Hey everyone! I've been working on my Captain America build for SDCC and since I've been on hiatus I really worked on doing it under a budget. I'll have to add everything up but I'm pretty sure I spent under $300 dollars. Which is pretty pricey but still better then some of the costumes I've seen that spent easily $1000.
The first thing I did was hit a couple of Army navy surplus store for a helmet, gators and an ammo belt.
I picked up this helmet liner for $22.
I didn't want to get the metal helmet because it's more expensive and it tends to run on the heavy side. Walking around the Con with a heavy metal helmet on my head didn't seem fun.
I also got some white military gators for $24. I bought some RIT Dye in dark green for $4 at Michaels and dyed them.
I had a really hard time finding an ammo belt that was accurate to the WWII ammo belt that the Cap wore in the movie. The only ones I found online were $50 replicas and I didn't quite want to spend so much. So I spent some time hunting in the vintage stores of Burbank and managed to run across a white one. It's not 100% accurate in style and is polyester instead of canvas but it was the closest I found and was only $15. I tried dying it with the RIT Dye like the gators but because it's polyester it ended up coming out like this:
No go. So I bought some iDye Poly from Joann's for $6 and it came out better. Not exactly the dark green I was looking for however. Here's the final color that I got along with some M1945 suspenders I got off of eBay for $10.
Obviously, this isn't going to work. Since polyester is so hard to dye, I was just going to paint it with watered down acrylic paint. But my friend actually owned an ammo belt in the correct color and let me borrow it. It's not accurate to the movie or the time period but it'll work since I'm short on time.
Looking for a shield and looking at references of how other people made their heater shield, I decided to buy one that already made and painted and just redo the paint job. So I bought this shield off of Ace Martial Supplies website for $38.
The next thing I did was buy my shirt. I simply bought the licensed Marvel cut and sew shirt off of Ebay for $26.
Here's the link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/150803233992?lpid=82&chn=ps
It's made really well and looks pretty much perfect. My only complaint would be that the star isn't stitched as heavily as in the movie. But that's something that you could easily do yourself if it so possesses you.
For the gun holster, I happened across an Indiana Jones toy gun and holster set that was pretty spot on for my cosplay. And cheap! $12.
http://www.costumesupplies.com/stor...4LnqSzRz4GXoP-kQAIhT8Q-jefQsmS10i8RoCETHw_wcB
As far as the leather jacket and boots go, I'm borrowing mine from a friend so it was easy and free! As a girl, it's hard to find a completely accurate leather jacket for cheap, but I managed to find a couple on eBay that would work if need be:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Womens-Faux...t=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item43d90da5fb
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Womens-G-II...912?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cfdf619f8
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Women-Slim-...t=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item27da551003
The first thing I did was hit a couple of Army navy surplus store for a helmet, gators and an ammo belt.
I picked up this helmet liner for $22.
I didn't want to get the metal helmet because it's more expensive and it tends to run on the heavy side. Walking around the Con with a heavy metal helmet on my head didn't seem fun.
I also got some white military gators for $24. I bought some RIT Dye in dark green for $4 at Michaels and dyed them.
I had a really hard time finding an ammo belt that was accurate to the WWII ammo belt that the Cap wore in the movie. The only ones I found online were $50 replicas and I didn't quite want to spend so much. So I spent some time hunting in the vintage stores of Burbank and managed to run across a white one. It's not 100% accurate in style and is polyester instead of canvas but it was the closest I found and was only $15. I tried dying it with the RIT Dye like the gators but because it's polyester it ended up coming out like this:
No go. So I bought some iDye Poly from Joann's for $6 and it came out better. Not exactly the dark green I was looking for however. Here's the final color that I got along with some M1945 suspenders I got off of eBay for $10.
Obviously, this isn't going to work. Since polyester is so hard to dye, I was just going to paint it with watered down acrylic paint. But my friend actually owned an ammo belt in the correct color and let me borrow it. It's not accurate to the movie or the time period but it'll work since I'm short on time.
Looking for a shield and looking at references of how other people made their heater shield, I decided to buy one that already made and painted and just redo the paint job. So I bought this shield off of Ace Martial Supplies website for $38.
The next thing I did was buy my shirt. I simply bought the licensed Marvel cut and sew shirt off of Ebay for $26.
Here's the link: http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/150803233992?lpid=82&chn=ps
It's made really well and looks pretty much perfect. My only complaint would be that the star isn't stitched as heavily as in the movie. But that's something that you could easily do yourself if it so possesses you.
For the gun holster, I happened across an Indiana Jones toy gun and holster set that was pretty spot on for my cosplay. And cheap! $12.
http://www.costumesupplies.com/stor...4LnqSzRz4GXoP-kQAIhT8Q-jefQsmS10i8RoCETHw_wcB
As far as the leather jacket and boots go, I'm borrowing mine from a friend so it was easy and free! As a girl, it's hard to find a completely accurate leather jacket for cheap, but I managed to find a couple on eBay that would work if need be:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Womens-Faux...t=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item43d90da5fb
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Womens-G-II...912?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cfdf619f8
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Women-Slim-...t=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item27da551003