DIY Fortnite Costume

If you have a son of a certain age, chances are you're scratching your head wondering how exactly to put together a costume for whatever particular Fortnite character he's asking to be for Halloween. I have to admit, the graphics and skins on that game are super fun! Some are easier to turn into costumes than others, and luckily last year my son wanted to be one of those easier guys. His name is Dire and he's a werewolf-like character on Fortnite.

Today I'm going to show you how to DIY a Fortnite Halloween costume! Well, ok, just one Fortnite costume for now, but you'll want to read about the works-for-every-animal-costume hat pattern towards the end!

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Here's what Level 3 Dire looks like, this is what we were going for.

When creating costumes, I try to break it down, one piece at a time. Some parts were easy. We thrifted a pair of jeans and a flannel shirt, plus a black jacket. Then I only needed to deconstruct these pieces to resemble Dire's ripped up look. I ripped up the jeans and cut them shorter with a raggedy edge. I ripped the sleeves off the jacket and cut the flannel shirt hem off to look ripped. The gray base layer is a thermal set we bought from Target. I didn't want to damage the thermals because he continued to wear them as long underwear last Winter.

I bought a half a yard of fur from Hobby Lobby (with a coupon of course because fur is pricey!) I sewed some patches of fur behind the holes in the jeans and created cap sleeves for the black vest to make furry shoulders.

My favorite tip here is the hat! I was asked to make several different animal hats for a Narnia production at our homeschool co op a few years ago and I used the same hat pattern to make every one of them, in various fleeces and furs, just adding different ears and the appropriate animal characteristics. The pattern is Simplicity 8273, View C and I pulled it out again to make Dire's hat. I made it from the fur, adding wolf ears to the top seam and it turned out perfectly.

Below is a photo of the same hat pattern, this time as Mr. Tumnus, the fawn. It's also been used to make a unicorn, horses, a bearded man, beavers and a wolf. There's probably more, but I can't think. It so easy to create ears and transform this pattern into all kinds of things! The pattern is drafted with a cross of seams in the top, so adding ears and say, a mane, doesn't change the way you'd construct the hat, you just baste your extra animal parts in before closing those seams. For the fir versions, I left out the lining, but for the fleece versions, I did include the lining.

This year, Kelby has toyed with being Drift, which I think would be pretty simple. Or the Guaco skin, which may not be so easy, because of the taco face, ha! But we can do it!

OF COURSE I know not everyone enjoys making costumes as much as I do. So if you’d rather eat a bug than spend your precious sewing time making video game characters, Amazon has great Fortnite costumes too, so you can always just buy your kid a costume, no guilt allowed ;)

I'll have costume sewing updates as we get going on them this month! Natalie is still set on Eliza Doolittle and Layla wants to be an 80's Jazzercizer, which I think is HILARIOUS. Must find the white puffy L.A. Gears.

If you missed it last week, here is my post about our Harry Potter Hermione DIY costume and here is a whole post about cosplay: what the heck it is and how you can get started.

Cheers!