DIY Thor Halloween Costume

We couldn't get the entire family to agree on a theme this year so on one side we have Rainbow Emma & Stormcloud Mama and perched on the other side we have God of Thunder Ben and The Hulk Chris. Seems about right.

Ben was very involved with the making of his Thor Costume. He begged us to be able to watch Thor:

Ragnarok and we reluctantly agreed, provided it was in broad daylight and we stopped several times to check in with our mini Thor. He loved it. Of course. Sigh. 

Anyway, his costume was a hoot. We have a no-weapons policy in our house but bend the rules for Halloween. He challenged everyone to a duel. Come next week the sword is going to 'mysteriously disappear'. 

Ben liked this particular version of Thor because his hair was already the right color and length. 

Here is the outfit we were trying to replicate, minus the loin cloth and red symbols. 

Purists will note that Thor actually didn't have a hammer in the fight scene with Hulk, thanks to Hela's devious shenanigans but we chose to give him both because Hulk without his hammer is a very sad specimen indeed. 

REQUIRED SUPPLIES

Vest and Sword Belt

1-2 yards grey felt (depends on your child's size)

1-2 yard faux leather

1/2 yard red fabric for cape

1/2 yard gold vinyl for decoration

Cotton batting

Scissors, hot glue, velcro, 

2 yards webbing for sword holster

Helmet

4+ Foam sheets
Spray paint (silver)

Acrylic paint (gold)

Hot glue

Hammer

3 Florist blocks

Tape

Wooden dowel

Hot glue

Spray paint (silver)

The base of the vest is a simple grey felt. I used one of his shirts to trace a pattern on paper and then transferred it to the fabric. The outer breastplate layer is a faux leather with a thick fabric backing that I found at Joann's fabric. 

Fabric tunic and side wings attached with hot glue. I did a velcro enclosure on one side for easy donning of outfit. 

I used my original tracing paper pattern to trace it again onto the faux leather fabric (left picture). Drawing (and cutting) the front pattern took a few mistakes (which is why some of my lines aren't perfect) (right picture). 

After cutting out the fabric strips in the faux leather, I set them over the felt vest and glued them down with hot glue. 

I added a small amount of stuffing under each fabric strip to give it some detail - makes it looks a bit more muscle-y. :)

The gold detailing is made from a thick vinyl matte fabric that I got on clearance from Pacific Fabrics. Again, I just glued it down to the vest, anchoring a strip of red fabric for the cape. The red fabric is polyester, but you could probably use almost anything, including standard cotton or felt. 

Extra faux leather was used to make his wrist guards along with leather cords.  Punch holes with scissors and then just mimic tying shoe laces. The proper Thor didn't wear black long underwear under his getup but then again he wasn't in frigid Seattle, either. 

The helmet is made of foam sheets, held with hot glue, and is the exact template that we used for his knight costume. It's an adult size: when Ben was age 5 I reduced the size to 87%; I was a little too optimistic that his head at grown substantially by age 8: 93% was still too big for his little pea-sized noggin. :) 

(Template here). 

I spray painted the entire thing silver and added the gold detailing by hand. An extra band was required inside to keep it from falling off. You could probably make this look a bit more polished by using a different type of glue but this version suited our purposes just fine. 

Thor's hammer is made from three foam florist blocks held together with tape, painted silver, and with an attached wooden dowel for a handle (glued in). It's very lightweight; no concussion if you accidentally get bashed in the head with this version. :)

The bag is made of felt and the gold vinyl. Ben has requested a larger size as he has grand candy aspirations for next year. 

The cross-chest sword belt is his favorite accessory. It buckles in the back to accommodate for growing Thors and is constructed of faux leather fabric and straps. 

Hulk refused to paint his body or rip his shirt but gleefully got into mock battle mode. :)

Projects: Lego Table and Auction Basket

Here's a recent project. Ben's school had an auction last month and our class decided to put together a Lego Gift Basket - classroom parents  generously donated building sets. I was in charge of making the seat/pouf and Lego table. 

I picked up the table at our local thrift store for $5. It was looking forlorn and in desperate need of some TLC. 

I sanded it down, gave it a nice paint job, and then glued down these Lego baseplates in the form of an island surrounded by water. 

