My daughter needed a costume for a triple whammy of party's, one super hero themed, one Halloween and the last one a 30th birthday party with a fancy dress theme of costumes beginning with the letter S (somebody watched too much Sesame Street!).

We went through lots of suggestions including scooby doo and a sausage, but my daughter finally settled on spider girl, which to be honest I didn't know was a real character until after we started the costume.

We settled on a dress (it is party time after all) with an EL panel chest logo and a spider web cape with EL wire.

Ingredients

For the cape I used a 1000 x 1500mm piece of black polar fleece, some Velcro wraps, three lengths of blue El wire and a sound activated El wire driver, I had the EL wire left over from an old costume. I also used pavement chalk, scissors, a sewing kit and fishing line.

The chest logo uses a 100 mm diameter EL panel with battery pack, a sheet of glossy self adhesive vinyl, a sharp knife capable of precision cuts, a couple of safety pins and some hot glue/glue gun.

The mask is just a left over scrap from the cape material

Step 1: The Spider Web Cape

I developed the cape from one I saw on http://www.deliacreates.com/no-sew-halloween-spiderweb-cape-tutorial/, it's very easy to follow and worth a look. I'm not going to list instructions on how to make the cape, I'd like to say that is because I have too much dignity to try and rip of other peoples ideas/work but to be honest I'm just to lazy to type it all out.

Cutting the fabric is easy enough apart from when you have it four folded. I used pavement chalk to mark the cut outs and just a regular pair of scissors from the kitchen to carve it up.

I added a Velcro neck fastening using some Velcro wraps I had and to give it a super hero vibe I attached three lengths of El wire I had from an old costume. I used fishing line to attach the EL wire so that it didn't leave a visible line where I stitched it to the cape. The EL wire also gives the cape some shape on the back. I ran the wires inside the cape loose and fastened together with black cotton. The sound driver has a belt clip to attach it to the costume.

I in case any body is wondering I bought the EL wire from elwirecraft.co.uk.

Step 2: EL Panel Chest Logo

We sketched out a few designs together and settled on a spiky looking spider with SG initials on its abdomen. We had some really funky looking designs first off, some looked more like the type of spider you might find on the bottom of an arachnophobes shoe. Drawing is not in my skill set.

When we had our design I transferred it to the back of a sheet of gloss black self adhesive vinyl. I nearly made a school boy error when I drew the SG initials, I realised at the last moment that they needed to be in reverse so that they would be the right way when flipped over. I got the scale by finding a cup with 70 mm diameter, drawing around it and sketching the logo in the centre. The EL panel disc has a 100 mm diameter.

When I was happy with the logo I cut it out using a very sharp wood whittling knife and a fresh Stanley knife blade, but as long as its sharp you could use whatever comes to hand. The letters were a little tricky to cut but once it was done it was very easy to stick to the centre of the panel.

I fixed a few safety pins on the back of the panel using hot glue, I thought this was the easiest way to remove the logo when washing the dress without ruining the it. I thought that Velcro patches sewn all over it would look like a crappy ladybird costume when it wasn't on.

We switched it on and boom instant hero!

Step 3: Chest Logo Battery Pack Storage

The battery pack for the EL wire on the cape had a belt clip, but the chest logo battery pack didn't so I made a small pouch which sits at the top of the cape at the back of the neck. Nothing fancy just a left over scrap of black fleece from the cape folded up and stitched on with black cotton.

Step 4: Secret Identity Mask...........

Every hero needs to keep their identity secret, with today's claim culture who can blame them? You don't know nowadays if little Johnny is really a minion of the abominable attorney or the beastly barrister! Ready to spring a legal trap when they least expect it...................................Any way I made a mask.

I used another scrap piece of the black fleece, to gauge the holes for the eyes I used a pair of my daughters swimming goggles (don't lay them flat on the material, kids heads are round, flex them up suitably). I marked it up with chalk, cut it out with scissors tried it on and made any necessary adjustments, after she had taken it off of course, I didn't want to have to make an eye patch too!

Step 5: Put It All Together and Its Hero Time!!!

We picked up a cheap dress that we though had a superhero uniform look to it (from Primark for my fellow Britons) and put it altogether. I pinned the logo on first and ran the cable for it under the cape over her shoulder so it was hidden.

Her friends loved it at the superhero party, but a rogue iron man on the bouncy castle pulled the EL chest panel off one of the glued on safety pins. I did kind of expect this to happen with the back of the panel being so smooth but its an easy fix so no worries!

Cant wait to patrol the streets on Halloween with her!

If you like this instructable please vote for it in the Halloween Costumes contest.

Thanks for reading!!!!