Dr Horrible Costume for Halloween

If you are fan of Joss Whedon's unique musical tale, Dr Horrible's Sing-a-Long Blog, then you probably love the lab outfit that Neil Patrick Harris wears. The Dr Horrible costume would be a great look for Halloween, science fiction conventions and cosplay.

Unfortunately, it isn't as easy as you think to find the pieces you need for the costume. Most of them are custom and there doesn't seem to be a costume company that's jumped on the opportunity to copy it for their Halloween costumes.

So here's what you need to put the Dr Horrible outfit together, along with some options you can try if you can't find a piece of it that's a perfect match. I've also included a couple of good close-up photos of NPH wearing the coat for reference.

The most difficult part of your quest to be the perfect Dr. Horrible is going to be the lab coat. The particular style of coat that Harris wears is known as the Howie and it is hard to find.

I believe the one that Neil Patrick Harris wears is actually a vintage coat as well and I have had no luck finding antique lab coats on Ebay. Most lab coats that you can easily buy close in the front.

But Dr. Horrible's lab coat closes at the side. Keep an eye on Ebay for custom made versions of the coat. Otherwise you can simply make do with a traditionally styled lab coat and embroider a caduceus right onto it.

Adapting the Mad Scientist Costume for Dr. Horrible

Another alternative is the Mad Scientist costume on Amazon. My understanding is that this goes on over the head instead of actually unbuttoning, however it would not take much effort or sewing skills to make this costume look a lot more like Dr. Horrible's own coat.

Start by replacing the buttons with white or clear buttons and you are making a big difference. For the buttons that are on the left shoulder, just remove them. There's a seam there so they aren't holding the costume together.

Then get rid of the black belt. For a few more touches to make it look more like Harris' coat, you could embroider a caduceus on a pocket and then sew it onto the coat.

If you can't embroider or get someone else to do it for you, get an iron-on patch to use for the caduceus. These come in yellow, but I would bet a red sharpie could take care of that. I would apply the patch to the fabric for the pocket first, and then sew it onto the costume. If you decide to cut the lengh of the coat, you can use the extra fabric to make the pocket.

If you decide you want to be Dr. Horrible from Act 3, just dye the entire coat red before replacing the buttons on it.

The white boots that Dr. Horrible wears are pretty easy to find. They are basically just a pair of white wellies. You can take a look at the boots listed here. These white Norcross boots are going to be your best bet and they're a great price, less than $20.

If you have a tough time finding the white ones or you don't care for the ones that you see, try a pair of black wellington boots. They can work just as well.

For a pair of Dr. Horrible gloves there are a couple of different ways you can go. Look for gardening gloves, welding gloves and/or fencing gloves. Here's a pair of welding gloves at Amazon that should work great.

If you can't find any gloves that are perfectly white, bleach works!

The goggles that Dr. Horrible wears are basically welding goggles. You can find a style very similar to the ones worn in the musical on Amazon for less than $10. The color will not be an exact match, but you can always spray paint them.

Also, be sure to check these Ebay listings for cheap welding goggles or custom altered goggles to go with your Dr. Horrible costume.