Like any contestant on Project Runway, my journey began at Mood. (Actually, I went into the many small wholesale shops in the high 30s and 40s first, but they just didn’t have what I needed.) In fact, it took a lot of searching at Mood, and a trip to the 4th floor, to find what I needed for Ilan’s costume.
This year, he was Sub Zero, a character from the video game “Halo”. I found a lightweight blue vinyl to make the open vest and tabard. After that, the rest of the fabric choices fell into place. I found a matching blue fabric for the belt and mask. The hood was done in a black fabric.
You may wonder why I didn’t buy the costume. Well, this year Ilan was too big for a kid’s costume and too small for an adult costume.
Using some of the pieces from his last year’s Ninja costume as a guide (plus Internet ideas on how to make a tabard), I made my pattern using do-sew pattern tracing material. Next came the fitting and then I was ready to cut my fabric. Black sweat pants and a black tee-shirt completed the look.
The first fitting went fantastic!! My pattern was spot on. I added about 5 extra inches to all of my initial measurements and it really paid off. The great thing about making a pattern using the do-sew is that it’s clingy, so I was able to put the pieces right on Ilan without having to pin anything to his clothes. I just pinned the pattern pieces to each other.
Except for the hood, all the pattern pieces were rectangles:
- Two 6w”x 24h” rectangles for the front vest. I crossed one rectangle over the other, which I then attached to the tabard at the waist and the back vest at the shoulders.
- One 18w” x 25h” rectangle for the back vest.
- One 11w” x 22h” rectangle for the tabard.
- One 16w” x 6h” rectangle for the mask. I made this extra wide to cover his ears. And then I sewed elastic at the top and sewed two elastic loops on either side of the mask that could go over his ears to keep the mask in place.
- One 46w” x 6h” rectangle for the belt. I sewed 4 pieces of Velcro into the belt – one to go at the each end of the belt and the companion Velcro to hold all sides in place.
- For the hood, I took an old Ninja hood Ilan had from last year and traced around adding an inch all around.
And, here’s the result. One made-to-order Klassic Sub Zero costume.
