How to Make a Captain America Costume

I noticed the month (and the year) is almost done and I haven’t posted a single entry yet so I decided to rush this one.

As my Facebook friends know by now, me and my wife recently attended a costume party and we both won 2nd place in the male and female category.  My wife was a pretty Witch that night while I, being the comic geek, was Captain America.

I’ve been asked more than a few times about how I did the shield and my reply has always been the same “My wife did it, not me” to the amazement of some. Here are some tips for those who also want to come up with their own homemade Captain America costume and shield.

First, the costume.

I remember wearing one of those store-bought Captain America costumes when I was a kid so choosing and creating this one was a little nostalgic. I’m also a big fan of the recent movie and so I wanted something similar to that. However, I took the liberty and did several adjustments to it since time and money was scarce at the moment (as usual).

This is how my version looked like:

I follow a rule every time I make a costume: SPEND MINIMALLY!

So I headed to a nearby Ukay-Ukay and luckily found the jacket and pants for merely P35 and P50 each.  I then went to a sewer (a person who sews, not the TMNT hideout) to get the jacket’s size reduced a bit and to have the red and white stripes added as well.

We had problems with the star on the chest. Sewing it on the jacket would mean I wouldn’t be able to wear it anymore. We decided having a sticker would be a better idea at the moment so there!

And yeah, I also thought I could get away without a helmet or a mask since Chris Evans seldom wore his on the movie anyway. Haha!
As for the boots and that bad ass belt, I borrowed them both from Jan Karldine – whose dad is actually in the military.

Now let’s take a closer look at the shield.

Originally, we wanted to make this Flying Captain America shield but, again, time wasn’t on our side. Thanks to Aries (who cosplayed Devil May Cry’s Dante that night – he won 1st place), we had an idea for an inexpensive and less time-consuming substitute.

A 16-inch bilao! Yes, the kind you can buy for only P20 from most public markets. I then wrapped the bilao in Manila paper and my wife used kartolina to trace the inner circles and she carefully placed strips of red, blue, and silver duct tapes on each one . Putting them all together and attaching a handle was easier once my wife was done with the patterns.

So there! My own homemade Captain America costume. It may not be much but it’s clearly my favorite among all the costumes I previously wore (Jack Sparrow, Marvin the Martian and Mad Hatter).

Here are a few more pictures:

And, of course, a couple of pictures with the wife – who’s actually 1 month pregnant now yey!

Special thanks to Tina and Jessica for the awesome images.