Wheelchair Costume Kits on Etsy

Most of you that visit this blog are looking for wheelchair costume ideas but for those of you that want a wheelchair costume....but don't want to make one...visit my Etsy shop to purchase pre-made wheelchair costume kits.  Here is a quick glance of the costumes I currently have available. These costumes are made to order.

You can get 15% off your order by using the code below. Order by July 22!

Captain America on his Motorcycle

What you need:

Child size bike handle and wheels
Duct tape
Spray paint, silver and black
Bristol board/Poster board (white, red, blue)
2 foam pipe covers one straight and T shaped

Touch light
Black zip ties
Broom stick
Bike Rack parts (or something hard and solid that will wrap around child)

Assembly:

I was able to find parts of a children’s bike to start off with. Ideally the handlebars would actually be attached the the wheel, but we had to work with what we had.

I took a trip to a hardware store to check out what they had. I didn't have a big idea, so I just browsed for some inspiration. The plumbing section seems to have the most selection of parts that I was looking for. And of course some spray paint, glue, and duct tape, a touch light and bristol board.

Then I needed to put the bike together. There was grease all over, so I covered everything with some shiny duct tape. I had thought it was only silver duct tape, but it had writing all of it, so I had to spray paint it. I had bought a T-shaped pipe cover and used it to hold the steering wheel with the wheel and taped it all together. (It held, but was very loose)

I got some straight pipe covers to boost up the bike's appearance and then spray painted everything.

We added the light and now it was starting to come together.

Now I was stuck, I didn't have any ideas about how to actually attach it to Nick's wheelchair.

We bought a broom handle and spray painted it silver, and then zip-tied the bike to the chair. It also lifted the wheels off the ground. The last problem we had was how to keep the bike off of Nick's lap.
What we needed was something for the bike to just rest in. In the end we had a bike rack that was able to be tied to the chair and sit around Nick for the bike to rest against. We covered the rack and the sides of Nick's chair with the pipe covers (which also protects it) and zip tied everything together.

So I made up some shields for Nick's wheels out of the bristol boards (posterboard).

Here is Captain America!

Thanks Amanda for such thorough instructions!

Space Shuttle

Blast off in this awesome costume!

What you need:

White Foam Board (approx 5 sheets)

Black Foam Board (1 sheet)

Exacto knife

Glue Gun

Black Duct tape

Black Permanent marker

Styrofoam cones

Black Spray Paint

Assembly:

Start off by finding a picture of a space shuttle.  You will likely learn more than you ever wanted to know about the contours of that machine!  Like any wheelchair costume, there will be some trial and error as you adapt the costume to work with your particular chair and child and it helped me to look at a few different ideas.

I started my making the sides of the shuttle.   Using two pieces of foam board, I played around with different ways to fit it between the sides of my son’s wheelchair and the wheels.  It was a little tight, but I finally settled on cutting a rectangular notch to secure the foam board over the brakes.  I also could have cut a notch to fit it over the axles, but felt it was secure enough over the axles.  I then trimmed the foam board down so that it would be low enough for my son would be able to reach his wheels.

I then cut a triangular wedge out of the top front end of each side to approximate the rounded contour of the front windows.  I measured and cut out another piece of white foam board to make the front window.  I secured it to each side with hot glue.  I made the black front window using the duct tape and wrapped it around a little to the sides.

The front nose was a little tricky.  I ended up cutting three triangles of black foam board.  Two of the triangles matched up the edge of the side of the shuttle and I then came together in the front.  The length of these triangles should be the distance that you want the nose cone to come out -  I suggest measuring for this step instead of eyeballing ;)  The third matched up the bottom of the front window and came down to meet the two triangles.  Using duct tape, I secured the side triangles first and the placed the top triangles.

Then I made the wings and rudder.   Initially, I made two fantastic to-scale wings that went almost the length of the shuttle.  However they would have blocked the wheels and part of the fun of having a space shuttle the ability to zoom around it in, so I had to drastically reduce their size so that they would fit behind the wheels.  (The little boy in my first inspiration picture looks like he was using a power chair, so long wings made perfect sense for his costume.)   Once I settled on a size, I decorated with black marker and NASA, USA and flag printouts.  For the rudder, I couldn't  think of a simple way to make the one rudder, so I settled on cutting out two trapezoids to approximate the look.  I colored in the details with the black marker and hot glued on.

The last step in the structure was to cut out a black piece for the back and secure it to the sides with duct tape.  I spray painted three styrofoam craft cones to make the after burners. I cut holes in the back piece and foam and secured with glue and duct tape.

I got the astronaut costume and helmet off of Amazon.  One of the unintended benefits of the helmet was that it gave my son, a preschooler, a nice place to hide when the attention got to be a little too much.

TMNT Assault Van

The inspiration:

What you need:

2 cardboard boxes
Cardboard rolls(wrapping paper & paper towels)
Paint
Glue gun
Tin foil
Zip ties

Assembly:
I used one box that fit perfectly over the wheelchair. I flipped the flaps up and glued the two shorter ends at an angle. This gave the me a little extra height with just one box. The other box I cut up and used it for different parts. I put two pieces on each side of the box to make the sides taller and then one on top the enclose he van. I cut a flap on top to make the opening, along with a circle for the top globe window. Once it was all glued together I painted the whole thing green.

