The Avengers Homemade Hawkeye costume: Vest

OK everyone!!! I finally got to making the "vest" for the Hawkeye Costume!

I tried to make it as simple as possible and keep it low cost!

At first I was going to look for a hoodie or something that already had a zipper sewn into it but then I thought, the zipper doesn't really have to work! I figured my son was just going to wear a black tank top, so why not just put some finishing touches right onto the tank!

Here is what you will need:

• A black tank top (you can find these as undershirts or dye a white tank top undershirt with black dye) Also another idea would be to cut the sleeves of a black t-shirt because they are much easier to find!
• A piece of Maroon Fabric that has the width of the tank (I got 1/2 yard)
• More black fabric, same as used for finger glove and quiver strap (I got 1/8 yard)
• A zipper that stretches the length of your tank
• Steam-A-Seam2 
• needle and black thread

The first thing you are going to do is attach the maroon fabric to the front of the tank. If you have a sewing machine you can use that. I used Steam-ASeam2 to basically fuse the fabrics together by ironing.  I showed how to use this stuff in another blog post, click HERE to see what to do! This stuff is GREAT for so many things!!!

 Here is the pattern I ironed on to the tank! 

 I then added the second pattern onto the tank! I used the zipper to draw it out!

   

 Here is the tank top with the maroon fabric ironed onto it!

 I then took my needle and thread and hand stitched on the seam of the two pieces of maroon fabric. This was just for looks! You don't have to do this but I think it helps to bring out the design!

   

I then hand stitched the zipper to the middle of the tank! This zipper is fun because it really goes up and down! I wished I could have gotten one just slightly longer but they didn't have one with a silver zipper!

   

 Next you are going to make the shoulders of the "vest". I showed you the basic measurements below of my son's top but this probably will be different for everyone. It's also not crucial to be exact!

I made two sleeves with the black leather fabric used before in other parts of the costume!

The basic idea is, where your fabric comes to a point, that is the fold between the front and back of the tank. I sewed along the folded edge but you can just simply cut it if you don't care about the edge look.

   

 Here is the picture of how I put the sleeves on. I first put a little bit of hot glue between the fabrics to keep them in place and then I hand stitched around the edges.

 Here is a close up to show you the hand stitching.

 Then turn the tank over and do the same thing.

There you go, a simple way to make a Hawkeye top for your costume!

Click HERE if you want to see how to make the whole Costume!