How To: Build Wonder Woman's Armor for Halloween

Wonder Woman has always been a Halloween and cosplay staple. It's a costume that's both dependable and stylish — just like the Amazon who wears it. This year's reprise with Gal Gadot offers a fresh take on the old standby, with more muted colors, a tougher demeanor, and a decided lack of stars or stripes.

Tahnee Harrison from CineFix's DIY Costume Squad has come up with a compromise between the old and new costumes. It's got the cut, styling, and details of Gal Gadot's 2017 costume, but the brighter, more saturated colors of the comic book. Oh, and it looks fantastic, is budget-friendly, and doesn't require much more skill than tracing, cutting, and gluing!

Tahnee's Wonder Woman costume is very thorough, so we've broken it down into a step-by-step guide with eight-parts: bodice, belt, armbands, bracers, tiara, skirt, boots, and lasso. If you'd like to check out the original video, it's available in its entirety at the bottom of this Halloween how-to.

Bodice

First up, you're gonna work on Wonder Woman's bodice/bustier. What you'll need:

• corset
• craft foam
• clips
• craft scissors
• heat gun
• hot glue gun
• primer
• burgundy spray paint

Step 1: Bodice Foam Paneling

Sketch the paneling on Wonder Woman's costume onto a sheet of craft foam. You'll want to lay it over your corset while doing this to make sure you get the dimensions right.

Clip a second craft foam sheet under the one you've sketched on, and cut out two identical sets of the strips of paneling. As you cut them out, arrange them together the way Tahnee does so you don't get them mixed up.

Step 2: Eagle on Bodice

Sketch and cut out a pair of wings from a foam sheet (you want these to be two separate pieces so they can bend and flex when you wear them) as well as the eagle shape pictured below.

Cut out this thicker "/\/\/\" shape from another foam sheet as well as a thinner "M" shape from more foam sheets, and hot glue them all in place.

Then, cut a pair of three-inch thick straps from the foam. These will be extending around your body, from one edge of the eagle wings to the other, so make them as long as you need them.

Step 3: Heat Gun

Use the heat gun on your foam eagle and bend its head and the top of its wings forward slightly, just to give the eagle some dimension.

Step 4: Paint

Cover all your foam bits with an even coat of primer to conceal all the sharpie markings. Then, go over all the bodice paneling pieces with your burgundy spray paint.

Step 5: Hot Glue onto Corset

Using a generous dose of hot glue, stick the paneling onto the bodice.

Belt

Now for the belt portion, which will be very similar to the eagle that you've perched on top of the bodice. You'll need most of the stuff you've already used, plus a few more things:

• silver and gold spray paint
• masking tape
• Velcro sticky strip

Step 1: Cut Out the Base

Sketch this vaguely "W"-like shape and cut it out from another foam sheet.

Cut a slightly shrunken version of that same shape and hot glue it over the first to give the belt dimension.

Add a thin version of the shape to the edge as a trim.

Finally, add a "V"-shaped foam piece to the center of the belt.

Don't glue any of these pieces together just yet! It'll be easier to paint if they're all separate.

Step 2: Paint

Spray paint the base piece silver.

Spray paint the rest of the belt, as well as your bodice-eagle and the two straps, gold.

Glue the four belt components together.

Step 3: Combine Belt and Bodice

Apply hot glue liberally to the belt and eagle, and press it onto the bodice.

Hot glue a matching Velcro set onto the two ends of your straps, then hot glue the straps onto the bodice. That's the heart of the costume done!

Armbands

You've got most of what you need for the armbands already, but a tape measure might also be helpful.

Step 1: Cut Out the Base

Measure your bicep and cut out this armband shape twice.

Step 2: Cut Out the Embellishments

Cut out a "V"-shaped trim for each of the armbands.

Cut out a final, small "V" shape to complete the armbands.

When all that's done, you should end up with an armband that looks something like this:

Step 3: Finishing Touches

Spray paint the armbands gold. Once they are dry, heat them with the heat gun and roll them so they can fit snugly around your biceps.

Finally, hot glue a Velcro set to the insides of each of the armbands.

Bracers

Now it's time to make Wonder Woman's bulletproof bracers/gauntlets. In the latest Wonder Woman movie, Diana (aka Wonder Woman) uses her armbands to deflect everything from bullets to Ares' energy beams. Her crossed-bracer stance is also one of her most iconic poses, so this costume component will probably be very key for your photo opportunities. The only additional material you will need is a thicker craft foam.

Step 1: Cut & Paint the Base

Sketch and cut out this base for the bracers from your new sheet of thick foam. The flat base in the background of the picture below will be the circumference of the bracer, so use your tape measure to get it to fit snugly around your forearms.

Spray paint both bracer bases silver.

Step 2: Cut & Paint Embellishments

Cut two sets of these trims out from your old thin foam sheet. Spray paint them gold, and hot glue them onto the bracers. Then heat the bracers up with the heat gun and roll them into a cylindrical shape.

