Costumes 1.0 – Captain Hook’s Coat

When our daughter signed up for the school musical, I jumped on the volunteer list to make costumes.  I’ve done it before and had a ball:  Mom and I made costumes for Seussical one year and took over our basement for months.  Laughing all the way!  This time it was Peter Pan.  How fun is that?  Mom says I was named after a TV character back in the day – I liked to think it had to do with Peter Pan!  Anyway…  the day I signed up to do Peter Pan costumes was the day I started the wheels turning.  It was a few days before Halloween and I needed lots of swords.  And pirate hats.  And fairy wings!  Off to the local Dollar stores I went.  I kinda felt bad that I took the last fairy wing before another mom got to the aisle but I was on a mission!  I needed 11 of them!

With the wings, hats and swords safely stored, my attention turned to Captain Hook’s coat.  It needed to be grand and swirly and gold (with some red would be nice, too!).  I went to the library and checked out books on costumes and found a picture of just what I was envisioning!  I went to JoAnn’s and found the perfect pattern for $12 (Simplicity #3677).  On my search for other costume parts, I was walking the aisles at Goodwill and a bedspread caught my eye.  It was perfect!  It was $5!!!  I was so giddy at the checkout that I’m sure the cashier was wondering why on earth I was getting so excited about a dirty old bedspread!  It was king size, gold and red brocade and had yards and yards of gold and red rope trim.  Jackpot!  I made a trip into the city to my favorite discount fabric warehouse (http://megafabrics.com) to buy the buttons for 10 cents each and bought a bunch of gold trim for the pirate hats, too.  Our son and I spent an afternoon taking apart that old bedspread, cutting off the rope trim and salvaging the stuffing for later prop use.  A good lesson in frugality!

A bit of sewing magic (thanks again, Mom, for teaching me how to sew instead of cook!) and here it is!  Captain Hook’s Coat.  I even had enough fabric left over to make a cape for Peter Pan, complete with lining and rope trim edging.  I’ll save Peter Pan and Tinker Bell’s costumes for another post.

Inspiration is everywhere.