Bombshell Harley Quinn: A Walkthrough

Although I've already got a lot of costumes done for Expo and Malta Comic Con, I thought I'd add yet another one: Bombshell Harley Quinn. Harley is a favourite of mine, and I love this design. 

Cheap and easy, I said. Really simple to make, I said . . .

To be fair, this was not an expensive project, because I already had most of the supplies: the wig, stretch fabric, goggles, the boots etc. I only spent 4 Euro on this project: 50c on the jacket, and 3.50 on the rib knit. 

I made the stockings by stretching material around the leg and pinning it into place.

 I then sewed it up. There's elastic in the stop and bottom of the stocking. I ironed interfacing on to the black diamonds, and sewed those on by hand. The stripes were harder to do. I partly hand-sewed them, partly sewed them on with a tiny zig zag stitch on the machine.

Next was the jacket. I bought a jacket from a charity shop and took it in at the sides. I also removed the sleeves and turned the lower part of the collar under to change the front of the jacket (hope that makes sense - you can see the basting stitches on the front), and shortened the jacket.

 Next I draped fake sheepskin over the collar to get the right shape and sewed it on. There are two layers of sheepskin.I then sewed on a piece of rib knit, and them added the zip. I also added epaulettes. These are just little rectangles of fabric sewn along the shoulders.

 The last steps were to reattach the sleeves and add the patch. Easier said than done. I had to keep trimming the arm holes to get the sleeves to fit. Lots of trimming and pinning to check the fit. The patch also took a long time to do, because there was embroidery on the back of the jacket that had to be unpicked and removed slowly. The patch was made by ironing interfacing on to a piece of white fabric, tracing the design on to the cloth, and adding detail with markers and paint. Next I used a narrow zigzag stitch to sew the patch on.

 The shorts were very easy to make: just cut off the legs of some trousers. I actually had to lengthen the shorts because they were just too short.

The bra was quite simple to make: I just stretched some red jersey over on cup and sewed it down. I sewed the diamonds n top. Not totally happy with the bra; sewing on the jersey crumpled the cup a bit. The bra is a bit skimpy, so I made a tube top to wear outdoors.

 Harley has a lot of accessories, such as this belt. I made pouches and the belt buckle. The pouches are made of scraps of jersey and interfacing. I added snaps, and glued on gems for decoration. The belt buckle is made of craft foam, PVA glue, and acrylic paint. The buckle and pouches have pieces of ribbon glued/sewn on to the back, allowing them to slide on to the belt.

I originally bought this wig from Coscraft for a female titan cosplay, but it's too yellow for my taste, and a bit too long (yes, I know I could trim it, but I hate doing so). I found a tutorial on how to turn a normal layered wig into a pony tail wig, and added red hair ties. There are clear hair ties on the ponytails for a more secure hold.