Stretch2643
Member
So, I was fortunate enough to go to law school with some amazingly nerdy people, two of whom recently decided that for their 10 year anniversary they wanted to renew their vows in Las Vegas. But it wasn't enough to just get married in Vegas, no, they had to have a theme. So after going from the 80's to the Oscars, they finally settled on Comic Con as their overarching theme, which meant costumes, and a mere two weeks after C2E2 at that! So given my time constraints, and the fact that someone else opted to claim Black Widow before I could, I needed to come up with something fast. A quick bit of history for all you find costuming folks out there: about 4 years ago (before I knew how to sew) I tried to do Zatanna using only hot glue and duct tape. It was a disaster. So given my desire to try and do the Mistress of Magic some justice, and the fact that she seemed extremely appropriate for Vegas, I figured this was the opportune time to try again.
Just as a point of reference this was the original attempt:
I know. I couldn't even be bothered to buy dance tights, apparently. For this new attempt I scrapped everything but the heels and the hat. The hat is a cheap plastic and felt model, but I couldn't afford to upgrade it to an actual antique replica, so instead it just got a bit of bling with a silk ribbon to cover up the pressed plastic joint.
Good enough for $1 in ribbon. Wands are apparently impossible to find unless you want to order them by the gross for kids birthday parties. Instead I just bought one of those gigantic novelty pencils from JoAnn fabrics, cut off the ends with my dremmel, and hit it with some spray paint. It's far from technical, but good enough unless people are looking closely.
I already owned the dance tights and fishnets thanks to Roller Derby, so I didn't even need to purchase those. As for the main body of the costume I decided that between purchasing pieces and making them, I was going to do whatever was most cost effective. And I got lucky with a few purchases. The vest I got on clearance from Forever 21 for a whopping total of $4. It had an ugly collar on it that I pulled the seams on, removed, and then sewed closed. It also had black buttons that replaced with crystal ones for a more "tuxedo" look. In total it cost an amazing $5 which would have been the cost of fabric alone had I made it by hand.
The bottoms were vitally important to me. In my previous costume attempt I wore a leotard underneath a white shirt, which meant I had to get totally undressed every time I needed to pee. Not cool. So this time I opted for a pair of high waisted bikini bottoms on sale at Target. The price has gone back up, but they cost me $10 and despite being an XL, only required a few tucks to make them fit right.
The collar wound up being more of a pain in the ass than anticipated. I managed to score one that matched my vest in color from a $3 shirt at Goodwill, but it was far too big. The bow tie came from the discount bin at Burlington Coat Factory for another $3. In order to make the collar fit my girlish little neck I sewed it closed and stitched the tie to it, cut the back open, cut out enough fabric to tighten it up, and then attached the two ends with some velcro. It's not gorgeous, but since the back is hidden by the collar of the jacket and my wig, it was well worth it to make the damn thing fit properly.
The tailcoat was obviously going to be the real challenge of the group. My original plan had been to make it from scratch using THIS free pattern. But I was worried that there was no way I'd get it finished in time, and that the suiting fabric alone would put me way over budget. I also didn't want to wear the cheap polyester one from my original costume, so I decided to see if I could find a solution somewhere in the middle, and I did! At a local thrift store I scored a fabulous size 12 ladies suit jacket from the 90's for $6! It was part of the long, trench-coat-ish fashion days, so it hit me about mid-thigh, but the shoulder didn't require as much tweaking as a men's jacket would have. It also had a fabulous two tone tuxedo-y collar. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it before I started hacking it apart, but believe me it was a sight. Ultimately I wanted to keep the lining intact because it makes the coat more comfortable to wear and gives it a more polished look. So I removed the living stitches at the bottom and trimmed the front panels into short triangle points that hit me at about the bellybutton. I left the back two panels intact to serve as my "tails" (they're not true tails which generally wrap around towards the front of the waist and which I couldn't do because there were pockets in the way) and simply cut down the liner and sewed them back together. The trimming and lining took much, much longer than expected (mostly due to the fact that I did this by the seat of my pants and without any real game plan.) The inside it not as polished and pretty as I'd have liked, especially in the front where the most trimming took place) but it's also better than having a bunch of exposed seams.
Finally I purchased a wig from a local weave shop for $28. The end result was this:
Not bad for spending a grand total of $57 and a little (okay, a lot) of elbow grease. My wig cap had slipped off by the third picture so my hairline was a little funny, and my friend in the TARDIS dress snapped that last photo while I was trying to negotiate a restaurant reservation, but it's the only photo that shows off the length of my little cropped tails. But all in all I was pleased with the result and would totally wear this again. It was also especially forgiving in the Vegas climate.
And speaking of my friend in the TARDIS dress, that's my handiwork as well. Two days before we were scheduled to leave she decided she didn't want to be a My Little Pony anymore, and showed up on my doorstep with that dress and a look of desperation. Did I mention that she doesn't sew?
I trimmed the skirt down (it was floor length) and hemmed it (badly) back to it's new length. The "windows" were made from scrap muslin, and the trim was all black ribbon. The Police Box sign on the lower portion of the dress is actually a pocket and we wrote the script on in magic marker.
The Peter Pan collar I made from tracing another dress that had one. It's supposed to have some of the Police Box text on it in iron on letters, but unnamed friend forgot to do it before she left. The tights she purchased from Hot Topic. The at was supposed to be my crowing achievement, but it didn't really come out as planned. It actually lights up, and is made from a cheap press on under-cabinet light that I had lying around. I glued it to a headband and made a craft foam grid of "windows" that were painted blue and another strip of muslin.
