Building Lego Batgirl and Joker
A Halloween Project
This year, my son wanted to be Lego Batman for Halloween, so we indulged him and easily found a Lego Batman costume for him online. We’re all in on the family costumes, and so when he said he wanted us to be Lego Batgirl and Lego Joker, there wasn’t any hesitation. However, I didn’t find any adult-sized costumes of these specific characters. We decided to make them! How hard could it be?
Gathering Materials
We thought about what we had lying around the print shop and started gathering our materials. Josh brought some cardboard from his work recycling bin. I already had purple paint from our neighbors (thanks, Ellen and Anthony!), high and low-end glue, bright yellow paper, other large sheets of paper to cover the cardboard shapes with, Exactos, did I say glue? I have a lot of specialty paper and other craft supplies to make things unique, so I employed the scraps and creativity from making books and collages to help bring these LEGO costumes to life.
The Build Process
Bodies - we started by crafting the Lego torsos out of our largest pieces of cardboard we had. We worked on the floor so we could draw out the head hole and shape of the body. Once things were solid with glue and tape, and staples, we covered the cardboard with French Paper Co. pink cardstock. I thought that starting with pink paper would help get the richest purple color we could get, so we got to gluing things down. Then Josh made an arm template and cut out all the arm holes. We made a makeshift spray booth at the other end of the garage and sprayed our Lego bodies purple. Kind of lucked out they were the same color, honestly. Our friends gave us their leftover purple paint, and we had to go buy more glue and a backup paint on account of the size of everything lol.
Boots - While I was still gluing down my pink paper, Josh started on our Lego Block shoes. He measured our legs and cut and formed 4 boots that we also covered in colored paper. My Lego Batgirl character had yellow boots, so I used yellow that matched the Batman logo, belt, and hands. We punched holes in the blocks and tied them with twine to make them easily removable.
Mask - I curved some cardboard around my head and got a measurement. Then I flattened the box back out and drew my mask and bat ears out. I spray-painted straight on the cardboard, which was fine for this, although it did rub off on my face a little.
Hands - I did these last, but spent the entire build engineering these bad boys in my mind. I curved some corrugated cardboard, punched a few holes, added rubber bands through the holes for our fingers to operate the hands, then covered the outside with yellow (or white) paper to match our costumes. I cut a hole for each of our hands to go through, then we each had some paper cuffs to complete the Lego hands.
Batgirl Design - Batgirl’s costume needed a yellow Batman emblem, a mask, a yellow belt with pouches, and a cape. I had all this stuff mostly laying around with cardstock and cardboard. I printed a bat logo and traced it on my yellow cardstock. I cut a bunch of sheets of yellow paper in half for the belt and glued those down. I cut a square shape for the belt buckle but then couldn’t resist making real 3D paper pouches for the belt so made a quick template in Illustrator, printed it and cut the box shape out of my cardstock.
If you have read this far, you probably have either decided I am really fun or really crazy. I’m both, with a deep understanding of paper crafts.
Joker Design - The Joker costume needed his suit to be designed, and I went with paper and colors I had in my studio. I traced the entire area as best as i could on white cardstock, then cut paper shapes to fill in each area like the vest I used a flashy specialty paper that had gold on it, and two colors of green that complimented the purple nicely for the lapel and neck tie.
Immediately upon finishing the hands, we went to the Downtown Cadillac Trick or Treat and showed off our costumes. Everyone loved our costumes, and I could tell my son loved being in a Lego gang by the way he kept trying to hug my box while he said “I love you Mom.” I love you too, Batman.
Overall, this was a super fun project to make with things we already had. It was also a great creative challenge that involved lots of play. I love showing my son what is possible through design and creativity.
Check out the process video below, or check out my Instagram or Facebook page to view it with music. If you want to share your family costumes or DIY costume adventure, please share in the comments!
Dani
