Somewhat Budget - Man of Steel

So every year my wife and I have a Halloween party at home and every year has a theme. Last year was "Crime & Criminals", the year before was "Pirates", Before that "Undead", etc.

Well last year almost immediately after the party, my wife came to me to plan the theme for this year's event and she picked "Comic Book Characters (movie and TV interpretations acceptable). On top of that she picked Superman and Wonder Woman for us.

Which left me with the prospect of hunting up the costumes ... and getting into a bit better shape .

So after looking at and then tossing the idea of the usual costume store stuff, I went on-line for ideas, found this site and several of the somewhat higher quality costuming options on the web. I never could find an outfit for my wife that she liked so I am having to make her costume from scratch ( which will be the subject of another thread once we are nearer completion) however I did stumble across a Man of Steel suit on clearance on Ebay last year that I bought which I thought had some potential.

The suit arrived exactly as described and is superior to the items found at the usual "costume shops" but does need some work before I will be happy with it.



Here is the suit with basically no alterations.

Things that I need to do:

~ Add shoes/soles to the boot sections of the leggings.
~ Correct/tighten up a few seams to make it fit a bit better. Esp. on the thighs.
~ Replace the plastic "S" emblem with one I obtained last year from Pannaus.
~ Adjust the folds on the cape at the neck to more closely match the correct look from the movie suit.
~ Repaint the belt "Buckle" gold to match the new "S" emblem.

Optional things that I would ~like~ to do time and funds (and skills) permitting:

~ Replace the cape entirely with a slightly larger one made from a double sided micro-suede cloth.
~ Replace the belt "buckle with a better quality one.
~ Move the new belt "buckle" up about 1.5" higher on the torso.

Going to work on this (along with my wife's costume) over the next couple of weeks and see just how much of the work I can get done. Ultimately though getting her costume up to the "wearable" stage will take priority over any of the optional items on my suit's list.

here is what the modified suit looks like now.

The New shield makes it look significantly better. Nice job!

Basically I managed to get some work done on the cape, attach the new emblem and add the soles to the feet.

I still need to modify the cape where it connects to the suit but I really need to just rip open both sides and completely re-hem them into a size/shape that better fits the outlines in the shoulder details of the suit. Probably also take out the velcro and replace it with either magnets or snaps/clips instead.

I would also like to repaint the "belt buckle" black and then highlight it in gold to give it more of a "pop" to better match the chest emblem.

Of course the suit doesn't compare to one of the more "movie accurate" total custom jobs however, for a total investment of less than $250 overall I am fairly happy with it.