Costume Help

[CaroPhoenix]

Daughter has a new favorite obsession. It's the Power Rangers. She loves the Mystic Force Power Rangers and her favorite seems to be the Yellow Power Ranger. She wants to be the Yellow Mystic Force Power Ranger for Halloween. And wouldn't you know it? There are no Yellow Mystic Force Power Ranger Costumes for a girl of 8 years of age in the 10-12 size range.

So, I need help with the costume. (To even see if it can be done). Anyone with pattern/sewing experience, could you help me figure this out? I've added a picture of what the costume looks like.

Thank you!

[Mytical]

Maybe look for some of the other many many yellow power rangers costumes and modify?

[Food Lady]

It can be done, expensively. I'm thinking that many yards of spandex (assuming you can find yellow) is going to be pricey. Plus, it can be hard to work with.

[CaroPhoenix]

Does it have to be spandex? *whines*

Yeah, I had a feeling it would be expensive. I have no clue why she has her heart set on this. Why can't she be a princess or something?

[Shpepper]

Because then she wouldn't be ChildRum... Umm.. Maybe you should talk to Pagentmama,,, She works with spandex and stuff like that for the pageant dresses or at least I think she does.
She might have some tips or ideas for you. I don't sew with it at all.

[Seshat]

It depends on how accurate she wants to be. Get a yellow long-sleeved tshirt and yellow track pants, both tight fitting. Get some grey ribbon (matte) of the appropriate width. Attach one to the other.

Get yellow gumboots or other inexpensive boots, and see if you can get yellow safety gloves at a hardware store. Attach more of the ribbon.

Buy yellow fabric and a cape pattern at the store where you got the ribbon - make it a specialist fabric/costume/clothing store and go on a quiet day, and you can probably get a staff member who can help you find the closest match cape pattern and tell you how to modify it.

The belt can be more of the yellow cape fabric, stiffened with appropriate interfacing (ask the helpful fabric store lady), or could be a stiffened band of yellowish trim. Close it with press-studs or velcro. The 'M' shaped logo can be cut from cardboard or plastic, and the yellow fabric glued on, then glued onto the belt.

The main bulk of the helmet is easy if she already has a bike helmet (or roller skates helmet or whatever): cover it with the yellow fabric, using tape on the inside to keep it in place.


I defer to others on the topic of the front of the helmet.

[XCashier]

^Seshat has some good suggestions. A yellow unitard from a dancewear boutique might work well, too.

There are no Yellow Mystic Force Power Ranger Costumes for a girl of 8 years of age in the 10-12 size range.

There are no costumes at all for any kids between 7 and adult! It's frustrating. My son is 9, he's tall for his age, and I'm having to figure out how to reduce an adult-sized pattern to fit him because they don't make costume sewing patterns for tweens.

Sadly, my sewing experience is rather limited (mostly SCA stuff), I have to follow the patterns to the letter and generally use period (or passably period) fabrics, so spandex is right out. Yes, I know, I need to take sewing classes, it's on my list of several thousand other things I need to do.

[SuperRTL]

No, it doesn't have to be spandex. I'd look for a fabric with a yellow foil on it. As the halloween/costume fabrics come in at the fabric store, you'll get more fabrics like that.

I'll see what I can dig up to give you a general guide to follow but Seshat's ideas are good if she doesn't need it to be that accurate.

[Dreamstalker]

For the helmet, I was thinking if maybe you couldn't find a kids dressup motorcycle-type helmet and modify that? I might hit up Toys R Us this weekend and I'll see if I see anything.

[SuperRTL]

I'd start with a pattern like this

It comes in the right size and shouldn't be too difficult to modify appropriately.

[CaroPhoenix]

Thank you everyone!

Yeah, I have zero or less skills when it comes to sewing. I do have a sewing machine. Somewhere. In my laundry room. Somewhere on a gorilla rack.

I'm hoping she changes her mind.

It's either that or I'm going to have to ban the Power Rangers until after Halloween. And I don't want to do that.

[Squeaksmyalias]

Yeah, I had a feeling it would be expensive. I have no clue why she has her heart set on this. Why can't she be a princess or something?

