Here's a quick and easy DIY costume for the Blue Angels. We made it this weekend, and it didn't take long at all.
If you are looking for a Blue Angels Halloween costume, I hope this inspires you to make your own.
Why I Love This Blue Angels Costume
I love this Blue Angels costume for so many reasons. Most noticeably (and I'm probably biased), it turned out super cute!
Equally important is that this costume is very easy to put together with common supplies. I had a lot of the supplies in the house already. And while I did need to grab a few other items, everything was easy to find and many can be reused again.
What I really love about this costume is that you can customize it to match the weather. It was 90 and sunny this weekend, so I chose a short sleeve cotton blue dress. You can also make this with a blue sweat suit or long sleeve set if it'll be cold on Halloween night.
Lastly, any costume that can be repurposed into regular clothes once my kids are done dressing up is a win in my book. With this design, you can remove the stitches, unpin the insignia badge, and get the plain blue dress back again.
Our Kids Love The Blue Angels
Our kids fell in love with the Blue Angels after watching The Blue Angels documentary on Amazon. We picked it for family movie night one evening, when we didn't want a typical kids movie.
Both kids found The Blue Angels Documentary thrilling. There are no bad guys, it's exciting, and they saw tricks they never knew pilots could perform. The training regimen also impressed the kids a lot.
This weekend, we took the kids to see the Blue Angels perform at an air show. My little one wanted to dress up like a Blue Angels pilot and I didn't get much notice or time to prep the costume. This is what we managed to put together, and we are really proud of it!
What You Need to Make Blue Angels Costume
Here's how we made this DIY Blue Angels pilots costume.
For the Blue Outfit
- Blue dress (I used this dress), sweat set, or long sleeve set
- Yellow felt
- Sewing machine (Alternatively, use an iron and HeatnBond UltraHold Iron-On Adhesive)
Make Blue Angels Badge
- Color printer
- Clear adhesive protector/laminator
- Pin or safety pin with flat back
Make a Garrison Cap
- Tan felt
- Paper board (a cereal box is perfect)
- Hot glue gun
- Headband
Lastly, don't forget a pair of aviator sunglasses! My little girl picked out these gorgeous rose gold shades.
To Make The Blue Outfit
I love a good cotton workhorse dress for my daughter to wear. So I started with a basic blue cotton dress that checks all the marks. Good fit, pockets (a must!), and the right shade of blue.
You can also use a pair of blue long sleeve pajamas or blue sweat set.
Then I used basic yellow felt to cut out a general shape of the eagle wing badge, the letters for her name, and the yellow stripes. To make it more realistic, you can try to cut the name out in cursive lettering.
I used a basic zigzag stitch on my sewing machine to get all these felt pieces on the dress. You can see in the pictures that it's not the best sewing job.
Mostly, I sewed just the top and bottom of each piece, to hold the felt on. All the pieces held on just fine and I only needed about 15 minutes to sew it all on.
No Sewing Machine? No Problem
If you don't have a sewing machine, no problem. You can simply use an iron and some HeatnBond UltraHold Iron-On Adhesive to get the felt pieces on. Simply cut HeatnBond UltraHold Iron-On Adhesive to fit behind the yellow felt and iron it all together.
To Make The Blue Angels Insignia Badge
The Blue Angels insignia was the trickiest part of this costume. It stumped me, until I had an ah-ha moment!
If you have more time, you can buy an official iron-on insignia badge. I couldn't find one in time though. All the knock-off iron-on badges that Amazon sells are too fake looking, and don't have the correct design.
Plus, I wanted to be able to repurpose this dress into normal clothes after the air show and Halloween. As such, I wanted a removable insignia badge I could take off when she was done with the costume.
I thought about making it with felt, but the design is a tad too complicated. The ah-ha moment came when I realized that I could simply print out the design, and laminate it with a clear adhesive protector/laminator.
Make the Insignia into a Pin
To get the laminated insignia badge on the dress, I used hot glue to glue it on a pin. This pin was the only one I could find at home. However, if you have a safety pin badge at home, that is preferable.
You can also buy safety pins with flat back on Amazon to use.
To Make the Garrison Cap
The garrison cap is made with felt, paper board (from a cereal box), hot glue, and a headband.
First, I cut the paper board and glued it together. Then I glued felt around the top of the cap. Lastly, I glued the felt around the paper board, to completely cover it.
I watched a lot of videos to get an idea on how to make the cap. Here's a video that is quick and helpful if you need more visualization. I didn't follow the video exactly, and I didn't use the measurements, but it's a good starting point.
If you measure the cap correctly, I think you can get it to sit directly on the head. But because my daughter is still little, I thought a headband would be the best and most comfortable way to keep it on her head for long periods of time.
We simply set the garrison cap on a headband and hot glued the edges to get it to stay. It held up fine for the entire air show this way.
Aviator Sunglasses
The finishing touch is to get a pair of aviator sunglasses. She wears this pair in the photos. It fits her perfectly, and it looks great! It even has polarized lens too.
Easy Customizations
Personalizing a costume is always fun. She's a huge fan of dresses, so that's the base I started with.
I think I might remake this into a warmer costume for Halloween night. To do so, I plan to sew the yellow felt cut outs onto a blue sweat set.
Want to make it long sleeve? Try this blue cotton pajama set in the perfect shade of blue.
Want to make it even warmer? Try this sweat set in the perfect shade of blue.
I love these options because after Halloween, you can simply unstitch the felt and continue to wear the clothes as normal.
DIY Blue Angels Costume for Halloween
So there you go! An easy, fun, and affordable way to make a Blue Angels costume.
I'd love to hear what you think about this costume and if you have any other suggestions.
More Halloween Fun
If you are getting ready for Halloween, don't miss these Printable Halloween Scavenger Hunt Clues. Our kids absolutely LOVE doing this first thing Halloween morning.
Also, here's a fun All About Me - Halloween Edition for the kids to fill out. It's a quick, easy and fun way to keep them busy.
Leave a Reply