Tuesday, September 9, 2014

My little Hawkgirl

Our niece Karlie turned 5 and started kindergarten last month. We were lucky enough to be able to get down to Austin on her birthday. Here she is in the Hawkgirl costume that I made her, per her request.
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Her favorite part of the costume was the mace. I also made her this little tunic that I drafted with pieced sleeves made from quilting cottons and knit.
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Karlie is growing up so fast, and I imagine she will be changing in warp speed now that she is in elementary school. Here she is on her 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th birthdays. I feel so blessed to have this silly, smart and sweet little girl in my life!

Hawkgirl costume details: The costume is made from Poly-Lycra that I purchased at Joann. The Bustier (swimsuit) portion is McCall's 6729. I split it in half and seamed it at the waist. I used gold sparkle foldover elastic for the straps, and black foldover elastic for the waist.

The leggings are Simplicity 1332, and just happened to be one of the most recent patterns I picked up at a Joann sale.

I drew and cut the mask from foam sheets that I found at Joann, Frank's idea, and glued the layers together with a hot glue gun on low temp. The wrist bands are made from the same foam and laced with thin leather lacing. The mace is made from a styrofoam ball, a dowel for the handle and polymer clay for the spikes.  I made the spikes and stuck a nail in each one before baking.  Once baked I put hot glue on the bottom of each and stuck the nail into the styrofoam.

Not shown are the boot covers that I made from red vinyl.  They had pins in them because I needed to measure for size and she was scared that the pins would poke her.  They were made from McCalls 7001, intended for a wonder woman costume but I put hawk legs on them.

The wings were purchased at our local costume shop.  Karlie woke me up early the morning after her birthday telling me, "Aya, I have to show you something".  She was watching the cartoon that Hawkgirl is in and said "look, her wings don't have straps!".  Apparently Hawkgirl's wings are not attached to her body with elastic around the arms, didn't you know?!  I thought that was funny and cute.  But then again I think Karlie is funny and cute.  I hope she doesn't outgrow homemade gifts anytime soon, or like, ever!

I'm really pleased with how this costume came together, especially considering I didn't think I was going to make it in time for her birthday at all.  I ended up starting at the last minute and finished just in time.  Typical Ashley.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Could I get details on the mask? Does it strap to the head? Thanks this is exactly the info I have been looking for to make my 8 year old a hawkgirl costume.

Ashley said...

Amy, I used foam from the kids craft section at Joann and glued the gold part on top. She is just holding it to her face here but I'm pretty sure I made small holes to thread thin black elastic through to hold it on her head. Hope this helps!

Kristi said...

Very cute Hawkgirl! How did you make the mace? It looks fantastic!

Ashley said...

Thanks Kristi! The mace is a styrofoam ball. I made the spikes out of polymer clay and baked nails into them. Then I poked holes in the ball with the nails and put glue on the bottom of the spike to help hold it on. I also glued the dowel rod handle into it. Then I spray painted the whole thing.