6 hour costume

The thought of having to make an entire costume today was daunting, but I figured it would be easy since I was mainly re-purposing things.   Well, take heed -- re-doing a tailored jacket takes way longer than making one from scratch.  It was pretty amazing seeing all the inner tailored parts, but I really didn't have time to spare since Alex's party was at 6pm.

Here is the character (right) she wanted to be (Sho Minamimoto from "The World Ends with You")...

So we went to Goodwill and bought a pair of pants to cut holes in... first thing I did this morning was make the cuts then send the pants through the washer and dryer -- and they frayed fabulously.  Make sure you buy pants that are cotton woven (like denim or twill) if you want to get a frayed effect.  Polyester pants won't do it.

Here are the pants after the dryer:

The coat we got was about 4 sizes (at least) too large.  After I took out the lining and the padding, I resewed the seams, taking out from .5-2" on each seam.  I had to cut the pockets out and sew up the slashes because the coat was just too big in front.  I also cut off about 8 inches from the sleeve length to make the jacket short sleeved.  For the bandana, I just made a red square and hemmed it.  She had the hat, and I added the 5 metal circles and 2 metal studs.  Here is an early pic after I had been re-doing the jacket for a while (and changed the buttons to gold metal)-- you can also see the beginnings of the necklace:

I kept making the jacket smaller until it fit well, then I hemmed it and put a button on the inside to close the coat.  I had to take up the arms as well.  Again -- either buy the base garment in your size (or close to it!) or make it from scratch!  (or have more than one day to make the costume!!!) 

Next, I made a gray belt and put gray stripes around the sleeves and hemmed the sleeves.  We scavenged an old gold belt buckle, too.  For the necklace, I glued an uncovered button piece to a metal scrap and Alex painted it silver.  I couldn't find a large enough jump ring, so I used a piece from my chainmail supplies.  lol   Here is the jacket, complete:

Next came the challenge of the tattoo on the character's left hand and arm.  At this point, I had less than an hour left to finish.  I wish I had more time to do something better, but I think this turned out ok.  I cut a long black glove and used Miracle Tape (basically a double-sided repair tape that is also used to hold straps up, and to keep necklines from gaping, etc) to stick on the design part. 

And, with about 20 minutes to spare, here is Alex in full costume.  Ignore the little pink elf in the picture.  :D

Mission accomplished!!

Sgt. Pepper... Paul

Ana wanted to dress as Paul on the Sgt. Pepper cover for Halloween this year.  The blue suit here:


ok, that is shiny!

So this is definitely a costume-grade costume.  I made it all in 1.5 days -- but I think it turned out cute, and she appears to be happy.

A few construction photos:

first -- always add pin-stripe to the pants leg *before* you sew up the pants:

I also opted to add as much of the trimmings to the jacket before sewing it up. 

same with the back -- it is so much easier to sew on trim with a partial garment than onto the whole bulky thing!

then I drafted a little collar:

And made and attached sleeves:

Can you see the ball fringe on the bottom?  I love it!

So here she is before the wig...

And I laughed so hard when she did put on the wig...  oh my, she looks so different!!!  She's doing letters from Help!.  Dork.