Cosplay Batman's Female Penguin Costume DIY

April 26, 2017

Female Penguin? Looking for a ‘Cosplay Batman’s Female Version of the Penguin Costume’ DIY? Well, making a DIY Umbrella Skirt and Waist Cincher is Not Your Ordinary Challenge! However, this challenge was presented to me by my youngest daughter, who is an extremely good hair stylist at Mi Salon Spa. (No bias here at all. Although, I will say that I have had many more compliments on my hair since she has been in charge of my color, cut, and hairstyle.)

Mi Salon Spa is the largest salon and day spa in Northern Kentucky.

The salon was participating in the Aveda Catwalk for Water Cincinnati. Two teams from the salon were designing costumes made mostly from recycled or recyclable items.

Tiffany had decided to do a female version of the Penguin. They were to recreate a Cosplay Comic book character. She didn’t want to do what would ordinarily be expected. You, know Cat Woman, Poison Ivy, Wonder Woman, etc.

Female Penguin Costume DIY

Anyway, Ashley, the model above came to our home, where I measured her waist and planned how to transform one of the umbrellas

, which Tiffany had bought on Amazon, into a skirt. (We are an Amazon affiliate. If you purchase from this link, we will receive a small percentage of the sale. Thanks for supporting this website.)

Sydney had already made the top hat out of cardboard. They needed black electrical tape to cover the cardboard. We had that. (You can see in the picture below, Tiffany had sketched out her idea. She is very artistic in her own right!)

Cosplay Batman's Female Penguin Costume DIY on MyHumbleHomeandGarden.com — ‘Cosplay Batman Penguin Costume DIY’

Then, they needed a purple ribbon to use for a band on the hat. We had that upstairs in my ribbon stash.

Chopstick Waist Cincher

They had decided to make a waist cincher from chopsticks, which they had brought with them. We did puzzle over how to string the sticks together. At first, I suggested we could just drill holes in each of the chopsticks and run a string through those. Then, we came up with the idea of weaving them together, which seemed like an easier option.

We measured how long the individual chopsticks needed to be to fit nicely at Ashley’s waist without spearing her above or below. Then, the girls wove kite string under and over the sticks from one end to the other making several rows. It held together nicely.

But, we had to cut the sticks then. My thought was to use a miter box and a miter hand saw. How difficult could that be? Well, a little more difficult than you might think! We finally, with a combined effort, cut through the chopsticks and you might have guessed, the sawing had taken its toll on the weaving job.

No big deal, just weave again. The girls straightened and arranged the sticks along the edge of a ruler taped to the counter.

Then, they began to weave. It was difficult to weave under the sticks laying on the counter. I suggested positioning them just over the edge, which helped a little.

Ultimately, Tiffany asked if I had any Styrofoam board. Well, it just so happened I did and I quickly retrieved it from the basement storage room.

The ruler was held in place by a few of the chopstick ends, which were to be discarded. The pointed ends were poked through the Styrofoam pieces and the ends, which would lie at the waist, face upward. This worked pretty well and the girls had them woven together in no time.

I asked how they were going to fasten it together in the back and even suggested ‘macrame’. They were not jumping on that bandwagon. So, I suggested weaving a ribbon or two through the sticks and leaving ends to tie in the back. That seemed more palatable to them.

The Styrofoam worked nicely and they had rewoven it for the fourth time, I believe, and the final time. We had to laugh at some of our bumbles, but in the end, it did look pretty neat!

We were brainstorming about a monocle and I just happened to remember I had a Tupperware cap for cola bottles. Retrieving it from a drawer with plastic lids, etc., I saw a clear plastic water bottle cap. I showed it to the girls and Sydney held it up to her eye. Yes!

Black Paint

It was a little large and exaggerated, but we liked that! It was lightweight. So, using spirit gum, it could be glued to Ashley’s face. A little bit of black paint first and it would be good to go!

The chopstick waist cincher, the plastic ring, and a hula hoop were all sprayed with black paint. Using Krylon Colormaster Fusion for Plastic black spray paint, several thin coats were used, versus one heavy coat. (You want to avoid drips!) You can see the orange of the hula hoop. The use of the hula hoop will be explained later!

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Hair Foil Sheets?

The girls glued hair foil sheets to a black bra to create her stunning top. They also hot-glued shapes cut from black and white felt to resemble feathers to a couple of old shoulder pads, which I had saved. At the top of one of the shoulder pads, they glued small mirror tiles for some flash. You can see it in the top picture and the picture below. Unfortunately, I did not get a close-up of it!

This was a stunning outfit if you ask me! What do you think? Anyway, be sure to come back! The complete detailed instructions for transforming an umbrella into a skirt and a closeup of the black trash bag train will be included in my next post.