Easy DIY "Robin" Toddler Halloween Costume

Sami was only 18 months old last Halloween, so he had no clue what was going on of course. Honestly, I wasn't even going to dress him up in a costume until my dad mentioned he already had a Batman costume for himself....that got me thinking that Sami could be his sidekick - Robin!

I did not want to spend a lot of money on a costume, but I was also excited to get creative & DIY his costume like we usually did as kids.  My parents always helped us make our costumes when we were little & I have great memories of that process (again, not that Sami has a clue it's Halloween, but it made for some cute photos!).

First, I had to decide which "Robin" costume I was going to try & recreate.  Even though my dad's Batman costume was a modern version of Batman, I ended up making the original Robin costume that Burt Ward portrayed in the 60's:

After looking at some old photos, I realized that it actually wouldn't be too difficult to recreate.  This is a really cute & fairly easy costume to make for your toddler!  Here's how I did it....

MATERIALS:
-yellow men's button down shirt
-green onsie
-red t-shirt or long sleeve shirt
-white tights
-black, yellow, & green felt
-yellow ribbon (optional)
-fabric glue or hot glue

I bought the yellow men's shirt, red shirt, & green onsie from Goodwill.  Unfortunately, the green Goodwill onsie turned out to be too small.  Luckily, I remembered that I actually already had a green onsie that I had just packed away in Sami's "too small" clothes bin...so it was just big enough to fit him:

Obviously the green onsie is already good to go - you don't need to do anything to it except use it as reference to cut the red vest to size.  Just cut the arms & bottom off the red shirt, then round the bottom of the shirt like so:

I used felt & some yellow ribbon for the belt & other details on the vest.  First, I cut out a circle & a long rectangular piece of black felt for the belt and glued them right onto the red shirt.  Then I used the yellow felt to make the "R" and the belt details.  To make the "vest" look more authentic, I cut small holes down the middle & weaved some yellow 1/8" ribbon through (gluing the ends down on the inside of the vest).  You could obviously skip this step & just cut out thin strips of yellow felt:

To make the cape, I took the men's shirt & buttoned the top button.  Then I just started cutting away excess fabric.  I didn't have a pattern to follow obviously, so I just continued cutting little by little until I got the shape I wanted.  Before I cut the bottom of the shirt, I tried it on Sami first to find the best length for him:

The shoe covers were a total trial & error experiment.  I started by cutting out two triangle-ish pieces of paper & just kept repositioning them around Sami's shoes until they fit okay.  Once I got the general shape, I went back & trimmed down the "wings" on each side until it looked most the like the original photos.  Once I was happy with the paper templates, I used them to trace out my cuts onto the green felt.  I used glue to attach each side of the shoe covers.  Then I just slipped the covers onto his shoes (I did add a little tape underneath to keep it in place, but nothing permanent):

Lastly, I made a little black eye mask out of more felt.  Again, no template to follow - I just sort of played around with it.  I thought about painting an eye mask on, but Sami has such sensitive skin I worried about a reaction or the possibility of him rubbing it in his eyes.  Depending on your child's personality & age they may not wear the eye mask at all either - this is the one element of the costume that Sami would not keep on.  I got a couple photos of him with the mask, but that was it:

Batman Grandpa & Robin Sami:

I ran out of time to make my own costume last year, so I just threw on some black clothes & made a little cat ears headband by gluing black felt ears to a headband - possibly the easiest & laziest version of Catwoman ever?

So the total costume cost me about $10.00 to make.  You can actually buy a pre-made toddler Robin costume for less than $20, but where's the fun in that?!  Personally, I think my DIY version turned out even cuter & I love that we're keeping the tradition going of DIYing our Halloween costumes.

If you decide to make this original Robin costume for your little one, please send me a photo of the finished product - I would love to see!  Thanks for reading & Happy (early) Halloween!

Mel
:)