Wonderwoman Tutorial

We were recently invited to a Superfriend's Birthday party.  We love our superheroes... only there aren't too many options for girls.  I was always impartial to Wonderwoman.  I still have a photo of myself at 4, coming out of a slide at Marine World (when they were still in Foster City, California) wearing a Wonderwoman shirt.  (I wish I had access to my old photo album to post this photo).  I was thrilled when MissE said she wanted to dress up like Wonderwoman for the party.  The thing is, I can't walk into Old Navy and find graphic tees.  I tried.  I went to Target and Big W who stock plenty of Wonderwoman onesies but nothing for girls.

After doing some research, I found this tutorial: Mandy Made- Wummer Woman.

Easy, right?  Who am I kidding?  I live in Australia.  I was fully prepared to make the tank top and skirt from scratch!  But by a complete and total fluke, I found a $3 red tank top at Kmart (in the boys section.  God forbid, a girl wears red) and the perfect shade of blue $3 skirt on a clearance rack.  That never happens here!  Of course after 3 craft stores, I couldn't find yellow felt (I guess it's a really popular?) and settled on a gold "dance" fabric.

Funny story interlude: While purchasing my gold "dance" fabric at my local craft store, the cutting counter woman was making small talk.  She asked what I was making and I told her.  She then said to me, "Isn't this weather terrible?  I hope you aren't too cold on the float tomorrow night".  HUH?  Then I realised she thought I was making the costume for myself for the Sydney Gay & Lesbian Mardi Gras Parade.  Hee, hee.  I am sure there were many Wonderwoman's representing that night!

Anyway, back to my costume tutorial.  Unfortunately because I was so last-minute, I didn't take any in-progress photos but it really was easy.

Star-Spangled Skirt
 I started with the skirt.  I had white fabric in my scrap pile so I cut a few stars out of it.  My intention was to put stars all over the skirt, but since I had only the night before to sew my costume, only the front got stars.  Also, MissE is growing like a weed... I buy her clothes, they fit for 3 months and I have to buy more.  I really can't wait until she is in school, wearing a uniform 5 days a week!  I decided to be budget savvy and recycle the skirt for everyday wear.  I hand-sewed the points of the stars so I could easily cut the thread and remove them.  Voila!  Blue skirt once again.

Too Hard Basket
The costume nearly went into the garbage bin.  The gold fabric was awful.  As I cut it, it frayed.  As I tried to sew it, it frayed.  The only thing I could do with it, glue it.  And if I put too much on, it showed through.  Sigh.  It was 9pm by this point and well, glue was going to have to do!

The shirt
To make the shirt, I printed out the Wonderwoman symbol to make a pattern.  The gold fabric was too flimsy so I glued it first onto felt pieces then glued those pieces onto the shirt.  I would of liked to have been able to recycle the red tank too but it was one size too small anyway.

Accessories... it's all about the accessories.
Finally, Wonderwoman is not complete without her crown and wrist-bands.  To make the crown, I cut a crown shape in both the gold fabric and felt, and used red glitter puff paint to draw the star on the crown.  Again, I glued the gold fabric to the felt so it didn't flop over.  I stitched elastic from side to side of the crown so it could easily fit any head.

The wristbands were made in a similar way to the crown.  After measuring MissE's wrists, I cut rectangles in both the gold fabric and felt.  Again, I stitched elastic from side to side so the wristbands were easy to take on and off, and also comfortable to wear.