Starfire – Teen Titans (Comic Version)

Made for: Dragoncon 2008

Background: I thought the big-haired 80s version of her would be so much fun to make.

Journal Entries: Read more at my Comic Starfire tag

Related Costumes: Cartoon Starfire, Donna Troy, Ame-Comi Poison Ivy

Patterns Used: KwikSew 2004

Since my references varied so differently I picked various elements I liked from different artwork/looks and went from there.

Suit:

For the suit, I bought a white full body suit and dyed it orange. My husband did some airbrushing on it, for some shadows, and I cut away the front. For the purple part of the suit, I was originally going to use some plain purple spandex I had laying around, but decided buy the metallic kind, I just thought that would look better.

I used a swimsuit pattern and used the original purple fabric to make a mockup, then used the mockup as a pattern for the real one. It and the orange suit were then sewn together. I made the jewel for the front out of some wooden decorative pieces and beads.

Armor/Chest Piece:

Chase made my collar and gauntlets by taking forms of my arms, and a basic form of my neck, and fiberglassing them. The round pieces on the collar (and on my boots) were wooden pieces cut in half and painted, and glued in place.

I didn’t want to tape myself into this costume, so I bought Xtreme Designs FX’s female body armor. We removed the arm pieces and painted it. That way I had a little more of a superheroine “physique” without worrying about double stick tape popping off LOL Look I’ve done my time with toupee taped on dresses and I’m over it. I painted the chestpiece with own makeup to match my skin.

Boots:

For the boots, I bought a pair of thigh-high boots and simply made boot covers for them in my purple material. They’re also hand-sewn onto the bodysuit in a few places to keep them up. The “jewels” at the top were wooden egg pieces we found, cut in half, painted and glued in place.

Wig:

The wig was so much fun to make. It’s made of two different wigs plus a pack of extensions I cut up, curled, and teased the heck out of. It looked FABULOUS the first time I wore it at Dragoncon 2008. Second time at Dragoncon 2010 it was a little flatter than it had been previously. By the time I shot this on the white backdrop in 2022, I felt like it looked SOO much smaller even though I had cleaned it up and recurled it.

Body Paint:
Ben Nye Magic Cake Aqua Paint. I used 2 colors, a darker orange and a lighter orange. Used the darker to try to create some shadows and dimension.

History:

I rewore this in 2010, but the paint on the chestpiece had darkened over time, so I went without it and sewed a bra into the front of the suit, and sewed it closed. I plan on fixing the chestpiece at some point and rewearing it as it originally was for a photoshoot in the future… because I really didn’t care for the look of the built in bra and closed front.

And in 2022 I did just that for a long overdue white backdrop photoshoot. I removed the bra cups I sewed in and returned the suit to its original form, got the chestpiece cleaned up – honestly the chestpiece really hadn’t darkened up as much as I thought, it was maybe a shade darker than my makeup and not as bad as I had in my mind. The dyed/airbrushed bodysuit had faded a bit over time, my wig was a bit deflated and I had to fix a few problems with the boot connection, but overall the white backdrop photos turned out pretty good and I’m glad to finally have this properly “documented.”

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