Wonder Woman, based on art by Jamie Tyndall.

I did not expect to enjoy wearing this as much as I did! I was worried it would be uncomfortable, but I’ve learned enough from mistakes I’ve made on past costumes to figure out how to secure things, fit things, and make things connect that it all stays in place and other than Atlanta being pretty hot out, it was SO MUCH FUN to wear. Kids lost their minds, and it makes me so happy they love such a good role model as Wonder Woman!! I plan on wearing this costume so much!!

Wonder Woman construction notes:

I really loved the original fanart I found by Jamie Tyndall of Wonder Woman in what he called “Elven inspired armor”. Even though WW doesn’t technically need armor, I thought that if she wore it, it would probably look something like this.

I also have to admit I took a lot of liberties with the design. It’s a really beautiful concept art, but not all of the armor would work and allow for movement of joints freely, and my anatomy isn’t quite the same as the art (dem ankles!), so I told myself to use it as a guide and allow myself creative interpretation room. After all, it’s already an original design! 😉

I started with the pants since they would be simple, they’re stretch faux leather with piping lines down the legs. for the “chainmail” top, there was no way I was going with real chainmail. It would’ve added SO much weight and bulk, not to mention be super warm (I hate wearing chainmail in bulk), so I went with a spandex printed with a chainmail pattern (thank you, Spoonflower, then used 3D puffy paint to add dimension and shine on the links.

Next was the open skirt/capelet on her waist. It’s a deep navy satin with red faux leather, stars bonded on using Heat N Bond, and gold spandex metallic trim. For the underbust corset, I completely eliminated the “fans” of fabric hanging at her lower abdomen that stuck out to the sides….I felt it looked a little Asian inspired, and didn’t suit WW so just removed those. The corset has trim along the bottom in the gold spandex, with metal stars sewn on. The gloves are a thick spandex, in navy and red.

Since I started this costume with less than a month to go for DragonCon, Robby Idol Photography kindly stepped up and made my shield and sword out of foam for me, and from there I painted them. I don’t think this would’ve gotten done in time on my own. And naturally, I ruined the first sword with a fiberglass incident and he cranked out another one for me super fast, which I painted. Yay!!

The “armor” on the arms and thighs is metallic spandex (from Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores collection of Yaya Han fabrics), since there’s no kind of interlocking armor I know of that looks braided in that sense and would allow for the joints to bend much at all. I made the armor on the thighs the exact same way I did as on the arms, so that the whole outfit was tied together with the same techniques.

For the armor on the arms, the arm guard, and knees I used thin, flexible craft foam and covered that in the same metallic spandex. I hand sewed on more 3D metal stars. The boots are just shoes I made covers for out of more red spandex, with gold spandex accents. I wanted the gold without “armor’ on the ankle, it wouldn’t make sense to have that small spot guarded and again, mobility!

The chest armor I made for myself out of foam, which I hand painted with a slightly metallic red paint (I wanted a metal look but not blindingly shiny!), and the gold on it was more foam covered in the gold spandex. I changed up the WW logo on the chest a lot from the art. Honestly, I felt like the “W” on her chest in the art looked a lot like a spider, and I worried it would look a bit too much like SpiderMans logo and confuse people some. I altered it to be much more like the “W” on Wonder Womans original costumes, and I’m super happy with that!