Countdown (to Halloween)

Mary... you are like a quarter of the size of your brother.

After couple years of really generic, lazy Bat-Family costumes, I thought I would put a little more effort into my costume. Sure it was easy to dig in a drawer, pull out a batman shirt, grab a black skirt, and a batarang I happened to have laying around, and call myself "Batwoman," but my geek cred would whisper in my ear, "you're really not dressed anything like Kathy Kane."

Looks comfy enough.

So, this year I got to thinking, "hey I have a craft blog that I like to produce content for, and I need a Halloween costume, why not lightly indulge in some cosplay?" Of course the next question was, "who to dress as?" I might love Kitty Pryde and Zatanna, but I wasn't about to terrify children with my fishnets.

SHAZAM

The second thing I considered was that I didn't really want to join the legions of girls wearing "sexy supehero" costumes, especially the kind that don't even make sense. If you know your comics and read my blog, the answer to my dilemma was pretty obvious, and no it isn't Ted Kord.

Mary Marvel

Borrowing the proper pieces to fix my broken sewing machine, and a $15 trip to Walmart, I whipped up my Modest Mary Marvel costume. The dress was made from a Butterick Fast and Easy dress pattern and I freehanded the cape. Everything was trimmed with a couple of packets of baby blanket binding, a yard of curtain cording, left over spraypaint, and two design-a-buttons.

The white version was always my favorite, but it lost in the informal friend poll.

Now, I call it my modest costume, because it happens to come to my knees and elbows. This might be a little ironic considering where Mary is/was at now/recently in continuity, but I like to think of it more as dramatic irony. Also, I think that Mary would approve.

I finally figured out why heroes wear capes: warmth.

Originally I hadn't planned for the costume to be nearly as detailed as it is. I had forgot about the belt, when I was buying trim, and I had no plans of making the two tiered cape. However, something came over me on Saturday, and I kinda just went for it.

Dashing.

As soon as I figured out how to do the two tier cape, I started digging around to find something that would work for the buttons/epulates that the Marvel family are often drawn with. I ended up using some design a-buttons I had on hand, and spray painting them. Also, luckily, I had just enough trim left to scrimp out the belt. The only things I'm missing now are the those large cuffed boots she is sometimes drawn with (they're just cooler than the gold slippers I have) and the decoration for the cape. If I go that far though, I might just have to wear it to a convention...