Jingles the Haunt Clown Costume

Terror on the Fox 2024

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Right away, there's a couple notes on the sketch that makes this a super easy build. First of all, it's meant to be baggy, and the belt will help everything stay in place. The belt also hides the seam between the torso and legs, so I don't have to worry about making that seam super clean. The lack of arms (those will be a seperate layer) means I don't have to worry about their field of movement. And the collar will hide some strangeness with the shape of the top.

While I have had plenty of practice on dolls, this was my first time patterning full-size clothes from scratch. Using their measurements and the basics that I had learned from experience, I was able to plan out the shapes needed. Luckily, the outfit was intended to be loose and baggy.

I cut my pieces from secondhand fabric I got from ReClaim It. The lighter tan fabric was very thin, so in addition to the main layer of the pants I also added in a pair of shorts to serve as a lining for the upper legs and waist.

We originally played around with a mixed set of buttons, but landed on matching black ones. The buttons won't be holding the costume together, that will be done with snaps and velcro.

To make things simpler, I split the jumpsuit into two parts. The torso is a simple vest, lined (this is my trick for not having to hem complex curves - just line it).

Next were the pants and their lining. These were attached to the bodice at the waist, as this is a stage costume there's no need to hide the raw edges super cleanly.

Next, a simple collar. I took their shoulder circumfrence and multiplied it by 1.5 to get the outer edge. It's simply a long rectangle sewn into a loop, with elastic inside to gather it. If I had had more fabric, I think it could have been a little more gathered. 2 or 3 times the length instead. I topstitched two rows in black thread for texture.

Next were the ruffles at the bottom of each pant leg, these are also 1.5 times the width of the leg. I used a wide gathering stitch on each before pinning and sewing them in place.

The one specially purchased material for this costume; the silly pom-pom trim. It ended up matching the color of the fabric perfectly. We already had plans to add it along the sides of the hat, around the collar, and around the base of the leg ruffles. There was a little extra, so I decided to replace the torso ruffles in the sketch with the trim instead.

Some last-minutebells, and it's done! Ready to be shipped off for weathering.

Weathering

Of course, it being for a haunt character, it's gotta be all dirty and grimy. A shame of course do see all my hard work ripped up, but it really adds to the character. The layers of detail and texture put into the initial costume still shine through and are built upon by the extra dirt, it came together really nicely.