With Halloween just around the corner, people are getting prepared to choose just exactly who or what they’d like to dress up as for the season! If you don’t want to just buy a Supergirl costume for Halloween, you can always make one yourself! To give you a leg up, Costume SuperCenter and cosplayer Uncanny Megan got together to provide you a step-by-step tutorital to become one of the biggest superheroes on television today: Supergirl!
So if you’re trying to save the world (or at least look like it), look no further!
Supergirl
This tutorial will help walk you through the steps of making the DC Superhero Girls Supergirl outfit. It will highlight all the construction steps and include links to anything you might need!
For this, we won’t be using a pattern, but if you would like to use one to help you along, a simple shirt pattern should do the job! Make sure you’re also using stretch materials since there’s no convenient place to put a zipper in the outfit!
We made the pattern by measuring bust, waist, and hip and drawing up the pieces. The top part of this costume is pretty simple, so if you aren’t working off a pre-existing pattern, drawing one up won’t be too hard! Make sure your front half is longer than your back half so when the time comes, you can cut the V into it.
Once you’ve drawn up your pattern or cut out the pieces, it’s time to pin and cut the fabric! Make sure your front and back are both cut on folds so you don’t end up with any unnecessary seam-lines! I’ll also be cutting the bottom of my sleeves on a fold to prevent any showing stitches.
Now that the pieces are cut out, the next step is pinning and sewing the shoulders together! Make sure your fabric is facing right side in before sewing.
Once the shoulders are pinned together, it’s time to sew! We used a serger for this, but if you don’t have one, a simple zigzag stitch on a sewing machine will work just as well! If, however, you are using a serger, we highly recommend using a stretch thread! It really makes such a difference while sewing stretch material.
After the shoulders are sewn together, it’s time to add the sleeves. Make sure your fabric is facing the right way, pin each sleeve to each shoulder, and sew. Since we cut my sleeve out on the fold, we won’t need to hem it, but if you chose not to cut on a fold, please hem your sleeves before you attach them!
Now it’s time to start attaching all the details! First up is the Superman patch, these can be found in many different sizes online! We chose to go with a seven inch patch which we found here.
First put the shirt on, or more like, slide the neck hole over your head, and decide where you want to patch to sit. Place a pin in that spot to mark it. Once this is done, you can take it off and place your pin your patch down. Make sure to measure the distance between the sides and the patch to prevent it from being crooked.
Once your patch is pinned into place, very slowly and carefully sew it down. For mine, we used a red thread and sewed right along where the red and black meet.
Now it’s time to add the collar! How it’s shaped is up to you and your preference. You can figure out the design of your collar by tracing the neck-line onto newspaper and going from there. Collars always seem to be a lot of trial and error, so don’t worry if you end up adjusting while you’re sewing.
You’ll want to cut out two of the same shape and pin them together to avoid showing stitches. Only pin and sew the bottom of the pieces together so you can flip them right-side out from the top.
Once your collar has become one piece, it’s time to attach it to the shirt. You’ll be pinning it down to the inside of the collar so when you flip it down, you can’t see where it’s attached. You might have to try this a few times before it makes sense. Once it’s pinned down correctly, sew it into place.
The next step is the cape! The shape of your cape is up to you. Once you’ve decided on the shape of your cape, make sure to cut out two pieces!
Once you’ve decided on the shape of your cape, it’s time to cut out the neck area. We did this by lining up the neck-line of my costume with the fabric and cutting it to match. Remember, the cape is supposed to sit a couple inches over the patch, so don’t trace the entire neck-line.
Now that the cape is all cut into shape, it’s time to sew the two pieces together. Place the fabric right side in, pin, and sew! Leave the very end of the cape open though, because that’s where you’ll be flipping it right-side out.
After you’ve sewn your pieces together, it’s time to flip them right side out and attach them to the shirt! Match your neck-lines up together and then pin the underside of the cape to the shirt. If your shoulder pieces are too long, add pleating to make them fit between the collar and the shoulders. Once pinned down, it’s time to sew them into place!
Now that all that’s done, we can finally attach the sides of the shirt together! Place the pieces right side in, pin, and sew! Be careful not to accidentally pin or sew the cape.
The next step is adding the gold trim. To do this, first you need to try on your shirt and mark the shape you want the bottom to be. We typically place pins to mark the shape we want on one side and then cut both sides to match.
Once you have the final shape of the bottom of your shirt cut out, it’s time to make your trim. To do this, we traced the new outline of the shirt onto the previously existing pattern piece and then measured about two inches to make the trim.
Attach the sides of your trim together, and then pin and sew them down against the bottom of your shirt. Make sure the point of the front and the seam-lines match up.
Next up is the skirt! For this, we just cut out a simple circle skirt. Although we will be explaining how to make one here, there’s tons of DIY tutorials for them online that explain the math behind it a lot better. (Honestly, just click here and follow the image, it makes way more sense than what I’m going to try to say, haha)
Once your circle skirt is cut out, place the bottom of your shirt over the center and mark what the new shape needs to be. After that’s done, cut it out and begin pinning the two pieces together. Make sure the pieces match up perfectly before sewing.
Time for the last and final step for making the main part of the costume, the bottom gold trim! Decide how thick you want you trim to be and then cut out a strip double the thickness. Depending on how much gold fabric you bought, you might have to cut out several strips and attach them together. We added horsehair braid into my trim, you don’t have to do this, but it will give your skirt a nicer flare.
We attached the trim and horsehair braid to the bottom of the skirt by folding the gold together, right side out, with the horsehair braid right at the end on the inside and the pinning it down to the skirt. Be very careful of the fabric bunching weird in places. Once everything is pinned, sew it into place, and voila! The main part of your costume is done.
Now it’s time for all Supergirl’s accessories.
First up are her shoes. This version of Supergirl wears super cute high-top Converse. While you could just buy a pair of Converse or even a knock-off pair, we chose to go with knock-offs with a hidden wedge. Click here for the shoes we purchased!
As for the hair, if you’re not already blonde, we highly suggest checking Costume SuperCenter for a variety of blonde wigs to choose from!
Next is her arm bands, these are super simple to make! Just cut out two bands to the width of your arm but double the height you want them to be. First step is folding them over, right side in. Sew the length shut and then flip them right-side out. Once this is done, adjust the seam to e in the middle and then, with the seam showing, sew the sides shut. Once this is done, flip them out and they’re done!
And lastly, her headband! You can easily go online and buy a blue headband, but we chose to cover one to better match the costume. To do this, all we did was buy a plain headband at the store and cut out a rectangle of fabric. Then very carefully hot glued the fabric onto the headband, trimming excess fabric where needed.
And that’s it! Everything you need to know to make a DC Superhero Girls style Supergirl costume!
If you’re looking for even more superhero options, be sure to check out Costume SuperCenter’s wide variety of superhero costumes and accessories! And be sure to like Uncanny Megan on Facebook, follow her on Instagram, subscribe to her channel on YouTube and follow her on Twitter!