today. They have vacation LAYAWAY PLANS! Isn’t that brilliant?! Paying off your vacay a bit at a time makes it so much more realistic and affordable! Check out their amazing discounts and packages, and be sure to use the coupon code BLING2015 to get an additional $10 off of your booking!
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These are so cute! I bought my daughter a bee costume as a baby but yours is so much cuter!!! Pinning!
Found you at Inspire Me Monday
Wow – what a lot of great ideas for costumes! My favourite is definitely the purple one – although the bee is super cute too!! Thanks so much for sharing at A Round Tuit. Hope you have a lovely week!
So adorable, pinning! Thanks for linking up to Home Matters Party. #HomeMattersParty http://cu-rio.net/home-matters-linky-party-58/