Rummy, you have me on FB go into my faire and reenactment photos and show her all the fun costumes us cool kids wear. Maybe she will be inspired. *eyebrow wiggle*

[RecoveringKinkoid]

It doesn't have to be expensive and it doesn't have to be all that difficult.

I made a Starfire costume for a five year old last year. I can design something, but I have clumsy hands when it comes to sewing. Keep this in mind:

Your kid will not notice how crappy a seamstress you are. And she's the only one you have to make happy. It can look like shit, as long as your kid doesn't think so.

Here's what you do. You go someplace cheap like Wal Mart or whatever and pick up clothing pieces you can modify to your costume. I'm thinking you need to track down probably a yellow sweat suit. Or a white one you can dye.

Places like JoAnne's Fabrics tend to run specials around Halloween on specialty fabric. I scored some flesh colored spandex and some metallic silver vinyl on the cheap last year. This was used in conjunction with some purple leggins I found, and a clearanced purple short sleeved ladies top that I hemmed up and fitted to make a little short dress out of. I don't know what I spent on all this, but I don't recall it being terribly expensive. And she even had glowing hands (green light sticks looped around her wrists.). Be creative in your interpretation if you have to, and keep Child Rum in the loop so she's got some input on the 'stume so she'll be more likely to be excited about the final result.

As for the helmet, my old man was the master of making monster heads out of paper machete. He'd use a balloon as a base, sculpt a hollow "helmet" around it with wheat paste and old newspaper, then pop and remove the balloon when it hardened up. We were poor growing up, and that's some seriously low coin outlay for what always turned out to be a pro level job. That's probably what I'd do to make your power ranger head, if you can't straight up find one in the store or online.

The nice thing about making your own 'stume is you can design it with your climate in mind. My kid looked like she was running around in a midriff top with bare arms, but she wasn't. She was nice and toasty warm, and well covered up.

EDIT: Okay, do a google search on "yellow power ranger mask" or "yellow power ranger costume" and they have costumes and costume pieces that might work for you.

Giving your picture here a good hard look, here's what I'd do:

Buy white cotton long sleeved shirt and leggings or white cotton long john set and a couple boxes of Rit dye. I say this because you are unlikely to find something like this in bright yellow. Buy cotton so it will take the dye evenly. If it's cold in your area, go with the sweat suit idea.

Buy a roll of black duct tape. Duct tape comes in all colors and it's awesome. So yellow can be had if you need that for the belt.

Stripe up your suit appropriately.

Get some cheap yellow fabric that matches, enough for two squares. Small square you will cut a neckhole in for the collar. Edge with black duct tape. Large square will be the cape. Attach however you like to the costume under the collar.

Make a belt out of yellow duct tape and a black sharpie marker. (the one I made my kid was made of silver duct tape and black sharpie marker and it looked great.)

Boots and gloves may be harder. You might have to resort to buying a pair of dyeable cotton gloves and attaching long cuffs to them. You could make cuffs of yellow and black duct tape. Yellow wellies would be perfect, or you could just make yellow shoe covers out of fabric and tape and attach them to her pants legs.

You might be able to find a mask or helmet on ebay or otherwise on line. If not, try the balloon and newspaper trick.

[Kogarashi]

Lots of good ideas so far.

If you feel you must have shiny fabric for the bodysuit, I know for a fact that Jo-Ann's (at least, our local one) has shiny bright yellow fabric. I bought some for a costume recently. It's in with the dance fabrics. If you have some close-fit clothes in the right shape for ChildRum, you can turn them inside out and trace them for a pattern (make sure to give yourself a good seam allowance if necessary). For the purposes of a Halloween costume, a front and back sewn together should more or less suffice. When sewing, just make sure to go steadily and not pull or bunch the fabric to try to keep it from puckering oddly at the seams.

[Seshat]

Even if Child Rum gets her heart set on 'shiny' it doesn't have to be spandex; it can be stuff that's easier to sew and reasonably tight fitting. Ask at the fabric store for a slightly-stretchy fabric (the sort that's used for t-shirts would do), and explain that you're a novice.

Again, pick a quiet time so the staff have time to give you advice.