Step 3: Add Details

Using your sharpie, add the finishing touches to the bracers as pictured below.

Tiara

Next up is Wonder Woman's signature tiara. As Tahnee says, it's worth putting some effort into getting this just right, because it is going to be smack-dab in the middle of your forehead.

The new materials you're going to need are:

• bronze acrylic paint
• a fine-tipped brush
• two hair pins

Step 1: Cut Out the Base

Use a tape measure to get an estimate of the circumference of your head, then cut out this shape for the tiara.

Step 2: Cut Out the Embellishments

Sketch and cut out the embellishments for the tiara. There should be a total of five pieces to cut out: The main "V"-shape, the four-point star, two rectangular strips, and the little arc that goes above the star.

Step 3: Paint

Spray paint all the pieces gold, except the star, which should be silver. Hot glue it all together. Then, when the spray paint is completely dry, use your fine-tipped brush to paint all the recessed portions bronze.

Step 4: Hair Pins

Finally, hot glue your hairpins to the ends of the tiara with the openings pointed upwards.

Skirt

We've mostly been working with foam thus far, but for the skirt, you'll be using blue vinyl. You'll also need a few other things:

• long ruler
• sponge
• black acrylic paint
• white marker

Step 1: Sketch & Cut Out the Base

Sketch and cut out two sets of these three shapes, which will overlap slightly. Between the six pieces, they need to be long enough to go around your hips (assuming, of course, you want to be completely covered by your skirt), so measure accordingly, and be sure to account for the overlap as well.

Step 2: Fake Layers

Using a sharpie, add an extra pair of lines to the central piece to give the illusion of two extra layers.

Step 3: Paint

Using carboard and masking tape, mask everything but a one-inch edge on the bottom of every piece, and spray paint those edges gold.

Step 4: Hot Glue Skirt

That's the skirt done, so just stick it to the inside of the bodice with a generous helping of hot glue.

Step 5: Age Your Armor

Sponge some black acrylic paint (don't add any water!) all over the bodice paneling to give it patina. Then add some "scratches" using a white sharpie so your armor gets some battle scars.

Boots

This is the last major piece of the costume, and will require a pair of gold wedge sandals, and some brown felt.

Step 1: Cut Out the Bases

Cut out a pair of knee pads from the thicker foam sheets. They're basically ovals with little cutouts on the sides.

Then cut a pair of shin guards out from the thinner foam sheet.

Next, cut out two rectangles and a semi-circle for Wonder Woman's shoes. Use the thinner foam sheet.

Lastly, cut out a two-inch thick rectangular strip of thin foam for each component of the boots except the knee guard. These will run vertically down the middle of each piece as decoration.

Step 2: Paint & Glue

Spray paint the shin pads and shoe components red, and everything else (including the decorative strips of foam) gold. Hot glue the semi-circle onto your wedges as a cap-toe, and then glue the decorative pieces onto their respective components.

Step 3: Add Details Using Markers

Add the final decorative details onto the shin guards and knee pads with your black sharpie. Feel free to also use your silver sharpie to add "scratches" to your boots as well.

Step 4: Heat & Bend

Heat the shin guards with your heat gun and give it a bit of a "squeeze" so they can go snugly around your shins.

Step 5: Bootstraps

To finish off the boots, cut three-inch thick felt straps for the boots and the shin guards. You can then hot glue the felt straps and foam panels directly onto your wedges. Alternatively, you could hot glue a velcro sticky strip onto the felt straps so that your boots can be put on and taken off more easily.

Lasso

This is the final step, and it's an easy one! Make sure you have a good length of diamond-braid nylon rope and a brass fastener.

Step 1: Paint

Simple — spray paint the entire length of your rope gold.

Step 2: Cross-Body Holster

Next, cut out two five-inch thick strips of felt for your cross-body lasso holster. They're going to be glued together to form two loops, so you might want to use a tape measure to get the lengths just right. One should extend from one shoulder to the opposite hip, and the other from one side of your waist to opposite hip.

Hot glue the shoulder piece into a loop, then use your brass fastener to attach the other felt strip as a loop. This second loop should end up sitting on your hip like an uneven belt. Finally, feed your lasso through the shoulder loop.

Put It All On

Now for the fun part — putting it all on! You should end up with something that looks like this.

You'll probably be the envy of everyone else at the party after all the work you've put into this costume, but if you're worried about the competition, or you're just a completionist, you could pick up Wonder Woman's wig, shield, and sword to have the complete setup.

Did your costume end up looking as good as Tahnee's, or did you end up outdoing even the DIY Costume Squad? Check out Tahnee's video and let us know in the comments below!

If you need some makeup tips, want an even easier Wonder Woman costume, or want to combine this costume guide with a more makeup-focused one, check out Madeyewlook by Lex's makeup guide out below, which goes over four different makeup looks from simple to comic book style.

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