Project Spider-Beth: The Base Suit

Hello again, dear friends!

Today, I'm going to share with you a little cosplay project I put myself up to a couple weeks ago,  code-named "Spider-Beth" by my photographer for the costume: a submission for the Spider-Man DIY costume contest, hosted by Marvel in honor of upcoming Spider-Man: Homecoming!!

Now, before you get excited: no, I didn't win. I'm not sure that the judges ever got to see my design at all -- there were some pretty major glitches with the system that many contestants (including myself) ran into, sadly. BUT! It's all good, I still had a fantastic time making the costume, it was a super fun experience, and the girl who won did a wonderful job on her costume. :)

But regardless, back to the business at hand! The point of the contest was to create your own version of Spidey's homemade suit, utilizing everyday materials from Goodwill, your own wardrobe, and elsewhere. Basically, "what would Spider-Man's suit look like if you made it?"

What a challenge, right?! I'm all over it. Goodwill is my favorite thing (did you know all the fabrics used in my Captain America cosplay were sourced from a thrift store?). We had a bit under 2 weeks in total to create the costume, so I got right to work -- and booked it over to my local Goodwill.

After a fun day of shopping, I came home with this cool lookin' jacket. I was just about to check out when it caught my eye, because of the mesh that totally reminded me of a spiderweb, kinda like a micro version of the design on Spidey's real suit -- and the lining color is a timberwolf shade grey, which I decided was close enough to blue to pass.

After a couple days of staring at it, I finally decided what I wanted to do: switch up the color of the sleeves and hood to red. So, after attempting to dye it (that was definitely a no-go), I tore out (read: carefully seam ripped) the lining out, and set to work putting in a new one.

After I had the sleeves and hood linings out, I used the pieces as guides to cut out my new linings.

that's not blood, that's my attempt at sharpie dying (it was not effective)

 Next up, I basted the linings and facings together...

And then sewed the pieces together and to the body of the jacket.

One last step to finish off my Spider-Beth jacket, was adding a web design to the inside of the hood, inspired by Spider-Gwen's look from the comics. Because I'm suuuper creative like that.

The funny thing was, I discovered a little surprise when I turned my work around:

The sharpie bled through, giving me the web design on the outside as well!! At first I freaked -- WHAT HAVE I DONE and all that. Buuuuut after calming down and realizing it actually looked pretty great, I warmed up to my little mishap, and now I just love it. :D

So, that was the jacket. Next up were some more elements to get my Spider-Beth look looking, well, spider-y.

Also on my shopping trip to Goodwill, I stopped by Kohl's (my favorite clothing store ever -- I'm barely kidding when I say half my wardrobe is from their clearance section), and found a pair of absolutely perfect blue jean capris (and when I say "blue," I mean a nice, bright blue) on clearance for $10 -- so there were my spider pants.

Next up, the shirt. I already had a sleeveless turtle neck shirt that I realized would be perfect (most superhero suits are turtle necks, in case you haven't noticed), so all I needed to do to make it Spider-Beth worthy was sew on a spider emblem. I copied the version from Homecoming to the best of my ability, cut it out of some black faux leather I had leftover from Doctor Strange, and then hand sewed it to the shirt (as invisibly as possible).

So we've got the shirt, the pants, the jacket... there's still a couple more pieces needed.

BUT those will have to wait for our next post! There, I'll tell you all about the webshooters, sweet lenses, and some homemade boots I whipped up in a day. :D

Until then, my friends!