Fashioning the Classic Bodysuit
Start with a long-sleeved blue shirt and a pair of blue sweatpants. These items will serve as the base for your costume. You can often find plain garments with no distracting logos, graphics, or patterns at places like thrift stores and consignment shops for just a few bucks. To make your costume more accurate to the comics and movies, pick out your shirt and pants in a form-fitting fabric like spandex or stretch cotton, or buy them a size down so that they’ll fit nice and snug. If you’ve got a little money to spend, sturdier materials like neoprene will lend your costume a high-quality, realistic appearance. Keep in mind, however, that you’ll be cutting these items up.
Cut the sides out of a red t-shirt and layer it over the blue shirt. Start each cut 2–3 inches (5.1–7.6 cm) above the bottom hem of the shirt and guide your scissors inwards about 3–5 inches (7.6–12.7 cm) on either side. Then, turn and snip upwards towards the neckline, tapering your cuts so that they get wider as they reach the sleeves. Leave the sleeves themselves intact. To replicate the look of Spider-Man’s original costume more faithfully, use a long-sleeved red shirt instead and leave a 2 in (5.1 cm) strip of fabric running down the top of each arm. If you don’t want to go to the trouble of piecing together 2 shirts, you also have the option of simply buying a Spider-Man logo shirt or hoodie from a store that sells officially licensed Marvel merchandise.
Pull on some plain red socks. Look for a pair that comes up just below your knees, as these will mimic the look of boots. Try to match the shade of your outer shirt and other red accessories as best you can. If you’re planning on wearing your costume outside, put on a pair of all-red sneakers that won’t take away from its overall effect. Crocs, Keds, and Vans slip-ons are all good choices.Tip: Can’t dig up a suitable pair of socks? Get thrifty and repurpose the sides of the red shirt that you cut out earlier as makeshift boot covers.
Find a pair of elbow-length red gloves. You can score these types of gloves at any craft store or costume supply shop. Like the socks, they’ll cover your extremities and complete the bodysuit portion of your costume. Be sure to buy gloves in a material that you can draw on easily if you want to add a webbing pattern later on. "Flat" fabrics like cotton and polyester will provide the best results.
Adding Webbing and Other Details
Draw a spider emblem onto the chest of the red shirt. Use a black permanent marker or black fabric paint pen to trace and fill in a small circle roughly the same size as a quarter. Make a black oval or diamond shape right below it. Finally, draw 2 legs at the top and bottom of each side of the oval or diamond to complete your design. You can play around with the size of your emblem, if you like. A bigger spider will look more impressive, reminiscent of the original costume, while a smaller one will be more subtle and modern.Tip: Open a Spider-Man comic or pull up a picture of the webslinger online to make sure you get the look of your spider emblem just right.
Craft your spider emblem from other materials to really make it pop. If you want your spider emblem to be more prominent, another option is to make it out of black felt, craft foam, construction paper, or poster board. Trace your spider design onto your material of choice, then cut it out and attach it to your shirt using hot glue. If your emblem is on the small side, it may be easier to cut out and attach the legs separately than to try to cut out the entire design in one piece. Use fabric glue in place of hot glue if you decide to make your emblem out of felt.
Free-hand a webbing pattern on your red costume components (optional). Using a black permanent marker or fabric paint pen, carefully draw a series of parallel vertical lines down the length of each piece. Then, connect the vertical lines with short horizontal arcing lines. Continue this pattern until each of your red items is covered. Make sure that all of the arcs in your web pattern are curved in the same direction. They should point downwards like frowns, not upwards like smiles. Drawing a web pattern onto all of your components by hand can be a painstaking, time-consuming task. It’s okay if you don’t want to bother with it—your finished costume will look just as good without it.
Use puffy fabric paint to lend your webbing some added texture. Instead of ordinary fabric paint, pick up a bottle of black puffy fabric paint. This type of paint is designed to expand slightly as it dries, which will give the webbing pattern on your spider suit a dynamic 3D effect. Heat-set the paint by lightly steaming it with an iron (just don't actually touch it) before you don your costume for the first time. Depending on the size of your costume and webbing pattern, it may be a good idea to grab a backup bottle of puffy paint in case you run out before you've finished detailing the whole suit. If you opt for puffy paint, you'll need to be extra careful while wearing your costume. The paint may be prone to chipping or peeling if you rough it up or get it snagged on something.
