The First Duct Taped Avenger

I’m not a big fan of Halloween, but I do love costumes.  One of my key costuming resources is cardboard and Duct Tape.  So when my 13 year old son said that he wanted to be Captain America for Halloween, I started doing a little research.  I was very pleased to find instructions on making a FLYING Captain America shield out of… (wait for it)…. CARDBOARD AND DUCT TAPE!  While our first attempt at the shield wasn’t perfect, it looks pretty good AND it flies.  Here’s a LINK to the instructions and a video from the instructions showing the flying shield in action.

So with a Halloween party on Saturday, and the actual date on Monday, I really needed to get cracking on this costume.  I started by putting a garbage bag on the boy.  I folded it in half and cut a scoop for his head and arms.  Then I cut a second bag in half and made the sleeves for the armor.  Captain America’s costume IS red white and blue, so I figured I would use the white bag increase his mobility by not having to tape around his mid-section.

Then I just wrapped him up in tape.  Well, I had some good reference photos so I wasn’t wrapping randomly, but it wasn’t completely thought out either.

 Next, I took some craft foam and wrapped it in tape to make the shoulder armor and added the Red and Grey tape details.

 

Can I just say how much I love that there is colored Duct tape?  Simply fantastic!  Next, I took some red tape and cut a circle, and then used that as a guide to make a star out of the white tape and added some shoulder details.

 The last bit was taking two strips of the blue tape and sticking them together and cutting them to fit as the collar.  We carefully cut him out of the armor with a single cut down the back and will be able to tape him in when he gets dressed.  We added a few belts for details and are now on the hunt for some Brown duct tape to make belt pouches.  All and all, I would say that was a good 3 or 4 hours of fun.

The other thing that’s great about Duct Tape is that it helps to keep the other kids occupied while you work.   😀

by