How To Make A Leela Costume
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Turanga Leela from Futurama
Captain of the Planet Express Ship & Love Interest of Fry

Everyone's favorite one-eyed babe, Leela (aka Turanga Leela) is at the center of the animated series 'Futurama'. As the sexy, tough captain of the Planet Express crew, she's a great costume choice for women with attitude! Here's a reference pic, plus plenty of background information to help you better achieve Leela-ness. (Click on the pic to get a bigger size.)

To make your costume, you'll need:

• A purple, long-haired wig with bangs
• OR spray-on purple hair dye
• Hair mousse or scrunchable hair spray to achieve this
• A white tank top
• Tight black pants
• Black and/or grey heelless boots
• A thick, black, elastic ponytail band
• A Wrist LoJack-i-mater (see below)
• Material to create the eye (see below)
• A black permanent marker
• Optional: A space gun

Now for the details...

THE "WRIST THINGY", AKA WRIST LOJACK-I-MATOR

Leela wears a gauntlet on her right arm. This is the Wrist Lojackimator. It functions as a scanner, tracking device, surgical laser, communicator, watch and gaming console (among other things). In fact, the Wrist-lojackamator can do whatever your story needs. Your imagination is the limit!

We've created a Wrist LoJack-a-mater template that you can print out and use to get the right size and shape of its components.

There are many ways to create your Wrist LoJack-a-mator. Methods include Wonderflex, a large styrofoam cup covered with fabric or aluminum foil (just cut off the bottom!), paperclay, or cardboard and fiberglass resin. Just make sure that you can slip it over your hand. Better yet, make a cuff version, with a gap in the back to get it on and off.

Lastly, you could use Velcro with a more flexible material like foam sheets. Cut the Wrist LoJackamator's buttons and screen out of peel and stick foam. This is probably the easiest and most comfortable of your options.

LEELA'S EYE

Creating Leela's eye presents a challenge. You need to be able to see through it, but you also want to hide your own eyes. Here's several ways to accomplish this. (Note that instructions for creating Leela's eyelashes are at the end of this tutorial.)

Method One: Get a plain white mask and a white pair of pantyhose. Cut open a leg of the hose and stretch it over the front of the mask. Glue the edges to the inside mask surface and cut off the excess.

Carefully use a permanent marker to draw a relatively small pupil in the center of the mask. (You can use our template as a guide).

Method Two: Buy a sheet of Vinyl-Weave 14 Count Cross Stitch Fabric. Use our template of Leela's eye to draw and cut out the shape. Vinyl-Weave comes in "ivory white", which is really closer to beige. That means that you'll want to whiten it.

You can lightly spray paint it with vinyl paint. (Rustoleum works well for this.) Lastly, add monofilament or (much more comfortable) a clear elastic band to attach the eye around your head. You can use cardstock, as mentioned in Method One, to create your eyelashes.

Method Three: Use our template to make a frame for the eye out of a wire hanger. Attach Thick Grip Shelf Liner in white. Create a pupil out of paper, cardstock, plastic or foam, and glue it to the center of the eye.

For Eyelashes: Leela has six very long, thin, pointy eyelashes. You can create these using black cardstock and attach them using a strong contact cement like Barge All Purpose Cement. Be sure to attach your lashes to the back of your eye mask, or the glue will show. Another option is to draw Leela's lashes right onto your face using face painting pencils.