Making the Mask and Web Shooters
Put together a simple mask using a red ski mask and a pair of goggles. For a quick, easy, and functional mask just like the one seen in the 2019 film Spider-Man: Far From Home, all you need is a solid red ski mask and a cheap pair of welding goggles, both of which you can buy online for just a few dollars. Just put on the goggles and slip the mask on over your head! A ski mask made from smooth, stretchy lycra will be more form-fitting than an ordinary knit ski mask.
Make your own mask from scratch using a spandex facemask. Sketch the shape of the eyepieces onto the mask and cut out the excess material to create the eyeholes. Then, place a thin piece of white mesh over each eyehole and cut strips of black craft foam to outline them. Hot-glue the craft foam into place with the mesh sandwiched in between. This will hide your eyes while allowing you to see out of the mask. Make sure the facemask you get is completely blank, with no pre-cut openings for the eyes or mouth. If you just can’t get the mask right, you can always buy a cheap spandex replica mask separately. Alternatively you could Make Spider-Man Lenses separate from the mask out of card and craft foam to make them look 3-D. This will save the mask stretching and looking misshapen from cutting the shapes out of the material. Tip: You could also pop the lenses out of a pair of reflective sunglasses and glue them around the eyeholes of your mask to give the eyepieces some sleek, modern flair.
Mock up your own pair of web shooters. Trace the wrist pieces of your web shooters onto a sheet of black or gray craft foam, along with 12-16 3 centimetres (1.2 in) x 2 centimetres (0.79 in) rectangles, which will serve as the wrist straps. Cut out the pieces and put them all together using hot glue. Attach Velcro strips to the last rectangle piece on either end so you can fasten your web shooters around your wrists. To really go above and beyond in terms of detail, snip 2 1 in (2.5 cm) sections from a plastic straw and glue them to the end of each wrist piece to make nozzles for the webbing to escape. If you’re looking for a slightly simpler web shooter design, cut a length of 1 in (2.5 cm) PVC pipe into 3-8 5.7 cm (2.2 in) segments (depending on whether you want to make 1 or 2 web shooters), spray paint them silver and arrange them around a pair of Velcro wrist straps.
Trying out Different Variations
Buy costume components that you can’t create yourself. If you don’t have the time, materials, or crafting expertise to fashion tricky pieces like the mask or web shooters, there’s no shame in purchasing them from a costume shop or ordering them online from sites like eBay or Amazon. Your costume will still qualify as handmade even if you throw in a few pre-fab pieces to provide the finishing touches. Many costume shops sell things like replica masks, gloves, special clothing items, and accessories individually, so you can pick up only the pieces that you need.
Use different colored clothing to make your favorite version of the spider suit. Spider-Man has had a lot of different looks over the years. If you want to bring to life one of the wallcrawler’s alternate costumes, it will usually be as easy as picking out your base items in a different color scheme. You may also need to cut your accessories slightly differently, depending on the exact style you’re going for. If you’re working on a budget, study many different costume designs and go with one that you think you could pull off using items you already have lying around. Some versions of the Spider-Man costume are even easier to create than the classic red-and-blue getup. You could pull off Spider-Man’s symbiote suit with nothing but some black clothes and white fabric paint!
Recreate one of Spider-Man’s homemade costumes to avoid cutting altogether. Most of the costumes Spider-Man donned early on in his crime-fighting career were cobbled together from ordinary clothing items and other everyday accessories. If you want to look the part but don’t like the idea of destroying your wardrobe, consider taking the same DIY approach. As an added bonus, your costume will stand out from the many regular spider suits you see at cons and cosplay events. "Vigilante Spider-Man" from the film Spider-Man: Homecoming wears only a blue shirt, blue pants, a sleeveless red hoodie, red sneakers, fingerless gloves, and a red balaclava with welding goggles. Similarly, Scarlet Spider’s costume is comprised of only a red bodysuit and a sleeveless blue hoodie.Tip: If you really want to cement your status as a die-hard Spider-Man fan, try replicating his very first homemade costume from the August, 1962 issue of Amazing Fantasy: blue trousers, a white sweatshirt, and a gray mask covered in webbing designs.
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