2020 Pop Culture DIY Costumes

Finding treasures hidden throughout Goodwill is a pretty fun task! This week, our treasures consist of iconic costumes inspired by 2020 pop culture.  The costumes I chose to curate based on 2020 pop culture include Harley Quinn from Birds of Prey, The Child/Baby Yoda from The Mandalorian, and Five from The Umbrella Academy.  Each have varying levels of difficulty, but the results speak for themselves!

Our first costume is Harley Quinn from Birds of Prey. Her costume consists of a white over shirt with “Harley Quinn” printed on it, a pink sports bra visible through the shirt, jean shorts with black stripes and red stars, orange suspenders, high heeled boots, and a chain necklace.  I began with a short sleeve white sweater.  Using acrylic paint I hand printed “Harley Quinn” on the sweater. To help, you may use a screenshot from the movie as a guide to the placement of the lettering.  Next I took a pink tank top and trimmed it down to a crop top; trimming the tank down gives the same effect as the sports bra when viewed through the sweater.  For the shorts, I used black acrylic paint and painted the stripes down the front and red stars on the side and along the upper belt area. I was unable to find suspenders for the outfit, so I improvised and used two long pieces of orange ribbon looped around the back belt loop and tied to the front two center belt loops.  The Necklace is an extra long chain belt found in the belt section of Goodwill. I took apart and attached two key chains onto the necklace for the charms.  Finally, I added the heels, drew on the tattoos, wig, and makeup to complete the Harley Quinn look.  Although a bit time consuming, the full process of putting the costume together was very satisfying and easy to do!

My second costume for this blog was “The Child” or “Baby Yoda”  from The Mandalorian. This costume was entirely made from a curtain found at Goodwill.  I began by laying the curtain down, folded in half.  I gently sketched the shape of a large tunic dress, sleeves, and a large rectangle (which will become the turtle neck). If you aren’t familiar with drafting your own pattern, you can always lay a dress you already have down and trace the shape to use as a pattern.  First, sew the sides and shoulders of the tunic portion of the dress.  Then, sew the sides of the sleeves and attach the sewn sleeves to the tunic dress at the shoulder holes. Finally, sew the seam of the rectangle and attach the rectangle to the neck hole of the dress with the rectangle on the inside of the dress. Once sewed, you should be able to flip the rectangle out and it will become the turtleneck to the dress.

For the ears, I used two pieces of green construction paper and lightly sketched out the shape.  If you are wanting the ears to last longer, you can use foam or cardboard, but the construction paper was very easy to use and worked perfectly for what I needed.  After the ears were sketched, I painted the inside with a peach color for definition (this is optional, but the paint really pulled the look together nicely). After the paint dried, I cut the ears out and attached them to the headband I had using scotch tape. I creased the ears at the top area and wrapped the paper around the band, using the tape to secure the ears on the side of the headband facing your head and adding the tape on the front of the headband as well, to make sure the ears hold their shape.  For longer lasting, you can use hot glue to secure.  Once your ears are finished, you have your full costume!

Our final costume for this blog is the Umbrella Academy school uniform.  This costume works for any of the characters in Umbrella Academy, but is most prominently worn by Five throughout the show.  The uniform consists of a white button down shirt, a red argyle sweater vest, a black tie, a navy jacket with red trim, black or navy shorts, black knee length socks, and black shoes.  Starting with a navy jacket, add red bias tape around the edge of the jacket, along the sides of the pocket, and along the sleeves about 4-5 inches up.  You can attach the bias tape by sewing it (by hand or machine), iron it with a heat bonding adhesive (like stitch witchery), or you can hot glue the bias tape in place.  Once the trim is attached, you only need to add the Umbrella Academy crest.  You can use a patch if you have access to one, but the easiest way will be to print the crest on opaque (for dark fabric) t-shirt transfer paper and then ironing it onto the jacket.  I couldn’t find an argyle vest in the colors I wanted, so I ended up painting my vest.  I used a mixture of Acrylic paint, Fabric softener, and water (mixed constantly) to make my own custom fabric paint, which will make the paint last longer and be more flexible.  I painted the larger details with a larger brush and the smaller details with a finer point brush.  With the construction of these two pieces complete, you simply have to add the shirt, tie, shorts (if you are dressing as Vanya or Allison, you will substitute the sorts for a Olive plaid skirt), socks, and shoes and you have a full Umbrella Academy uniform.

With just a little bit of time in Goodwill, you can very easily make your Halloween both fun and a little challenging!  These costumes all have varying degrees of difficulty and time commitments necessary to make them, but the results of just a little bit of time spent is more than worth the amount of time saved.   These iconic 2020 costumes will be pretty recognizable, comfortable, and pretty easy on the wallet!