I used the cardboard rolls to make the ladder, bar up the side of the windshield and for the wench. The lights, mirrors, wench hook, and tires were all cut from the extra cardboard. And painted accordingly. The tin foil is wrapped around the mirrors to make the mirror effect. I used a picture of a toy I found online to paint the details. Then I used the zip ties to attach it to the wheelchair.

Thanks Allison! This is amazing! Turtle Power!

Mr. Rogers Trolley

Major cuteness alert!

What you need:

One ginormous cardboard box.

Spray paint. Red for the inside, top, and front of the trolley.

Paint samples (Red, Yellow, & Black). 

Six thin wooden dowels (about 2 feet long each). 

Glue gun. You MUST have a glue gun for this project.

A caving headlamp for the trolley’s headlight. 

Assembly:

I cut the body of the trolley out, then the oval shaped roof and a strip of cardboard for the yellow sign on top. Then I cut two pieces for the front and the back (squares with a rounded top). I can’t give details on how I got it to fit on the chair. I really had to play with it and ended up using the wheelchair’s push bar to anchor the thing and keep it from flopping around. See what works. Measure a bit. You can do it. 

I wanted to paint the exterior by hand to get it right. I knew I wouldn’t need much paint so I just bought three samples from Lowes. I got red to match the spray paint, black for the stripe along the base, and yellow for the trolley seats and sign.

I used the dowel rods to stabilize the sides of the trolley. You can see them glued vertically on the inside. They kept the sides from bowing out (due to the weight of the roof and trolley sign).

Add your lettering and headlamp. Done!

Thank you Mary Evelyn for sharing this adorable creation! Simeon makes the perfect Mr. Rogers.

Jeep (aka Createrra).

I'm calling this a Jeep just to make it more generic...but it's technically the Createrra from Caleb's most favorite show "Wild Kratts".

This was my inspiration.

What you need:

Cardboard (lots of it)

Paper towel tubes/Gift Wrap tubes

Spray paint

Assorted craft paint (I used blue, green, and brown)

Reflectors

Black posterboard for the wheels

LED push lights (I found them in the night light section)

Paper plates or posterboard

Foam for the bumpers (you can use something else, I just happened to have foam)

Assembly:

First I cut cardboard to make the 4 sides and hood of the jeep. It's basically a rectangle shape, super easy design. I spray painted all the pieces before I hot glued them together.

I cut smaller/angled pieces of cardboard to attach to the hood so it has a raised look in the middle. I used gift wrap paper tubes to make the front and back roll bars. I cut them to fit together and then hot glued them to make a solid piece. I painted the front bars to match the jeep and the back bars I painted black.

I used a manila folder that I cut to fit over the angled cardboard on the front to complete the hood. I printed off the Wild Kratts logo and added it to the back and the top of the hood. I used reflectors for the back brake lights. I bought LED push lights for the headlights. I added a square of black paper to the front for the grill. The front and back bumpers were black foam pieces that I happened to have. I painted them silver. I added a small square of cardboard (painted black) to the rear of the jeep.

The wheel covers were cut from black posterboard. I spray painted the back of 2 plates silver for the rim of the wheel. I added some squares and circles cut from black paper.

Since this is technically the Createrra from Wild Kratts, I had to make it look just right. I used brown paint to look like mud. I used green and blue paint for the paw prints.  We had to remove the front roll bars...they were in Caleb's way :)

This could be customized so many different ways. It's a really basic shape that you can do a million things with!

I also made the costumes. I bought black v-neck tshirts and cut off the sleeves to make it look more like a vest. I used blue/green felt for the creature power suit design. I did the same thing for the gloves. I found the creature power discs online, printed them out and then laminated them. They stuck to the creature power suits with velcro. I made the small pouch for the discs out of felt. I made a creature pod using a piece of cardboard that I painted blue. I found the picture online and printed it out. Added a couple of buttons and a strap for the wrist. 

You can see more photos by going to our family blog. 

Captain America

What you need:
(Total Cost to create $15 and about two hours of time)
Red, white and blue crafters paint
Metallic silver crafters paint
Foam brushes
Hot glue gun
Poster board (5 sheets)
Red, orange and yellow tissue paper
Pinwheels
Zip ties
Scissors
Stapler

Assembly:

I used different sized pot lids to make the circles for Captain Americas Shield.  Traced the outlines of the circles and painted them according to photos of the actual shield I found online.  Painted each shield and then hot glued them to an extra larger circle to give them more support.  They were hole punched in three locations and secured with zip ties to the wheels of the wheelchair.

The exhaust pipes were made with rolled up poster board, hot glued to maintain shape and then stapled to the second tube.  I used two tubes on each safety bar and painted with metallic crafting paint.  The tubes were made wide enough to fit over the anti-tipping guards and the guards were turned up to attach the exhaust.  I them stuffed the tubes with the colored tissue paper to give it a flame appearance.

Behind the wheelchair I attached my sons real Captain America shield using ribbon to be able to take it on and off when he wanted to use the shield.

Lastly to add a little pizzazz, I added red, white and blue pinwheels to the front.  They were attached with hot glue.

I love the simplicity of this costume! This is proof that you can create something really fun and amazing with just a few supplies and a couple of hours. It's perfect Kerri, thanks for sharing Jarrett's costume with us!