Coolest Homemade Astrid Costume for Halloween

My daughter, Logan, is wearing this Astrid costume from How to Train Your Dragon 2. It’s her favorite movie character.

The Astrid costume is completely home made/fabricated and stylized pieces. She is even wearing a wig that was altered to match the right Astrid shade and braid style. She is a natural redhead, like me, so this change threw me for a loop! She looked just like her blonde cousins!!

Most of the Astrid costume is sewn pieces with LOTS of faux fur and faux suede. These materials were also aged with acrylic ink colors and leather paints to give a more realistic worn effect. She is a Viking after all and rides a dragon all day!

The most tedious was the polymer clay spikes and bird skulls for the leather skirt. All were hand sculpted, metal brad attached, baked and faux finished. Eight panels on the skirt! The armored shoulders are made from EVA foam, heated to curve, sealed with Mod Podge, faux painted and attached with bra fasteners to fur cape for easy removal and adjustments. They weigh almost nothing!

Best part is the rivets… painted google eyes! The fur on the boots is actually slip on covers over her Uggs. The strapping is also a cover on the toe area. This way, she can use her boots again and just dress them up for costuming. The t-shirt was painted to resemble Astrid’s with acrylic paint and textured to look more knit. The ax was bought, but completely restyled, faux painted and the handle wrapped to look more authentic.

In all the Astrid costume cost about $100 which includes wardrobe pieces. I have a lot of extra fabric and fur left over for future costume. The jeggings can easily be used for everyday once patches are removed and the shirt can be worn as is… bonus! The boots will be her winter footwear. I made the sizing of the hood and cape larger for character effect but also so she can wear it for multiple years. Just jeggings and shirt would have to be re sized.

The leather spike skirt is separate from the fur skirt and has a bra fastener in the back so it can be removed for sitting/sizing/bathroom etc. It took me and my husband 2 weeks to complete. We referenced YouTube videos to guide us and have learned a lot! My daughter chose a character that was easily recognizable to other children. She loves to attend Comic Cons and the like to get the reactions from kids excited to recognize her. She plays the character so well and really “sells” it to the little ones!

It’s magic for them and a real joy for our whole family to play together and create! She has a wonderful sense of imaginative play and loves to share it with other children. Costuming has taught us so much, creatively, and it is fascinating to research and explore new “out of the box” ideas and solutions to fabricate. It can be challenging, but very warding and teaches great life skills.

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