# Doper Costume Designers, check in here! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 16, 2002, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179 "2002-07-16T04:21:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179/21 "2002-07-19T17:36:37Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Guinastasia \* > \*\* > I’m doing the Audrey thing because it seems simple. Just put my hair up, a tiara, little black dress, black gloves. The hardest part is looking for a ciggie holder. \*\* Here’s a trick I picked up from an ex-girlfriend: you can make a killer looking fake cigarette holder using nothing more than a slim, round paintbrush and a slip of paper! Roll the paper into a cigarette, then stick it to the end of the metal part of the paintbrush that holds the bristles. I used this technique to make a cigarette holder for my “Vlad Dragula” drag costume. I’ve posted photos of that, as well as a few of my other costumes, here: [http://www.geocities.com/yellowlamia/costume.html](http://www.geocities.com/yellowlamia/costume.html) Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of my Magenta costume scanned in. I was really proud of that one. ---
**Author:** ![mlerose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/43a26b/32.png) [@mlerose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlerose)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2002, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179/22 "2002-07-19T22:11:20Z")
I’ve made several costumes, mostly for myself. I used pieces from a costume I made for an ex bf, too. Here’s me in the blue lion mane at work a couple of years ago:[mle kitty](http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/mlerose42/vwp?.dir=/cool+pix&.src=ph&.dnm=mle+kitty+cat.jpg&.view=t&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/bc/mlerose42/lst%3f%26.dir=/cool%2bpix%26.src=ph%26.view=t) I made a Sally from The Nightmare Before Christmas costume. I watched the movie a bunch of times, took notes, and covered a skirt and shirt with fabric patches, trying to match the fabrics used for Sally. I used blue knee-highs to make my limbs blue and found striped stockings and old boots. I have a picture of this but it’s not online; will have to scan it. I made a Dorothy costume for my birthday party this past march. You can see it here:[and her little frog, too!](http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/mlerose42/vwp?.dir=/cool+pix&.src=ph&.dnm=dorothy+mle.jpg&.view=t&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/bc/mlerose42/lst%3f%26.dir=/cool%2bpix%26.src=ph%26.view=t) I used a skirt pattern, made some suspenders and sewed on buttons. I found a blouse at goodwill and added some trim to it. The ruby slippers were cheapo white shoes from payless shoe source, painted red and red-glittered. Not bad for a couple of nights’ work. I don’t have a sewing machine, so anything I make is sewn by hand. I’ve never actually designed an entire costume from scratch. Mostly I find pieces that will work, and I use those. I’d like to make more costumes and am always thinking up ideas. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2002, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179/23 "2002-07-20T00:29:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Promise you won’t tell LAF! If you promise not to tell about the Star Wars fan fic smut!!! LOL Ooooh, thanks \*_Lamia_-I’ll have to try that! ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2002, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179/24 "2002-07-20T03:46:40Z")
Right. We’re both very bad. Bad, bad, bad. I like making costumes from scratch, but that’s probably because I have a terrible silk addiction. It’s very expensive. Thankfully, I live in a city with _very good_ fabric stores. I should make a beaded choli for Hallowe’een. And a veil- then I can do veil dancing! There was a chick in a very cool PVC dragon costume at the club I was at last Hallowe’een. It looked expensive. ---
**Author:** ![ResIpsaLoquitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@ResIpsaLoquitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ResIpsaLoquitor)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2002, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179/25 "2002-07-21T01:49:53Z")
Update: my Fett armor is, I dunno, 70% done. I just finished repainting the helmet; now I need to figure out how to install the visor without getting glue all over it. Ick. My armor’s practically finished, too: I’ve completed the chest and shoulders, and I’m in the process of painting the collar and codpiece. Yes, Fett has a codpiece. And I can now say these words out loud: I’ve built my own codpiece. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2002, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179/26 "2002-07-21T02:44:29Z")
Um, does maskwork count? I used to do a lot of [prosthetic props](http://www.geocities.com/sepia_solace/heads.gif) and polyfoam maskwork/costumes (kinda like Muppet outfits that you can wear over your whole body), alas, I have no picture of my muppety outfits on-line right now. I’ll post Bert and Ernie when I can find them (their public outing at Toronto Pride a couple years ago wa a blast! We sneaked into the parade and everyone LOVE US!) ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2002, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179/27 "2002-07-21T20:17:22Z")
