Book Character Costume: Captain Underpants Costume

Last week was book character day at my kids’ elementary school. We spent a lot of time on Pinterest trying to find the perfect boys costume. It seemed like there were way more girl costumes than boy costumes. When we came across a Captain Underpants costume, we knew that was it!

Elias loves the Captain Underpants books and we knew it would be a fun costume. This hilarious boy’s book character costume was a snap to put together and the hit of his classroom. Below are all the supplies you will need to recreate this for your own boy!

Supplies
White shirt
White pants
Rit dye (tan or a color similar to your child’s skin)
Bald head cap
Red fabric
White underpants
Padding/cotton (optional)

Ideally, when ordering your child’s white clothes, order them 1-2 sizes larger so that you can stuff them to make your child plump like Captain Underpants. We ordered Elias’s one size too big (he wears a 7/8 and I ordered a 10/12), but it shrunk to such a degree that no stuffing was an option.

I was concerned that the tan dye looked too brown when it was wet, but it dried to a coloring very similar to Elias, so gave the appearance of being naked. He then wore white briefs over the pants.

For the Captain Underpants red cape, I used a rectangular piece of red fabric and added black dots all over it with a sharpie. I simply tied it around Elias’s neck for the costume, and didn’t worry about finishing the edges, as it didn’t matter for one day of school!

He absolutely LOVED the Captain Underpants costume for book character day, and I loved that it was easy to make. Another book character costume in the books.