How to Make Homemade Superhero Costume Ideas

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Adrián González de la Peña/Demand Media

The costume of the superhero serves three purposes. It hides your mild-mannered secret identity, so you will need a mask or head gear to hide your true self. The costume establishes your persona by encouraging emotions, fears or awe, so you will need to decide on the theme and color scheme of your hero. Lastly sometimes the costume is the source of your power, so you may want to incorporate weapons and protections into your costume. Keep these things in mind as you create your own superhero or copy a favorite hero.

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Adrián González de la Peña/Demand Media

Decide on your color scheme. Red, white and blue are popular with Superman, Spiderman and Wonder Woman. You can go with a darker more brooding color scheme. Black, grays and purples work well for Batman or you can go with something bright and contrasting like the Fantastic Four’s blue and yellow.

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Adrián González de la Peña/Demand Media

Start with your basic layer. You will need leggings, shorts, tights or exercise pants for the bottom and a tight pullover shirt for the top. Your basic layer should be tight and probably all one color. Your contrast will come with the accessories.

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Adrián González de la Peña/Demand Media

Next decide on your powers. This will determine what weapons and props you will need. Go to a toy store or costume shop and look for cool guns, swords and gadgets.

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Adrián González de la Peña/Demand Media

Spray paint your boots, belt and gloves. Let dry. Attach your weapons and/or gadgets to your belt.

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Adrián González de la Peña/Demand Media

Make your cape. Decide how long you want your cape to be. Measure and cut your material to this length and twice this width. You will have a rectangle twice as wide as it is long.

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Adrián González de la Peña/Demand Media

Fold cloth in half. You will have a square. Tie your marker to a piece of string. Run the string from one end of the the folded edge to the other end where your marker is. Holding the end of the string firmly in its corner, draw an arc from markers corner to opposite corner. Cut along line You will now have a triangular shape with one arced side. Unfold and you will have a large half circle.

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In the center of straight edge of the half circle, draw and cut another smaller circle to fit around your neck.

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Adrián González de la Peña/Demand Media

Cut ribbon in half and sew to either side of the neck hole to tie cape on.

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Adrián González de la Peña/Demand Media

Finally, protect your secret identity. You can get a mask at a costume shop or department store Halloween section. If you don’t see one you like or if your hero has an animal motif, cut the top half off of a Halloween mask and use it. For a full head look, wear a balaclava, a kind of one hole ski mask, under the costume shop mask. Look for one that comes below the chin

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Adrián González de la Peña/Demand Media

Decorate your costume with your emblem or symbol. You can use fabric paint if you are artistic or you can just put your initial on the front of your shirt or the back of your cape with duct tape. You can also add sew-on or iron-on stars and emblems from the fabric store to your costume.

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Adrián González de la Peña/Demand Media

Go defend justice.