Batgirl Birthday Costume Simplicity 1036

Hey!!!

Today is my birthday!  And my 40th one at that!   Yay!

When the gym announced that they would be celebrating Halloween 2 days early, on my birthday, I started thinking about birthday costumes.

First I wanted to be Catwoman, i.e. the 1960's Catwoman (think Eartha Kitt and Julie Newmar).   Seemed simple enough: form fitting black shirt and black workout pants, cat ears that I probably have in the closet from a past Halloween outfit, a wide gold belt worn at the hip and a gold chain or two around my neck.  Maybe buy black gloves and hot glue some gold fake nails for extra credit.

But then I saw Simplicity 1036, Batgirl View A and I had.to.have.that.cape!!!!  Yes, I actually ventured into Joann's during the month of October to buy the pattern and the materials for this outfit.

Also I want to mention that it is really cool that Simplicity has the official licenses for these costumes, because it means it's the pattern for the real bat symbol and not some fake bat symbol.  :)

The cape


I purchased the black satin and yellow costume satin at Joann's.  This satin is more of the "Snow White" or "Robin cape" color yellow and not Batman yellow, but I am trying to give up my perfectionistic tendencies and decided that no one at the gym will say it's a real shame that the yellow satin does not match the yellow accessories.

Falling off the edge of the table


In progress, when I wonder clipped the lining to the cape exterior

Real cape--real shoulder darts!


Notable cape points:

• The cape is a real cape!  It has a shoulder seam so that the cape actually sits on the shoulder and snaps to the front of the shirt.   That is so much better (albeit more time consuming) than a rectangle of fabric velcroed on the back!
• It is fully lined.
• The cape piece was too large for my cutting table so I brought it downstairs to my dining room table where it was still too large!    
• Also I never work with shifty fabrics so this satin was sliding around all over.
• Also the fabric had major wrinkles so I used my Elna Press to press them out, but also wound up getting water marks on the yellow satin after using my spray bottle even though I had tested the technique on a scrap of satin first.  Oh well!
• The bat points are really, truly defined which is awesome!!!  Though I wound up sewing with 3/4" seam allowances instead of 5/8" because I have a new sewing machine and it is different than my old one.

The shirt

• I did not use the shirt pattern exactly.  I muslined it but it wasn't what I was looking for so I used my TNT Simplicity 9776 tank pattern (which has darts) and overlaid it with the Batgirl shirt pattern to morph it into something resembling a shirt.  
• The fabric is Nike Dri-Fit from SewSassy.com.  
• I did not bind the armholes, neckline, nor hemmed it because it is just a costume!  
• Also no sleeves, because I will work out in this and don't need extra fabric on my arms.
• I cut the bat symbol from sticky yellow felt, and tacked it on to the front since it was not staying in place.

The gloves

• Ok, I LOLed when the directions said "You have purchased gloves."  You're supposed to unpick the side seam of the purchased gloves and insert the flanges.  
• Instead, I used some black ponte-ish fabric to make fingerless gloves from the Burda 7287 pattern.  
• The "glove trims" are cut from two layers of yellow felt.  I had no idea that advances had been made in felt, so I bought felt that already has sticky glue on one side, and adhered it to another piece of felt without sticky glue.
• I sewed the glove trims into the side seam of the gloves.
• I did have to rotate the gloves by 180 degrees to get the seam to be on the outside, then cut a hole for my thumb.  
• By using fingerless gloves, this will make my workout a little less hot.
• Somehow one is longer than the other, but I am trying to give up perfectionistic tendencies and it is a costume.

The Utility Belt

• The utility belt was cut using the pattern, but eliminating the seam allowances.  This means it's 2" wide
• as I did not have a continuous piece of felt (I had only purchased the felt rectangles), the belt is actually 4 lengths of felt sewn together to make a "continuous" pieced strip.
• The bat symbol was cut from the felt with the sticky glue on the back, then tacked on in key places.
• I made the "belt capsules" as per the directions; though they are not interfaced, I did faithfully zig zag the black "rings" onto the capsules.
• I hand sewed the capsules on to the utility belt
• I wish I had interfaced the capsules and pressed it because they do tend to get squished, but again, time to release some perfectionistic tendencies!!
• The closure is black velcro, sewn on with yellow thread in the bobbin.  Originally black thread was in the bobbin but that showed on the outside and I couldn't let that one go....so I ripped it out and redid it.

The mask/bat ears

My ham models the face mask and ears

• it's actually supposed to be a hood, but that would be too hot for working out
• I cut the eye mask away from the rest of the face pattern
• I cut it out of black sticky felt and adhered it to a layer of non-sticky felt
• I used bra strapping to make the band, which is stitched in between the layers of felt



• The ears are cut from black crafting foam, with the seam allowances cut away
• I used a headband as a guide and cut a headband from 2 layers of black felt, stitched them together and used the bra strapping as the band.
• The band has velcro sewn on
• The ears have velcro hot glued on.  This way I can adjust the position of the ears

The pants

• I decided to not re-invent the wheel and use my standard RTW workout pants instead of sewing ones from scratch.

The bootcovers

• I'm not making the shoe covers as that would make this outfit too hot to workout in, but do you see the bat ears on the pattern?  Adorable!

Overall I am quite pleased with this outfit and can't wait to wear it to class tonight!  I'm pretty sure I won't be able to do the whole class with the cape on, but maybe half of it??

Be well!!