Avatar

This is my homemade Neytiri costume from the movie Avatar!

I purchased a dark blue leotard and airburshed this a light blue leaving strips that were dark blue.

I created a loincloth from fabric and airbrushed this as well.

My facepiece was made from felt, toilet paper, glue and then painted (giving it a faux leather look!)

I also stuffed and added a wire to the tail that was sewn onto my costume.

The BEST part were the shoes I made from rubber mary janes to look like feet since the Navi are barefoot.

II handpainted my face (this was not the plan but my airbrush machine broke seconds before!)

Please vote for my costume :)

Step 1: The Body Suit

My first step to creating my Avatar costume was making the body suit. I purchased a royal blue leotard from Amazon and an airbrush machine to paint on my stripes.The leotard I purchased was actually a lot darker then I needed it to be so I ended up painting the entire outfit a lighter blue and leaving the natural color as the stripes. This took some time!

I first drew the stripes in with chalk so I would have a foundation to where to spray my light blue.

Step 2: The Tail

It's hard to pinpoint what step 2 really was but ill start with the tail :)

I'll let you that when I purchased my leotard I first ordered a small which was way too small. The incredible company I purchased from was generous enough to send me a replacement suit at no cost! So, I ended up with two body suits. That being said, this extra body suit was re-purposed for parts of my costume, my tail being one of them!

I started by measuring the length and thickness I wanted, cut the fabric and sewed it together.

Next step was to air brush the tail the same as I did the body suit.

Once painted I glued on some craft cord. I threaded yarn through the tip to look like hair.

And then it was sewn on!

Step 3: The Feet

I created shoes that looked like feet since the Navi are barefoot.

For my feet I used rubber mary janes. I took the arms of the extra body suit I had and slid them over the shoes.

I then took stuffing and hot glued them into toes, used yarn to thread in and look like the toe separation.

I bought fake nails to create the toenails.

Once all was done, these were airbrushed as well!

Step 4: The Face Piece

My face piece was created with felt, craft foam, hot glue, glue, toilet paper, polymer clay, shrink wrap,wire, yarn and then painted.

I created a basic foundation of the face piece with craft foam and then sewed together the craft foam piece to the felt.

Once the foundation to the head piece was sewn I took toilet paper pieces and glue to give it a faux leather look. (And it really worked once painted!)

The wings that I made were formed with small pieces of wire glued to shrink wrap and blow dried to "shrink" the wrap tight around the wires. They were then glued into the face piece.

I created a "bone" out of polymer clay that was then sewn to the nose area.

At the end I weaved through some craft string in order to tie it around me head.

Step 5: The Ears

My ears were made with a basic foundation of craft foam and wire then dipped in latex!

The wire was made so it would wrap around the bottom lobe of my ear so it would stay in place. I late created a hand band to secure the ears to and wear under my wig.

The ears were then air brushed as well.

I even added a ring to one ear that Neytiri has gauged :)

Step 6: The Loincloth

This was probably the easiest part!

I used fabric that I already had, braided a section and painted it all with the airbrush.

I kept the loincloth adjustable in order to use the bathroom easier ;)

Step 7: The Hair

This was the most time consuming and tiring part!

I purchased a Halloween wig from Walmart and hand braided all the hair....Once this was done I realized there wasnt even close to being enough hair or braids to fill the entire wig.

So...I made separate braids made from yarn and attached to the wig. I also had to weave yarn in and out of the empty spots of the wig to fill any gaps.

I made one big braid that hung from the back of the wig. Then added beads to some braids.

Once this was all done I sprayed the wig black because I didnt care for the shine of the fake hair.

The last thing was making a feather hair piece that held half of the hair back.

Step 8: The Face Makeup

My face makeup was hand painted but not planned this way!

The moment I was going to set my airbrush up for my face paint, the nozzle broke!! So I was left hand painting my face :-O

I started with making lines with eye liner where the stripes would be.

I filled in the dark stripes first and then covered my entire face and neck with the lighter blue.

It was easier then expected but do believe I would have had a better turn out with the airbrush.

But I wont complain! I loved it all!

Step 9: The Accessories

I created multiple accessories to go with my costume- This consisted of;

a feather necklace, a beaded necklace, a beaded strap for my loincloth and some beaded bracelets.

These were all done with string and beads and the feather necklace had embroidery floss wrapped around

Step 10: The Final Product

Here is my costume completed!I spent a total of 19 hours total wearing this :)