Whew, it’s been a busy fall. Between tons of duties at work, and learning how to prep a home for the winter, we’ve had our hands full here. We adopted the joy of hosting the family’s annual Halloween party since we have a home to host in now, and it wasn’t until a week before the party that I realized I didn’t have a good costume that I hadn’t worn yet… Whoops. I could’ve worn the skant, but it was real cold that night and those legs are out on display.
I had been planning on recreating the coat that Kinga wears in MST3K since I saw the first episode of the return. Between the simple lines, weird details, and adaptability to easily use an already-made pattern, it could be done in a snap. Luckily for my procrastinating Halloween-costume-needing self, I had already done a muslin and purchased the fabric months ago! It just needed to be made. In a week. And so it was.
The coat pattern is Vogue 8346, view B, cut in a size 14. I initially made a muslin, which worked out great. I liked the sleeve length and fit of the bodice as a whole. I would have liked to move the buttons up to have more of a traditional peacoat shape like Kinga’s is, but that was more complicated that I was ready to dive into. I generally prefer when sleeves are made of 2 separate pieces to allow greater arm movement, so in the future I will hack this to have 2 parts.
I sourced the fabric for my coat, a wonderfully dark melton wool, from S.R. Harris in Brooklyn Park, MN for $19.99/yard, but purchased the contrasting lapel color, a simple quilting cotton, and lining at my local Jo-ann Fabrics. My patches were sourced last minute from Etsy (one showed up the day of the party!) from these two shops. Lastly, my hair bones were made from sculpting Sculpy onto some melamine chop sticks, and painting it all white after baking.
Oh! My partner in crime! Ian is wearing a Jonah-style costume with his own name on it that we made for the convention we went to this summer. I knew that a wool coat wouldn’t fly at a convention in July, hence why I had the supplies and never made it on time. But, it is surprisingly difficult (impossible) to find long-sleeved yellow coveralls. So we purchased a white cotton jumpsuit on Amazon, and dyed it in a big bucket with Rit dye. Then, I sewed on the patches. We found a velcro tactical belt with accessories for him to finish off the look. Bam! Our own test subject!
We ran into a few other Jonah-like people at the convention, and they had dyed their coveralls with both the cotton and polyester dye. I should have done this as well, because while the fabric is made of cotton, the thread is polyester and is still white. So, this is what I would recommend if you’re trying to make your own test subject.
Overall, I love this costume! The coat came together quite smoothly in a week, and the hardest part was simply working efficiently after work to get it done on time.
Oh, our Halloween party was a success too. Hurrah!