Here is the original costume, above ….. and my recreation , below.
I had been wanting to do Rachael for years! ( Like 10 years!). This was finally the year, and I got to wear it for 3 different Halloween events. I am now a pro at the 1940’s style rolls. This was a quick costume, so it is not as fully movie accurate as I will make one day.
I am not going to do a tutorial for this costume, because it was really just a quick remake/ alteration. Here is the basic way I made this:
1. Buy Black Suit
2. Make the rest of the costume
Just Kidding:
1. buy Black Suit. Longer skirt. Make sure when you flip up the collar, it comes close to closing at your neck.
2. open collar out to make a high neckline (press)
3. tailor jacket to be very fitted through the waist and lower arms
4. add two sets of shoulder pads to the jacket
5. redo buttons
6. add black leather/pleather patches. These are supposed to be some kind of reptile skin. I did the collar, the shoulders, the neck, either side of the waist, and one on each arm. The neck diamond needs to be removable. ( I used double sided sticky velcro !!!) To be movie accurate, there should be 3 on each side of the waist, and three on each arm, and only one shoulder..the left.
7. the OWL. I bought a black halloween prop that had green light up eyes, and painted it with acrylics
7. hair and makeup. (THE KICKER)
For the hair, I would search you tube for pompadour roll, 1940’s victory rolls, hair rolls, etc. I actually used a stuffed “roll” under the front roll since my hair is very thin.
THIS page has lots of snapshots of the hair and makeup on set.
THIS thread has some amazing details of the jacket construction and medallions someone did a few years ago. Better than most others found online. I will be using this when I remake this costume.
And finally, I LOVE this artist rendition of Rachael by Paul X Johnson.
My customer sent me this comic cover image by Brian Bolland as inspiration for a new costume:
She did want it with a little more coverage, boy shorts and shoes and accessories.
I started out with a basic sweetheart neckline corset pattern and extended it to the low hips.
I used 2 layers of liner to make sure where I attached all the leaves to the outer layer would not be uncomfortable. The outer layer was a viney printed green woven cotton. I sewed boning in the seams of the liner, and at the back edges. Next step was attaching ALL the leaves to the outer layer! You can see here that the liner is not attached to the outer layer yet, but I have covered up to about an inch away from the edges of the outer layer in layers of leaves. I started at the top and worked down. This took about 2 huge sprigs of leaves from Michael’s! The ones that are poking out above the raw edge are loose, so I could stick them inside when I sewed it right sides together to the liner. So, next step was to sew the outer to the liner, right sides together, along the side and upper edges (tucking the leaves inside as I went). Leaving the bottom open was an easy way to get it turned right side out without crushing the leaves.
While working on this, I ordered from an awesome site called welovecolors.com. They have 51? colors, I believe and make all kinds of tights, briefs, gloves, etc that match! We ordered boy briefs, tights and opera gloves.
Next step was to topstitch the bottom edge of the corset and stitch on all the leaves around the edges and along the bottom. I added grommets, privacy panel and matching ribbon and the top is done!!
I definitely multitask, so while I was waiting for the we love colors order and finishing the top, I started on the wire necklace. This was twisted wire, rubber clay, paint and fabric flowers.
Once the accessories arrived, ( a perfect match), I cut the fingers off of the gloves (and secured seams), hemmed down to below the elbow, and added as many leaves as I could. These are super stretchy, so the sewing of the leaves proved *challenging* (aka never gonna do THIS again).
After the chore of the gloves, I just had to sew leaves onto thick leather boots, (OMG and OUCH). Here are a couple of shots of the whole costume minus the tights. I wish you could see the hairpiece better. I sewed leaves and white flowers onto twine and attached to a clip. (Disregard the black wig… it was the best I had at the time).
And here is the pretty back, and a closer shot of the hairpiece and gloves(still doesn’t show much, sorry).
I hope to add some customer shots soon, if she is willing to share 🙂
MiaLa costuming blog 