Costumes are a pain in the butt. Not the store-bought ones from party city, though the fabric and the decorations can be itchy and ill-fitting, I mean the ones you make yourself. The ones you make from scratch, because your little nerd-self decided to be hubristic and sew it with your own two hands because how hard could it be? Then, you actually start the process, and you learn the hard way.
First of all, fabric. You don't really realize how many different kinds of fabric there are until you walk into a fabric store to look. This one's stretchy, this one's stiff, that one's fuzzy. So there you are, in front of a dozen bolts of red fabric hastily trying to Google the differences between jersey and cotton, or better yet, you pick a bolt that looks kinda right and hope. To make matters worse, you're surrounded by middle-aged and older women who all know what they're doing, they grab their bolts in quick succession and head to the counter with the finesse of an old pro, much too quickly for you to reach out to them for advice. So you pick up your bolts with much less assurance than these experts, wander to the accessories section and maybe pick up a zipper or two if you're feeling daring. Then you go to the counter where all the other people are and you hear the person asking, “How much do you need?” and these same experts and their lists, rattling off five yards of this, two yards of that, and a slight panic sets in. Again you Google how much material you need for a skirt or a shirt or a best or whatever it is you're making and oh no that requires math and measurements and the line before you is getting shorter rapidly. Suddenly the person behind the counter is asking you how much you want, so you decide on a number that sounds right as the employee makes small talk by asking you what you're making.
After that harrowing ordeal, you make it home to your hand-me-down sewing machine or the cheap one you got because they all work about the same, right? Now that you've got the fabric laid out in front of you, it's back to the internet to figure out just how you make a skirt anyway. After you measure and cut and make find a shape vaguely like a skirt, you learn your second most important lesson: your sewing machine hates you. Tension? Stitch? Speed? How do you thread the needle? If you're clever enough to sew a sample, you get to see just how quickly your machine will eat your fabric. If you didn't use a sample...time to start over, of course that's only after you use your scissors to extricate the mangled fabric from the sewing foot. From there you have a few options.
Option 1: struggle through and stick with whatever pieces look the least wonky.
Option 2: give up and try to find a cheap costume online.
Or you can do better than I did my first time, and do your research. It's a lot to know if you're doing this for the first time. Here's what I learned from my first comical costume making experience:
1. Take your measurements.
Get a friend to help you, but take them and put the down in a notebook. Measure everything you can think of, from your waist to your height to the length from your armpit to your wrist. You'll need to know them, I promise.
2. Look up patterns first!
There's plenty of free ones online from many nice people who want to help you.
3. Look up fabrics.
They all work differently. Some are easy to work with, others were hand woven by the devil himself to spite you and your sewing machine. You'll want to know that before you go shopping.
4. On the topic of shopping: if you are confused, ask someone for help!
The people in the store, whether they work there or not, are generally pleased to help a newbie. We love to share what we know and encourage new people to try it out.
5. Before you start with patterns and sewing, get to know your machine or practice your stitches if you're hand sewing (bless your heart if you take this road).
6. If you are going to get a machine, be kind to yourself and invest in a decent one.
It'll pay itself off in the long run. The cheap ones only last so long.
7. If all else fails, thrift stores are your friend!
You can do a lot with thrifted items and a little bit of imagination.
Con season is upon us once again, and the frenzy to get our costumes down is hitting us all hard. Best of luck if you choose to make your own costume from scratch, and be sure to learn from the mistakes of one of your peers. It’s a learning process for all of us, heck, I’m still no expert. I just know more than I did before I started. If there's something important that I forgot, let me and everyone else know. The more knowledge we share, the better!