I’d wear a costume every day if I could. Not that I’m very good at making them. I love to use common household items. I sometimes use manufactured costume parts, but never for their intended purpose. ``` EG I bought a black taffeta robe at a yard sale. I opened the seams. Then I sewed each half onto a car tv antenna. The result was 4 foot long wings that folded for easy transport. I bought 2 shirt-display mannequins when a clothing store went out of business. I cut a hole in one and fitted it with a black t-shirt. Held on by suspenders and covered by a large button down shirt, it's a great decapitated costume. I mounted a fake head on the mannequin and wore it on my chest to do the classic old woman with baby (your arms and legs are the womans. But your head is the baby's) Lessee- Cthulhu mask-mostly green felt but with padded crest on eyes. Made an idol-plastic lemon(the kind they sell lemon juice in, arms and legs from an action figure, sugarless gum (cheaper than modelling putty, naturally adhesive, flexible, just chew for 1/2 hour and apply), and a frog statue (the frog is the head. The frog's legs and face are covered by bits of milk jug. He sits backward on the neck, giving Cthulhu a huge, lumpy forehead.). I designed and printed up some Cthulhu tracts and went as a Cthulhu fundie. This year-I'm revising last year's costume. I was a TechnoKnight. I'm adding shoulders to the chestpiece(made from sheet aluminum, and metal plates from a trash basket). I'm designing new greaves and bracers. They need to be lighter and fold flat. Last year's 4-foot blinking LED staff looked great in dim light, but the bright light during the costume juding completely overwhelmed it. BTW-being of limited means I've found shoelaces, masking tape and especially Goop (that's the brand name. It's toxic, should be used only in ventilated ares, and is a miracle of modern science. When you get it on your fingers, just let it dry and peel it off. I love this stuff.) to be invaluable. ``` ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2002, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179/28 "2002-07-21T20:41:11Z")
What I REALLY want to make is a pair of bright orange coveralls-like the flight suits from _Star Wars_. Then I can be a Rogue!!! ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2002, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179/29 "2002-07-21T20:46:36Z")
What I REALLY want to make is a pair of bright orange coveralls-like the flight suits from _Star Wars_. Then I can be a Rogue!!! ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2002, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179/30 "2002-07-21T21:07:35Z")
Aw, dammit! Sorry about that! ---
**Author:** ![racinchikki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eada6e/32.png) [@racinchikki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racinchikki)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2002, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179/31 "2002-07-21T22:03:39Z")
I’m making a dance hall girl costume for myself for this halloween, despite the fact that they’re horribly historically inaccurate… so what if real saloon girls in the wild west were just tired old hookers? I’m gonna be GLAM! I’m also making my best friend a flapper costume, just getting ten yards of black fringe and sewing it on a plain knee-length slip from walmart, and lending her some of my '20s-ish accessories to complete the look. Her choice whether she wants to wear a cloche hat or a headband trimmed with an ostrich feather. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2002, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179/32 "2002-07-21T22:59:40Z")
My roommate spends his weekends building custom fur costumes with custom fitted heads with jaws that really work when you move your mouth. He has a website about it at [http://www.sirkaelan.com/CAT/home.htm](http://www.sirkaelan.com/CAT/home.htm) He’s getting pretty darn good, and has three commissions running right now. ---
**Author:** ![ResIpsaLoquitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@ResIpsaLoquitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ResIpsaLoquitor)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179/33 "2002-07-22T01:51:58Z")
**Guinastasia** , I got some nice blue overalls from JC Penney online for about $30 for my Fett costume. It only needed some minor modifications, and it looks exactly like the real deal. I bet you could find some orange ones, or barring that, white ones you could dye. I think they have Rebel pilot helmets out there, although the company that had the SW mask license went bust, so you have to actively track them down now. ---
**Author:** ![ResIpsaLoquitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@ResIpsaLoquitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ResIpsaLoquitor)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179/34 "2002-07-22T01:51:59Z")
**Guinastasia** , I got some nice blue overalls from JC Penney online for about $30 for my Fett costume. It only needed some minor modifications, and it looks exactly like the real deal. I bet you could find some orange ones, or barring that, white ones you could dye. I think they have Rebel pilot helmets out there, although the company that had the SW mask license went bust, so you have to actively track them down now. ---
**Author:** ![BraheSilver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@BraheSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BraheSilver)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179/35 "2002-07-22T02:51:15Z")
A quick question for **Res** : If you’ve got one of the Don Post Fett helmets, did you have to get rid of any deformity in the shape? Mine’s got a nasty bend in the back. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179/36 "2002-07-22T03:13:52Z")
Well, I want to learn to sew, partly. And then I would embroider the Rebel Crest on them! Wee! Or should I join Wraith Squadron? The Wraiths seriously kick ass. ---
**Author:** ![Osbie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/cdc98d/32.png) [@Osbie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Osbie)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179/37 "2002-07-22T03:25:53Z")
_Rushes in at **Lissla’s** call…_ I’m here! What’d I miss? I’m certainly not a professional costume designer, but I did the costumes for a version of _Cinderella_ a few years ago for a local theatre company. The worst part of the job was the dozen or so mice costumes. Luckily, the local ballet company had decent childrens mice costumes from their production of _The Nutcracker_. But alas, to make the mice look like soldiers, the ballet costumer had machine sewn ribbons across the chest and back (forming a large “X” in front and back). When I say “machine sewn,” I mean they had sewn all the way down the length of the ribbon on both edges. I had to pick all the ribbons off for our show and then put them all back on before returning them. It seems like it would be easy, but sometimes the ribbons wouldn’t fit right when I