DIY Harley Quinn Arkham Knight Costume Details ~ Tutorials

Okay, here are the final DIY Costume Details / Tutorials for my Harley Quinn Arkham Knight. I absolutely LOVE how this entire look turned out, but it had a ton of elements that I’ve had to spread out over a few different posts.

To finish the costume, click the links below to find the full tutorials…

* DIY Harley Quinn Corset Tutorial

* DIY Harley Quinn Leather Harness Tutorial

* DIY Harley Quinn Hair & Makeup Tutorial

Technically Harley Quinn‘s costume is entirely black and red. HOWEVER, there are TONS of different versions of her look and variations of her outfit.

This particular outfit that I’ve recreated is from the Batman video game released June 2015 called Arkham Knight. I decided to go with red and blue additions to the black and red BECAUSE A. in different lighting it does happen to look blue {case in point, my inspiration photo below} and B. to tie in the NEW Harley Quinn played by Margot Robbie in next year’s Suicide Squad and C. I just liked the blue for a little bit of contrast.

The skirt was a cinch for me because I just happened to have a short black ruffle skirt from around 2003-2004 that I had saved for whatever purpose, I don’t know, but it came in perfectly handy for this. I Layered it over a black mini crinolyn AND a white one for a little extra oomph and coverage. Make sure the white lace is showing beneath your ruffle skirt.

It’s a bit difficult to find this type of skirt at the moment, so I suggest shopping thrift stores, cutting a longer version into a mini, or sewing your own using this pattern

If you notice the blue sleeve goes up to her bicep and the red sleeve stops before her elbow. This made it a bit difficult to DIY… I thought I’d use tights or stocks, but presented an issue with the lace-up… though socks would have worked better than tights, I couldn’t find the right colors.

So for the blue one {which could be black instead} I used the arm of a kid’s SpiderMan costume I found at the local drugstore and a red shiny t-shirt for the red sleeve, just so they’d match in texture.

The sleeve that was pre-sewn was much easier… I simply poked matching holes, taped a point onto a ribbon, and threaded the sleeve. I finished by hand stitching white lace to the wrist.

For the red sleeve, I simply cut out a rectangle from the bottom of a t-shirt, stitched the wrist together, poked matching holes, laced it up the same and sewed the lace onto the wrist as well.

Begin with a large/oversized white button down shirt. I used an old one from my husband’s closet…

1. Cut the sleeves off, leaving at least 2-3 inches along the bottom seam and 4-5 inches at the top/shoulder.
2. Flip your shirt inside out and fold over the edges of your sleeves and hand stitch a tunnel hem, leaving room for elastic.
3. Pin and run elastic through the tunnel, gathering along the way and stitch it together – tight enough that it poufs and gathers but loose enough so that it doesn’t cut off your circulation.
4. Stitch the rest in place to hide your elastic
5. Keeping the collar intact, begin cutting at an angle down from the collar all the way to the seam.
6. Flip your shirt over and cut a slit up the back…. you can cross them over each other and stitch in place or just overlap them and tuck them into your corset.

You’ll put the shirt on first, then the corset, then the harness. Go to DIY Harley Quinn Leather Harness Tutorial to see how I made the arm bands with o-rings.

The tights were the ONE thing I think that weren’t exactly spot on, and it’s simply because I ran out of time and couldn’t add the two-toned diamonds… and I’m still kicking myself for it. I did, however, manage to create her two-toned tights rather simply, and here’s how.

Grab two pairs of thick/opaque tights: one in a deep red and one in a dark or navy blue {you can also choose to stick with black and red instead of blue}

Carefully cut out the cotton crotch area WITHOUT cutting into the actual tights… stay within the round seam around the edges. This will prevent the hole from stretching too large {sorry, lol} AND prevent runs in your nylons.

Make sure you get the legs right – LEFT = RED // RIGHT = BLUE // Pull on the blue tights over your RIGHT LEG then pull on the RED TIGHTS OVER THE BLUE… Do the exact opposite on the other leg, red first, then blue.

One of the pairs of tights will pull up all the way comfortably {it was blue for me} but the other pair will only pull up on one side. They’ll stay up BUT pull on a pair of boy shorts OVER your tights to keep them up AND hide the hole in your crotch 😉

I used an old pair of deep brown leather boots and fabric spray and they turned out perfect! My leather was pretty worn so I didn’t have to do anything to the surface to make the paint stick, but you may have to take a bit of sandpaper to your leather if it’s too slick.

Just go crazy and spray your boots! I made my toes black and sprayed so it looked a bit like graffiti, and I loved them.

I used foam inserts and rubber bands to keep them up and put a fan on them overnight to dry. I had to re-spray where the rubber band was, but a fresh coat the next morning just made them look all the better.

Harley has a few different bats, so I just kind of attempted to make it as close as I could to all the different designs.

I used a plastic wiffle ball bat with white spray paint & brown/gray paint, plus blue tape and red fabric spray {the same I used for the boots} and it turned out pretty good I think.

1. Spray your bat white {if it isn’t already} and let dry
2. Add brown/gray splotches to make your bat look dirty
3. Tape off an area creating a barbershop stripe
4. Fill in every other area with red paint.

The grungier the better!

Happy Halloween!

* Find all my Harley Quinn Costume Tutorial Posts here
* Find all my DIY Halloween Costumes here