If ever there was a girl gang that we could support, Harley Quinn and the flock of babes she gathers in her new movie, certainly have our attention! The Joker was never going to be the king that Harley deserved, and after their nasty breakup in Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn, Harley needed to step up and flex some muscle on the gritty streets to keep the target off her back. As they say, the enemy of my enemy is my friend and this gnarly batch of betties sure can claim their space among the ranks of heavy hitters in Gotham. Not obvious allies, but one hell of a squad: The Huntress, Black Canary, Cassandra Cain, Renee Montoya and Harley band together in order to eliminate their enemies.
This new family of female crime fighters is ready to face their enemies in fabulous fashion. Harley pulls off a few legendary looks in the new flick. If you’re looking for a Harley Quinn costume to wear during your next costumed occasion, then this DIY Cosplay. We were smitten by the frilly sleeved jacket (created by michelleuberreste) that Harley wears in Birds of Prey.
For this recreation we turned to our gal Yalda, @yaldamn to smash this idea outta the park. Follow along with the steps below to see how she pulled this look together! Final photos shot by Allison Stock. Hit her with some ❤️s on Instagram @allisonthephotographer.
Harley Quinn – Birds Of Prey Cosplay Supplies
Supply list to make the jacket and shorts:
- Clear raincoat
- 1 Silver fringe
- 1 Red silver and blue fringe
- 2 Mardi Gras fringe
- 1 Police scene kit
- Jean shorts (or jeans cut into shorts)
- Red and black acrylic paint
- Paintbrushes
- Seam ripper
- Scissors
- Hot glue gun
- Clear tape
- Red and black sharpies
- blank
These accessories will help complete the look:
If there are any pockets in the way of where you need to cut use a seam ripper to remove the stitches and take the pocket out. If your jacket has a hood you can remove that by cutting close to the seam edge.
Put on the jacket and mark where you need to cut so it sits on your waist. You can use a marker to do this or put a piece of tape down like I did.
Lay the jacket down flat and draw a straight line for the new waistline from your mark. Cut along this line.
Seam rip the fabric trim from the section you just cut off. Use hot-glue to attach this fabric to the newly cut edge of your jacket. Be careful not to let the hot glue get too hot or else you might melt through the jacket’s plastic.
Now we can get started on creating the actual fringe for the jacket sleeves. Cut your fringe into individual pieces, about 3 – 3.5 inches in length.
Cut the police tape the same length as your fringe then cut it into thirds.
Now that all the fringe and police tape is cut you can begin constructing the fringe strands. Measure around the widest part of the jacket sleeve. Next measure a piece of tape the same length and put it on your workstation. This makes an easy visual representation of how long your fringe strands should be.
Cut another piece of tape that length, sticky side up. Place fringe and police tape pieces halfway on the tape.
Once you’ve placed them along the length of the tape, fold the tape over so the fringe is secure between two sides of the tape.
Trim any pieces of fringe that are too long. The end product should look similar to this.
Repeat this process until you have 8 strands. I like to randomize the color order of the fringe, so each row isn’t exactly the same.
Take one strand and hot glue it on the jacket’s shoulder seam. If your jacket has a fabric seam, like mine, glue underneath it. Gently press down and, remember, make sure the hot glue isn’t too hot.
Once you’ve glued the strand around the sleeve you can add another one. Place the second strand 2 to 3 inches below the first and repeat the hot gluing process.
Do this with all 8 strands with 2 to 3 inches of space between each strand.
As the sleeve gets narrower your strands will end up becoming a little too long. Cut any excess fringe. You can glue this to areas you think may need a little more coverage.
Ta-da! One sleeve is done. Now repeat this process for the other sleeve. This is what the jacket should look like with both sleeves done.
To complete Harley’s look, take a pair of jean shorts and place tape over them to emulate stripes. Use the tape as a guide for outlining the stripes in black sharpie.
Use a red sharpie to roughly draw stars. They don’t have to be perfect since they’ll be painted over.
Remove the tape and paint in the black stripe outline and over the red star sketches.
Let the paint dry for a couple of hours and then your shorts are done.
For the finishing touches, I trimmed Costume Supercenter’s Harley wig to be a bit shorter and threw on some fun temporary tattoos. Don’t forget Harley’s quintessential mallet to really make your outfit pop!
And that is on being quirky. Long live that Harley vibe. Check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest to stay up-to-date with our blog posts!