tried to put them back (_possibly_ because when I took them off, I didn’t keep track of which ribbons went with which costume, and afterwards I realized that the costumes weren’t the same size). :smack: Eventually, I got it figured out, but it taught me a valuable lesson about keeping track of that sort of thing. Ugh. I was a theatre major my freshman year of college and I took the basic costume tech. class for one semester. For part of our grade, we each had to crew one of the department’s productions that semester. The show I did used a lot of long underwear for costumes. I and a classmate were assigned to take care of the wardrobe for the first matinee performance of that show. (This is important to know.) Anyway, we had to go in to the costume shop late that Saturday morning and pick up all the costumes (which had been laundered by other classmates after the previous night’s performance). So we get there, and we pull all the underwear out of the dryer and imagine our dismay when we realize it’s still damp. Very damp. Not sopping, you understand, but definitely damp and cold. We look at the clock. The show is in a few hours. We throw the stuff back in the dryer and run it another cycle. There was no discernable difference when we pulled it out again. The dryer appears to be blowing cold air. We look at the clock. We have to get everything to the theater because it’s getting to be that time. So we reason that it is more important to get the costumes to the theater instead of risking the delay of the show to dry the stupid things (we didn’t think it was our place to make such a decision), and figure that the actors, dedicated professionals that they are, will take it all in stride and wear damp long underwear. (The show must go on and all that, right?) Wrong. The men were very unhappy about the state of their underwear. I’d hoped they might actually like the chill - it would keep them cool under the lights, and combining that with their body heat would dry them in no time. The costumes didn’t look wet and they didn’t sag or anything. Anyway, my classmate and I felt we’d done everything we could and were feeling a little bitter about the whole deal when someone coughed up some money and ran the whole load down to a local laundromat and dried them in time for the show. It turns out that the costume shop dryer was known for being a piece of crap and the crew usually had to run the clothes through a few cycles to get things dry. No one in the know had bothered to tell us this and our problems were further compounded by the fact that the afternoon matinee had considerably shortened our window for taking care of the laundry. Anyway, we didn’t get in trouble, though I always felt like some people in the department thought we were idiots for showing up with damp costumes. I’d like to do more, but I’m not the most accomplished seamstress yet - and I’m getting another degree and don’t have vast wads of time to work on things at the moment. Once I get to be an accomplished seamstress though… [covet] I would LOVE to make something like the red bustle dress Winona Ryder wore in _Dracula_. [/covet] I took a design class in college and one of our projects was to design a costume for eight characters from _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_. I set mine in the Scottish highlands. The costumes were never made, of course, but I was quite pleased with the way things turned out (although my classmates felt I made Nick Bottom waaaaayyyyy too hairy). **Guin** : I knew a kid whose mom would make him Luke Skywalker costumes for Holloween and her attention to detail was very good. One year she made the tan jumpsuit he wore in _Empire_ and another year she made the black outfit he wore in _Jedi_. ---
**Author:** ![ResIpsaLoquitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b3f665/32.png) [@ResIpsaLoquitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ResIpsaLoquitor)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179/38 "2002-07-22T03:37:25Z")
**Brahe** , No, I was lucky enough to get a DP helmet without the infamous warp (or at least none I noticed). If you plan to modify your helmet, I should warn you: the very first thing I did was cut out the fake visor in the front. Big mistake: over the last two weeks, one of the cheek corners has slowly bent outward. This made it a pain in the ass to install the replacement visor, which I finally did today. (I glued the downward bar of the “t” and used screws for the horizontal.) The visor pretty much looks OK, but I’m going to need to do some gluing with clamps in order to make it hold. Ugh. ---
**Author:** ![Osbie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/cdc98d/32.png) [@Osbie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Osbie)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179/39 "2002-07-22T04:01:30Z")
> [@](#): > > **Guin** : I knew a kid whose mom would make him Luke Skywalker costumes for Holloween and her attention to detail was very good. One year she made the tan jumpsuit he wore in _Empire_ and another year she made the black outfit he wore in _Jedi_. D’OH! ---
**Author:** ![Lissla\_Lissar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lissla\_Lissar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissla_Lissar)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2002, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179/40 "2002-07-22T14:33:34Z")
It occurs to me that most of my favourite fantasy books don’t have good costumes- perhaps that’s why I usually do historical stuff. If I wanted to wimp out some Hallowe’een and _not_ make my own costume from scratch including hand beading I could scrape together a _Matrix_ outfit pretty easily. Borrow Cynth’s leather halter, wear vinyl skirt and vinyl trenchcoat… I’m not implying that people who don’t sew their own stuff are wimps, just that it would seem wimpy for _me_ not to make everything myself, because I’m obsessive-compulsive about Hallowe’een. **Guin**. make a body double or get a dressform, get some cheap fabric and pins, and start designing! It’s really not that scary, especially after the first few times… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doper-costume-designers-check-in-here/119179.md?page=1)