For years, Scott has wanted a bought costume from Costco. He’s usually seen one he wants and sets his mind on it. This year, he decided he wanted to be Blue Beetle from Teen Titans Go. No luck finding this costume at Costco. So we looked at Pinterest to see if anyone had made a Blue Beetle costume and found this picture that Scott loved. Sadly, no costume instructions… sigh.
I decided it was important to try to make this beetle costume happen. So the first step was to figure out the body. I found some stretch sport fabric in the right blue color and black at Mill End Fabrics in Milwaukie, Oregon for a really reasonable price. Next, I found a bodysuit pattern… Looks just like a beetle, right?!?! Never get stuck on what character a pattern is for – just look at the shapes the pattern makes.
I cut our all the pieces in black. 2 Fronts, 2 Backs and 2 Sleeves. Next I took a roll of Wonder Under (fusible web) and fused an entire length of the blue fabric. Wonder Under is like an iron on glue that sticks two fabrics together. You iron on the Wonder Under onto one fabric, then peel off the paper, put the fused fabric onto another fabric and iron again. Now they are bonded. I love this stuff!
Another great thing about Wonder Under is that you can draw on it 🙂 Once I had a bunch of my blue Fabric fused, I laid the black front and back pieces on it and traced around them. This is how I figured out where I wanted my blue pieces and what sizes I needed everything to be. I made A LOT of lines until I picked the ones I liked best. I usually make one side, then trace that one flipped upside down, so I end up with two mirrored pieces.
Once I had the shapes I wanted, I grabbed some batting, stacked it up and cut it to fit in between the blue and black pieces. I laid my black body piece on the ironing board, laid on the batting, then put the blue piece on top an ironed it all down. I was careful to make sure the batting did not extend into the seam allowances. (I didn’t want to serge or stitch over batting.) Finally I topstitched all the blue down, because though I love Wonder Under, I don’t trust it to stick forever… especially not when worn by Scotty!
The mask was tricky – and honestly I just tried stuff until it worked, then made adjustments to fit Scott. I started with the patten’s hood, then added a Scotty shaped face piece 🙂
I started drawing the eye shapes until I liked one and then just layered up the blue on gold on black mesh.
The beetle backpack is made from foam – the foam squares you lay down to pad your garage floor. I watched some YouTube videos about using this foam and learned it could be cut easily with a utility knife and can be shaped with a heat gun. It was surprisingly easy to work with, and I’m excited to try working with it again sometime.
You’ll have to wait for Halloween to see the final product! Scotty is really excited – as he was watching me cut the foam last night he said, “It’s like I’m watching all my dreams come true right in front of me!”
Well, they better be, for all the work this is! Ha! Happy Friday everyone!
