Darth Mule
Sr Member
I never do this, but since I was actually starting a build for Halloween this year, I thought maybe I should actually participate.
This year I’m doing Sweeney Todd from the Tim Burton led version of the Sondheim musical.
Typically I like to put limits on myself when it comes to Halloween to make it more challenging and level the playing field, so to speak, amongst my “muggle” friends that don’t do this on a regular basis. For this one I gave myself a budget of $50.00 to make this costume happen. Outside of that, I had to be creative and make use of my existing costume and fabric stock.
First up: Cross off the items that you already have. As luck would have it, I already owned a pair of passable black pinstripe pants. I purchased these some time ago when I started getting into Steampunk, and never got much is from them because they were kind of baggy in the legs. Never really had a sexy fit to them and I never bothered taking them in. Well, this project was the catalyst for finally making that happen. Couple of hours on the sewing machine, and voila! Pants done! The stock tie was also a found item. Found in my trunk that is. I made this a few years ago to tie around my wrist on day that I though I was a rock star. It was pretty close to what Depp wore, so check that off as well.
Next: Create a build list. For this I will be making 3 things.
1) Vest:
For the vest I had to pick up some linen. Ordered some heavyweight grey linen online. Paid about $18.00 after shipping. I patterned the vest using a simple body block draft, putting it on and drawing the lines where I wanted.
After that it was a simple matter of drafting out the separate pieces and puzzling it back together. It’s an interesting piece because it’s sort of assymetrical. The two front sides are put together in sections and the sections are different from left to right.
After the vest was assembled, I realized that the color was a bit off so I decided to give it a dip in some black RIT. The next step was to distress it, which I did with some strategic bleaching. This in turn caused it to orange a bit, so I had to give it a second dip in some RIT Pearl Grey to tone it back down.
2) Shirt: Kind of hard to pull a decent period shirt out of your closet. Especially when it’s one that was designed to be worn by Mr. Depp. I swear the guy has the words “Puffy Sleeves” in his contract right next to “Garish Makeup.”
I picked up a few yards of Linen at the local JoAnn’s. Ran about $12.00 with my JoAnn app coupon. I had a decent Victorian shirt pattern laying around that I did a couple alterations to. I squared out the sleeves to make them a bit poofier and I did a little slash and spread to create some pintucking on the bib.
3) Razor Holster: Dug the materials for this out of my fabric bins. Did a quick wetmolding over the handle of my poly mallet and riveted it together. Sadly I left my dyes at my folks and kind of had to make due with whatever I could borrw from my boss’s stock.
The Razor I picked up on the Bay of ‘e’ for a cool $8.00 shipped. Hammered off the sharp edge for safety.
The belt was sort of made. I picked one up for $6.00 at Plato’s Closet that was already nice and distressed and broken in. Perfect that it was about 6 sizes too big, so I could cut it down and replace the buckle with something closer to screen used.
And that’s about it for the costume. Makeup test should be coming up. So far I'm clocking in at $46 if you count the $4 I spent on hairspray.
Let’s see if I can make the actual deadline!
Here's my gallery shot:
http://www.therpf.com/gallery/male-costumes/p6338-sweeney-todd.html
And a few more finished pics as well as my "proof" pic.
This year I’m doing Sweeney Todd from the Tim Burton led version of the Sondheim musical.
Typically I like to put limits on myself when it comes to Halloween to make it more challenging and level the playing field, so to speak, amongst my “muggle” friends that don’t do this on a regular basis. For this one I gave myself a budget of $50.00 to make this costume happen. Outside of that, I had to be creative and make use of my existing costume and fabric stock.
First up: Cross off the items that you already have. As luck would have it, I already owned a pair of passable black pinstripe pants. I purchased these some time ago when I started getting into Steampunk, and never got much is from them because they were kind of baggy in the legs. Never really had a sexy fit to them and I never bothered taking them in. Well, this project was the catalyst for finally making that happen. Couple of hours on the sewing machine, and voila! Pants done! The stock tie was also a found item. Found in my trunk that is. I made this a few years ago to tie around my wrist on day that I though I was a rock star. It was pretty close to what Depp wore, so check that off as well.
Next: Create a build list. For this I will be making 3 things.
1) Vest:
For the vest I had to pick up some linen. Ordered some heavyweight grey linen online. Paid about $18.00 after shipping. I patterned the vest using a simple body block draft, putting it on and drawing the lines where I wanted.
After that it was a simple matter of drafting out the separate pieces and puzzling it back together. It’s an interesting piece because it’s sort of assymetrical. The two front sides are put together in sections and the sections are different from left to right.
After the vest was assembled, I realized that the color was a bit off so I decided to give it a dip in some black RIT. The next step was to distress it, which I did with some strategic bleaching. This in turn caused it to orange a bit, so I had to give it a second dip in some RIT Pearl Grey to tone it back down.
2) Shirt: Kind of hard to pull a decent period shirt out of your closet. Especially when it’s one that was designed to be worn by Mr. Depp. I swear the guy has the words “Puffy Sleeves” in his contract right next to “Garish Makeup.”
I picked up a few yards of Linen at the local JoAnn’s. Ran about $12.00 with my JoAnn app coupon. I had a decent Victorian shirt pattern laying around that I did a couple alterations to. I squared out the sleeves to make them a bit poofier and I did a little slash and spread to create some pintucking on the bib.
3) Razor Holster: Dug the materials for this out of my fabric bins. Did a quick wetmolding over the handle of my poly mallet and riveted it together. Sadly I left my dyes at my folks and kind of had to make due with whatever I could borrw from my boss’s stock.
The Razor I picked up on the Bay of ‘e’ for a cool $8.00 shipped. Hammered off the sharp edge for safety.
The belt was sort of made. I picked one up for $6.00 at Plato’s Closet that was already nice and distressed and broken in. Perfect that it was about 6 sizes too big, so I could cut it down and replace the buckle with something closer to screen used.
And that’s about it for the costume. Makeup test should be coming up. So far I'm clocking in at $46 if you count the $4 I spent on hairspray.
Let’s see if I can make the actual deadline!
Here's my gallery shot:
http://www.therpf.com/gallery/male-costumes/p6338-sweeney-todd.html
And a few more finished pics as well as my "proof" pic.
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