One of the panes was missing so the light could be turned on and off. However it didn't glue together too nicely, and the muslin started to pull off from the craft foam the minute she put it on, but it wasn't bad for a thrown together version 1.0.
Thanks for looking! Aviv Sal Sagev!
Just as a point of reference this was the original attempt:
I know. I couldn't even be bothered to buy dance tights, apparently. For this new attempt I scrapped everything but the heels and the hat. The hat is a cheap plastic and felt model, but I couldn't afford to upgrade it to an actual antique replica, so instead it just got a bit of bling with a silk ribbon to cover up the pressed plastic joint.
Good enough for $1 in ribbon. Wands are apparently impossible to find unless you want to order them by the gross for kids birthday parties. Instead I just bought one of those gigantic novelty pencils from JoAnn fabrics, cut off the ends with my dremmel, and hit it with some spray paint. It's far from technical, but good enough unless people are looking closely.
I already owned the dance tights and fishnets thanks to Roller Derby, so I didn't even need to purchase those. As for the main body of the costume I decided that between purchasing pieces and making them, I was going to do whatever was most cost effective. And I got lucky with a few purchases. The vest I got on clearance from Forever 21 for a whopping total of $4. It had an ugly collar on it that I pulled the seams on, removed, and then sewed closed. It also had black buttons that replaced with crystal ones for a more "tuxedo" look. In total it cost an amazing $5 which would have been the cost of fabric alone had I made it by hand.
The bottoms were vitally important to me. In my previous costume attempt I wore a leotard underneath a white shirt, which meant I had to get totally undressed every time I needed to pee. Not cool. So this time I opted for a pair of high waisted bikini bottoms on sale at Target. The price has gone back up, but they cost me $10 and despite being an XL, only required a few tucks to make them fit right.
The collar wound up being more of a pain in the ass than anticipated. I managed to score one that matched my vest in color from a $3 shirt at Goodwill, but it was far too big. The bow tie came from the discount bin at Burlington Coat Factory for another $3. In order to make the collar fit my girlish little neck I sewed it closed and stitched the tie to it, cut the back open, cut out enough fabric to tighten it up, and then attached the two ends with some velcro. It's not gorgeous, but since the back is hidden by the collar of the jacket and my wig, it was well worth it to make the damn thing fit properly.
The tailcoat was obviously going to be the real challenge of the group. My original plan had been to make it from scratch using THIS free pattern. But I was worried that there was no way I'd get it finished in time, and that the suiting fabric alone would put me way over budget. I also didn't want to wear the cheap polyester one from my original costume, so I decided to see if I could find a solution somewhere in the middle, and I did! At a local thrift store I scored a fabulous size 12 ladies suit jacket from the 90's for $6! It was part of the long, trench-coat-ish fashion days, so it hit me about mid-thigh, but the shoulder didn't require as much tweaking as a men's jacket would have. It also had a fabulous two tone tuxedo-y collar. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it before I started hacking it apart, but believe me it was a sight. Ultimately I wanted to keep the lining intact because it makes the coat more comfortable to wear and gives it a more polished look. So I removed the living stitches at the bottom and trimmed the front panels into short triangle points that hit me at about the bellybutton. I left the back two panels intact to serve as my "tails" (they're not true tails which generally wrap around towards the front of the waist and which I couldn't do because there were pockets in the way) and simply cut down the liner and sewed them back together. The trimming and lining took much, much longer than expected (mostly due to the fact that I did this by the seat of my pants and without any real game plan.) The inside it not as polished and pretty as I'd have liked, especially in the front where the most trimming took place) but it's also better than having a bunch of exposed seams.
Finally I purchased a wig from a local weave shop for $28. The end result was this:
Not bad for spending a grand total of $57 and a little (okay, a lot) of elbow grease. My wig cap had slipped off by the third picture so my hairline was a little funny, and my friend in the TARDIS dress snapped that last photo while I was trying to negotiate a restaurant reservation, but it's the only photo that shows off the length of my little cropped tails. But all in all I was pleased with the result and would totally wear this again. It was also especially forgiving in the Vegas climate.
And speaking of my friend in the TARDIS dress, that's my handiwork as well. Two days before we were scheduled to leave she decided she didn't want to be a My Little Pony anymore, and showed up on my doorstep with that dress and a look of desperation. Did I mention that she doesn't sew?
I trimmed the skirt down (it was floor length) and hemmed it (badly) back to it's new length. The "windows" were made from scrap muslin, and the trim was all black ribbon. The Police Box sign on the lower portion of the dress is actually a pocket and we wrote the script on in magic marker.
The Peter Pan collar I made from tracing another dress that had one. It's supposed to have some of the Police Box text on it in iron on letters, but unnamed friend forgot to do it before she left. The tights she purchased from Hot Topic. The at was supposed to be my crowing achievement, but it didn't really come out as planned. It actually lights up, and is made from a cheap press on under-cabinet light that I had lying around. I glued it to a headband and made a craft foam grid of "windows" that were painted blue and another strip of muslin.
One of the panes was missing so the light could be turned on and off. However it didn't glue together too nicely, and the muslin started to pull off from the craft foam the minute she put it on, but it wasn't bad for a thrown together version 1.0.
Thanks for looking! Aviv Sal Sagev!