 Ready for pirate play! Or a beach vacation! Or a shipwreck! So many imaginative possibilities.

The pouf took a bit more time. The pattern I used is roughly based on this one, with small modifications to the height to make sure that little knees could properly fit under the table.

Basically, sew a cylinder, do some math (pi!) to make a circle that will fit the top, sew that on, stuff it, and then put a sturdy base on the bottom. This last step is optional; most poufs have fabric tops and bottoms, but I needed mine to function as a sturdy chair so a floppy pouf was undesirable.

I used 1/4" plywood for the bottom disc.

A quick note about gear: recently I've really enjoyed using a very light pair of rubber gardening gloves when doing any project that requires tool use or wood handling. They certainly won't protect from saw cuts but I find that I've cut down on my splinter count and general wear and tear on my palms.  

Once the pouf is sewn and the base cut, the next step is to stuff it. Most folks use beanbag pellets or cotton batting but I found that something with less give was necessary to provide a firmer seating experience. I used an old (clean!) duvet covered by an outer layer of cotton. 

Foam around the outside of the wood provided additional cushion. 

Afterwards I simply hammered the fabric to the wood using upholstery nails and added furniture feet. Project completed. 

Ben made me swear that I'd win our own basket at the auction but I was promptly outbid by a parent that clearly loves their child far more than I. :) Sorry kid. 

Crafty Gifts and Car-trip Ideas

Hello! How are your holiday activities progressing? Drinking plenty of egg nog and eating gingerbread? We've been consuming vast numbers of satsumas this month; I love the food associated with this time of year!


We got our holiday shopping out of the way this week. I have it on good authority that Santa got a little lazy and refused to buy a single roll of holiday wrapping paper. So if you get something from me and it's decorated in HAPPY BIRTHDAY wrap, blame Santa.

I also continued my color-coded wrapping scheme this year. Presents destined for Christmas Eve are wrapped in one type, presents from Santa are wrapped in another, and presents from parents are wrapped in a third colorful (birthday) variation. Makes things less stressful and easier to ID. I have distinct memories of my mom taking a carefully wrapped present and giving it a good shake (listening for tell-tale toy identification sounds), before saying: "well, it could be from Santa....or it could be from us. Who the heck knows."


I did a few some-what homemade gifts for the kids this year. The main one is that I made us all cozy fleece neck warmers. They are SO EASY. Takes about ten minutes. I pretty much wear mine around the house 24/7, because I have horrible circulation and am a walking iceberg. I used this tutorial.

I also did matching PJs for the kids using iron-on transfer paper. We're going with winter woodland animal theme. Clipart here, pjs here (they're nice and soft).

Ben has been begging for a fierce dragon shirt and this was the end result.

Ack, I can't find the original graphic location. I was convinced that I'd purchased it on Etsy but now I'm not so sure.

Who doesn't love Alpacas!? Emma is going to flip. Clipart here. This one also comes with cactuses! Or is it cacti? Regardless, prepare yourself for more alpaca-centric materials here on the blog.

Weirdly, I like that the transferred images appear slightly weathered. It gives it a distressed look that all favorite t-shirts should have.

This time of year I also start thinking about activities to keep the bambinos occupied on car trips or long family dinners.

My kids are ages 2 and 5 so obviously our go-to items have changed over the years but here are a few of our home-run hits.


The National Geographic workbooks and sticker books are some of our very favorites, along with a few select toys (ahem, legos), pads of paper (the binding prevents the pages from getting scattered) and the straw beads.

Also, stickers are our secret weapon. We only made it to the Arctic (and back) this summer because I bought hundreds of stickers that Emma proceeded to stick on every available surface in the truck. It was a total pain to remove them a week later...but so worth it!

For car trips, I transfer everything into re-sealable bags. For this project I pre-cut the strings and added a scotch tape 'needle' on one end to facilitate threading. You can do the exact same project with cheerios or hollow pasta; it's an activity that keeps my kids entertained for hours.

A friend of mine also posted this project on Facebook a while back and it became an immediate hit in our family. It's a lego sheet taped down to a child's lunch tray and it serves not only as a stable building base for lego projects, but also a flat surface for writing (flip it over) and eating snacks. The lip helps to prevent fly-away pieces.

Have a happy holiday, friends! Stay safe and be well.

xo,

Sonja