A couple of weeks ago, L's school held a Book Character Day. The children were encouraged to go to school in their most favorite book character, and to bring along that story book. It was a happy news for me as that meant more DIY costume-making! 

Being a typical boy who is especially fond of heroes, L wanted to go as Percy Jackson, but was quickly reminded by Ch that he has not even read a single book of Rick Riordan. So he chose his next favorite book character - Max of Sea Quest by Adam Blade. Max is the main hero of the Sea Quest series who has a brilliant understanding of technology. Saved by a rare mythical sea girl (Merryn), she gave Max two gill-like openings to enable him to breathe under water. He wears a blue dive suit, with a pair of infrared goggles on his head, and a curved hyperblade that is pure vernium and cuts through anything. The hero rides on the Lightning Aquabike for his sea adventures to fight monsters like Cephalox the Cyber Squid and Skalda the Soul Stealer. 

The school celebrated Children's Day last year with a Super Hero theme and Ch went as Spidey Girl. This homemade costume was an easy assembly of different components - the mask, Spidey shirt, a pair of blue tights, and a red tutu (idea taken from here). 

Buying a Spiderman costume off the shelves would have cost me $30. And I'll be stuck with another costume in the cupboard after the kids have outgrown their superhero-crazy phase. My actual total damage for this homemade version was less than $10 including unlimited joy of making it. Most of the cost came from the pair of blue tights and the red tulle material and these can be reused in other ways.

The Spidey shirt was borrowed from a friend but you can easily make one with a red blouse and draw the webbing pattern using a fabric marker or do an elaborate version like what this mom did at Shannon Makes Stuff. My friend happened to also have the felt Spiderman mask that I was going to make so I conveniently took it from her too (thanks Pamela!)

I love how the red tutu transforms a Spiderman costume to a cute one for a girl that isn't too feminine! And it's a NO-SEW tutu! How's that as a time-saver!! To make this, I used an elastic band and measured around Ch's waist. Following the instructions by Paging Fun Mums, strips of the red tulle was cut to the desired length and looped around the elastic band. A no-fuss, red tutu completed! 

The only problem to this costume was that I couldn't get a better quality tulle, so Ch complained that the tutu was very rough on her skin and poked her when she sat. 


You can also make cuffs like these using felt or toilet paper rolls which I did for my simple Teachers' Day Spidey Mom costume last year (don't laugh... teachers do have fun too). 



Have fun making your own Spiderman costume!

L with his best friend, HL

L with his cousin Aly

Hawkeye and his bow and arrows

Tomato rockstar and his cardboard guitar

The elephant shrew, an endangered animal

Eli Shane ready for his next mission together with his slugs!

From Mo Kar Kor to Slugterra containers!

The blue glass paint (my existing craft supplies) mixed with Mod Podge didn't turn out too dark, so the containers still look "un-blue". To attach the containers to the belt on the t-shirt, I used velcro instead. I'll have to stitch the velcro on the belt to make this costume more lasting coz they didn't last through one day of fun. 

Photo credit

Our family loves The Avengers movie, and we watched it again for the third time during our recent Movies Night. It was then that L decided he wanted to be dressed up as Thor for the school Halloween party. I tried to persuade him to be The Incredible Hulk instead. After all, all it takes is some green face paint and a pair of pants for this costume. Easy peasy. He refused, insisting that he wanted to be Thor. Eventually, I managed to convince him to be Hawkeye instead. He loves Hawkeye anyway, and the movie has the hero dressed mostly in black, so it'll be easier for me to make the costume. 


I started googling for DIY tutorials four days before the school party and found a very informative site by Life Sprinkled With Glitter. So thankful for her instructions, else I would probably see a disappointed L wearing a skeleton costume. 

The following day, I went to two big neighbourhood malls but could not find a single black tank top for boys! Can you believe that? In the end, hubby found a black tee from Art Friend and we cut off the sleeves. Also got L a pair of black jeans and a belt to go with the Hawkeye look. 

Making the bow:
The DIY tutorial suggested using a PVC pipe to make a bow which really works and is safe to shoot. I used a long paper roll instead. Wouldn't want to risk having 20 children playing and shooting one another with the bow and arrows. 

I made two slits across the points shown by the red arrows and bent the paper roll to form a curve. Then I taped the whole roll with black duct tape. You'll need to reinforce the two parts which bend with more duct tape. 



Next, I poked a hole at each end of the paper roll and attached a string through the holes by tying a knot at each end. 

To position the arrow easily, I poked a small hole through the centre of the paper roll and forced the plastic part of a syringe through, then cut off the excess part of the syringe. The plastic syringe was also sprayed black to create a uniformly black look. 



I also added two tapes at the centre of the string (near the plastic syringe) to help L position his arrow more easily. 


Making the quiver:



This was done using a cylinder tube from a courier service. I cut the tube to fit the diagonal length of L's body. Sprayed it with black paint and glued a strap to the top and bottom of the tube using hot glue gun and taped with black duct tape. The strap was from those free bags which I received from attending conferences and seminars. Really felt good reusing the things I collected years ago.  



Making the arrows:



Hubby bought these two wooden sticks from Art Friend, but you can use anything that's long enough. My other alternative would be those wooden sticks we carry our paper lanterns with during the Mooncake Festival. I glued a small bead at one end of the stick and sprayed the whole thing black. 

Making the finger glove:
Followed the instructions from Life Sprinkled With Glitter to make the finger glove. Hubby found black leather scraps and handicraft rings from Art Friend. I measured the length of a piece of leather around the wrist of L to make the rectangular-shaped wrist band. Remember to leave enough space for your Velcro strip. The Velcro strips were glued onto the leather wrist band using hot glue gun. 



Next, I cut three thin strips of leather, each with the width of L's finger. One end of the strip was wrapped around the ring and hot-glued. Then the other end of all the three strips was hot-glued to the rectangular wrist band. 

Note: I tried to stitch the leather straps together, as well as the Velcro strip, onto the wrist band... but it was so difficult. The leather was too thick for hand-stitching and my fingers got poked too much that I gave up. Maybe thin leather-like fabric will work much better. 


Making the armguard:
Followed instructions from Life Sprinkled With Glitter to make the armguard. Hawkeye wore two armguards in The Avengers movie, but I think it's cool enough with just one armguard. 



Using black elastic band, I measured L's arm (between the wrist and elbow) at three spots and hand-stitched each piece into a ring. Be sure to leave a little extra length for each circle as you will need to overlap the band when you stitch it together. Then the last elastic band goes along the arm to connect the three elastic rings and form the armguard.  



L was so happy and excited on the day of the Halloween party. He said he didn't tell the teachers what he would be dressed as, 'cause he wanted it to be a surprise! 

Hawkeye shooting at vampire teacher

[Updated on 12 Oct 2015] Hop over to check out our Easy DIY Sea Quest costume for L!