At LeakyCon London 2013, my wife and I met another attendee who’d done a really good job with creating a Professor Binns costume. We decided to run with this idea and create a couple of ghost costumes for ourselves; Nearly Headless Nick, and The Gray Lady (Helena Ravenclaw). Turns out 2 of the best reference pictures contain both characters.
We started with Nick by collecting as many Internet images as we could find and re-watching all the movie ghost scenes in ultra-slow motion.
From this I started identifying materials, trims, ribbons, buttons and such as well as finding commercially available patterns. We thought the cape would be a good starting point to try out various materials, and settled on the Patterns of Time cape pattern. I ended up modifying the shape and made the cord function like a draw string. My wife did (does) all the machine sewing. Unfortunately I didn’t take any “in progress” photos of the cape, but we were pleased with the finished piece.
The material is a platinum satin with 1-1/2 inch silver ribbon (eBay ZARI TRIM) fringed with dark gray mini pom-poms .
For the doublet and the slops (the pants are really called that!), I initially purchased the Patterns of Time #58 pattern. This pattern turn out to be much too complex for our simple brains, so we ended up using a modified Butterick B4376 pattern (eBay). At Hancock Fabrics we found a textured grain fabric which mimics some of the reference photos.
My wife stared sewing, and sewing, and sewing. There’s something like 50+ feet of ribbon, and 100+ feet of mini pom-poms.
And I started working on the hand made parts; the ruffled collar, and the pleated/ruffled cuffs.
The collar consists of 10 yards of 1-1/2 inch medium-gray grosgrain ribbon and after watching the How to Make an EASY Elizabethan Ruffle video a couple of times, I managed to make a reasonably nice ruffle.
To make the cuffs, I first made a little fixture out of popsicle sticks to hold the cloth to create the little pleats. I used a short piece of Sellotape to hold the fabric until it was sewn.
The pleated piece was then sewn to a conical inner cuff and the individual ruffles were stitched to it.
After about 4 months worth of work all of the pieces came together. Twenty four pairs of buttons, and the cording was added and we were done with the top.
The slops (bloomers, pants) were a snap after working on the doublet.
There’s Velcro on the inside of the leg bands which didn’t hold well and’ll be replaced with snaps.
I had to find a pair of X-large grey tights and a pair of gray shoes (13-EE) on which was added some fabric flowers and a bit of “silver” leaf.
This costume was a lot of work and surprisingly Mrs. ATL still likes me.
…but then again I‘ve just recently finished parts of the Gray Lady costume which were started in mid-November 2013….
ATL
We started with Nick by collecting as many Internet images as we could find and re-watching all the movie ghost scenes in ultra-slow motion.
From this I started identifying materials, trims, ribbons, buttons and such as well as finding commercially available patterns. We thought the cape would be a good starting point to try out various materials, and settled on the Patterns of Time cape pattern. I ended up modifying the shape and made the cord function like a draw string. My wife did (does) all the machine sewing. Unfortunately I didn’t take any “in progress” photos of the cape, but we were pleased with the finished piece.
The material is a platinum satin with 1-1/2 inch silver ribbon (eBay ZARI TRIM) fringed with dark gray mini pom-poms .
For the doublet and the slops (the pants are really called that!), I initially purchased the Patterns of Time #58 pattern. This pattern turn out to be much too complex for our simple brains, so we ended up using a modified Butterick B4376 pattern (eBay). At Hancock Fabrics we found a textured grain fabric which mimics some of the reference photos.
My wife stared sewing, and sewing, and sewing. There’s something like 50+ feet of ribbon, and 100+ feet of mini pom-poms.
And I started working on the hand made parts; the ruffled collar, and the pleated/ruffled cuffs.
The collar consists of 10 yards of 1-1/2 inch medium-gray grosgrain ribbon and after watching the How to Make an EASY Elizabethan Ruffle video a couple of times, I managed to make a reasonably nice ruffle.
To make the cuffs, I first made a little fixture out of popsicle sticks to hold the cloth to create the little pleats. I used a short piece of Sellotape to hold the fabric until it was sewn.
The pleated piece was then sewn to a conical inner cuff and the individual ruffles were stitched to it.
After about 4 months worth of work all of the pieces came together. Twenty four pairs of buttons, and the cording was added and we were done with the top.
The slops (bloomers, pants) were a snap after working on the doublet.
There’s Velcro on the inside of the leg bands which didn’t hold well and’ll be replaced with snaps.
I had to find a pair of X-large grey tights and a pair of gray shoes (13-EE) on which was added some fabric flowers and a bit of “silver” leaf.
This costume was a lot of work and surprisingly Mrs. ATL still likes me.
…but then again I‘ve just recently finished parts of the Gray Lady costume which were started in mid-November 2013….
ATL
