Ahk!

[ArcticChicken]

A whole group of us is suddenly going to the PennRen next saturday, and I just realized I don't have an costume!

Does anyone know anything relatively simple a novice sewer could make in a week's time?

[Whiskey]

sexy underpants

edit: based on the information in your post i have no idea what youre talking about so thats all i got

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Usually, you can buy stuff at the Faire, can't you?

I hate sewing. I mean, I do it all the time, but I hate it. You could throw together a long skirt (big tube of fabric with a hem in one end and elastic in the other, a peasant shirt, and maybe a wide waist cincher of some sort.

I dunno, I don't know how fast you are at sewing. If I only had a week, I'd order something from Amazon or something.

[ArcticChicken]

Usually, you can buy stuff at the Faire, can't you?

With what money? Only reason I can afford a ticket is because I have a friend who's working the faire.

I'll probably throw something together like what you suggested, I have almost nothing but free time, what with being unemployed.

I might just decide to go in mundies, so I can wear my sunglasses without feeling like a complete tool. Glasses I'll wear with a costume, 'cause otherwise I'd walk into trees, but sunglasses are right out.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I'm in the SCA and I wear sunglasses with my garb. I just don't give a damn, they woulda wore 'em if they'da had 'em. They can either endure my sunglasses or they can endure my projectile vomiting (I get migraines). I also wear a big cavalier hat (that helps, too).

Sunglasses are one of those things like wheelchairs and leg braces and whatnot.

If it's rainy, I wear a pair of Docs on my feet, too. I ain't walking around with soaked feet.

You do what you gotta do.

You can make a peasant shirt out of a sheet. It's not the best thing to use, but if you have an old sheet, it's free.

You can also find things like old draperies and linens in second hand stores to use. I once had a georgeous velvet and satin outfit that cost me eleven bucks. It was an old bedroom set. Think Scarlett O'Hara.

But you only have a week. You can make a skirt in a couple hours by sewing a long piece of fabric into a tube. Leave enough inches for a hem and also a fold-over to put some elastic in. Make sure the elastic is long enough to easily go over your butt so you can just slide it over your hips.

Shirt: fold fabric in half and draw a "T" shape. Put a hole where you want your head (hole will need to be much smaller than you think it is, so start small with that.) If you want to be fancy, draw the arms so they'll be poofy.

Make it longer than you think you need.

Sew up sides and under arms. Hem armholes, if needed. If you need elastic, add that. run an wide enough hem in neckhole (this is why you start small) to run some drawstring through.

Waist cincher: cut out an hourglass shape out of some heavy fabric. You can actually use duct tape in a pinch to make it stiff. Just tape some cardboard onto the back and seal with tape. Take to Kinko's have them drop some metal gromments down the front for laces.

Yes, I have worked in a costume shop. And I also have had to "speed dress" people.

[dalesys]

As I remember this was fairly simple:

[csquared]

When The Wife doesn't feel like lacing up one of the dresses... Poet shirt, "balloon pants" (not sure if there is a proper name for these. Super baggy, "square cut," draw string waist, tapered to the ankle w/ties) and sandals. Sometimes she will add a vest made from a tapestry print.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I's jealous.

I went to college near there; one semester I took History of the English Language and Medieval Lit (at the same time ) and the two classes (which overlapped for the most part) went to the Renn Faire. No one dressed up except the professor, who was dressed as a monk...wearing Tevas sandals. And we had to take a detour because of a one-lane bridge that was being replaced, so he ended up asking some guy in a cowboy hat and boots with a horse in his front yard for directions. It was an interesting sight.

My friend and I did the costume picture thing, though. We were ladies...partly cuz neither of us is well-endowed enough to be a wench.
(I also have a Civil War-era costume pic from Busch Gardens with her and two other friends..somewhere.)

[ArcticChicken]

Very happy, went rummaging through my aunts sewing stuff and found a whole lot of fabric left over from the last time she made faire shirts, and a gorgeous light wool plaid that was a gift, but she said I could have it as it's been at the bottom of her fabric bin for years. I also found my old bodice, but I'll have to add a panel to the back if I want to lace it comfortably.

[emax4]

I've wanted to do this for a while but never have, but now seems like an ideal time: Get a dark-colored robe suitable for a sorcerer, rubber skeleton hands and a skeleton mask. Then at the Faire, purchase one of those long wizards staffs. You can be a skeleton wizard!

What'd be cooler if you had some special effects to go with it. I've seen at the store Five Below that they have jokes and novelties. One of these might be the product that lets you create smoke from your fingertips.

I went to the PA RenFaire a few weeks back and thought about getting an executioner's mask and my regular shorts and T shirt, so it would be like the executioner on his day off.

[ArcticChicken]

Get a dark-colored robe suitable for a sorcerer, rubber skeleton hands and a skeleton mask. Then at the Faire, purchase one of those long wizards staffs. You can be a skeleton wizard!

No matter what it tells you, heatstroke is not your friend.


I keep having to talk myself out of embarking on something I don't have time to finish. I've finally managed to talk myself into not cutting the skirt fabric, so I can pick out the stitches later and make a better skirt, but it was hard, I want a better skirt now!!

[ArcticChicken]

Actually, the skirt turned out rather well, who knew a sack with draw strings could look good?