A New Costume

I make my own costumes.  You can probably see that my costume is pretty unique.  As a professional clown, you don't have to make your own.  There are a lot of really beautiful and well made costumes from places like Pricilla Mooseburger Originals or other such places.  But when you are just starting out, or once you have found something that works for you, making it might be the cheaper way to go.

If you can't sew, you may have to settle for combining eccentric pieces that you find at the thrift store, etc.  As long as you can put together a Simplicity pattern, you can probably get a couple of pretty good costumes done yourself.

My first costume was a Raggedy Ann pattern from Simplicity.  I made it out of pink and purple broadcloth on the sale table and shortened the sleeves on the under-dress.  It worked out fine for a year or so before I got tired of it and the colours started to fade a little.  Some knee socks and colourful shoes and that's pretty much the costume.

From there, I wanted to find a way to streamline it a little.  I liked the shirt/pinafore feel, but didn't like how many pieces I had to deal with and thought I might be able to combine the bloomers and pinafore into one thing by creating a romper/overall type thing.  This is where we went from easy (assembling Simplicity patterns) to kind of hard (creating your own design and pattern and then trying to make it fit on YOU.  I started with the basic idea of the pinafore, switched out the ruffled top for just a band, measured just enough to make it all the way around the widest part of my hips (plus some so they aren't even close to tight)... straight up (with a couple pleats into the band at the top), straight down on the legs and ruffle the bottom.  That's the simplified version of my thinking.  The reality involved a lot more naughty words, wasted fabric because it was cut wrong/didn't fit/looked stupid/etc.  In any case, my first set of overalls, wasn't bad, but I've been refining it with each new pair since then.
















Then comes my latest creation.  Built upon the things I've learned from the last few overalls.  I like them and they match my new custom Converse X-Hi Chuck Taylors!

Happy Clowning!!
Perry Noia :oD