Felgacarb
Sr Member
Due to circumstances that I was able to shape in my favor, I've been given an excuse to make a James T. West (Robert Conrad) costume from the '65 to '69 television show, "The Wild Wild West".
If you haven't seen it, it is a lot of fun.
I chose to replicate the costume that stood out most in my memory, the blue corduroy one he frequently wore in the 3rd and 4th seasons. Here are a couple of shots of it from the show:
And here is what it looked like more recently when it sold at auction:
So, without further ado, the build process.
I began as I usually, do, taking a pattern I already have and modifying it. Here I started with the pants. I needed very high waisted, tight pants with over-the-boot stirrups.
I got my materials together- This is some stretch denim and very large wale corduroy. The hat is a Stetson "Royal Flush" and is a reasonably close match.
I've gotten in the habit of washing and drying all my fabrics before I begin sewing. I never like doing it, but if you manage to make a tight fitting outfit come out right, and then have it shrink the first time it's cleaned...
I also made a muslin mock-up to be sure I liked the fit, and did some last minute pattern adjustment.
The pants were the easy part here, so here's a boot shot before I move on to the jacket:
Next, I did the jacket pattern. I hadn't ever done a jacket quite like this before, so my muslin mock-up really helped me get it adjusted decently.
Then I cut the patterns out of iron-on interfacing material, and put it onto the corduroy.
Here are the sleeves coming together:
I overlocked the daylights out of this costume- nearly every seam in the pants and jacket were done on the serger.
The lining in process:
This was made out of a light cotton, so the jacket should breath.
Starting to look like something:
The collar and cuffs are black pleather (I've read the original was not real leather either) and was pretty easy to work with. To all this I added a white shirt, some thrift store suspenders (Which you won't see, but are needed) and a temporary piece of black fabric pretending to be a neckerchef.
The terrible mirror photos:
I've also started making the (decorative) buttons out of rolled leather:
Still to do:
I plan to make a plain black vinyl 'buscadero' gun belt to cary a very light plastic SAA. (Converted squirt gun.) I still need to re finish the gun, and add the rattle snake to the grip. I could make a real leather rig, but it would be overkill for the plastic six-shooter, and I prefer my real leather stuff to be accurate historically (As opposed to the screen-accuracy the costume calls for...)
So, moving right along...
Thanks for looking!
If you haven't seen it, it is a lot of fun.
I chose to replicate the costume that stood out most in my memory, the blue corduroy one he frequently wore in the 3rd and 4th seasons. Here are a couple of shots of it from the show:
And here is what it looked like more recently when it sold at auction:
So, without further ado, the build process.
I began as I usually, do, taking a pattern I already have and modifying it. Here I started with the pants. I needed very high waisted, tight pants with over-the-boot stirrups.
I got my materials together- This is some stretch denim and very large wale corduroy. The hat is a Stetson "Royal Flush" and is a reasonably close match.
I've gotten in the habit of washing and drying all my fabrics before I begin sewing. I never like doing it, but if you manage to make a tight fitting outfit come out right, and then have it shrink the first time it's cleaned...
I also made a muslin mock-up to be sure I liked the fit, and did some last minute pattern adjustment.
The pants were the easy part here, so here's a boot shot before I move on to the jacket:
Next, I did the jacket pattern. I hadn't ever done a jacket quite like this before, so my muslin mock-up really helped me get it adjusted decently.
Then I cut the patterns out of iron-on interfacing material, and put it onto the corduroy.
Here are the sleeves coming together:
I overlocked the daylights out of this costume- nearly every seam in the pants and jacket were done on the serger.
The lining in process:
This was made out of a light cotton, so the jacket should breath.
Starting to look like something:
The collar and cuffs are black pleather (I've read the original was not real leather either) and was pretty easy to work with. To all this I added a white shirt, some thrift store suspenders (Which you won't see, but are needed) and a temporary piece of black fabric pretending to be a neckerchef.
The terrible mirror photos:
I've also started making the (decorative) buttons out of rolled leather:
Still to do:
I plan to make a plain black vinyl 'buscadero' gun belt to cary a very light plastic SAA. (Converted squirt gun.) I still need to re finish the gun, and add the rattle snake to the grip. I could make a real leather rig, but it would be overkill for the plastic six-shooter, and I prefer my real leather stuff to be accurate historically (As opposed to the screen-accuracy the costume calls for...)
So, moving right along...
Thanks for looking!
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