Completed costume - Dalton Academy uniforms (Glee)

Another recent project was my Halloween 2011 costume.  My friends and I are huge Gleeks, so we decided to do costumes based on the Dalton Academy and McKinley Cheerios uniforms.

Dalton Academy uniform (Source)

 Cheerios uniform (Source)

Since Dalton Academy is a all-boys school, I had to figure out how to adapt the outfit for myself. After looking up various reference images of girls' school uniforms, I decided to go with a puffed sleeve blouse, a navy vest edged in red (like the Dalton blazers) and a gray pencil skirt.

For the pattern, I traced off my basic, self-drafted bodice block, added a button placket and converted it to an armhole princess seamed version. I took my sleeve pattern, traced off a short-sleeve version, and converted it to a very full puff via the slash-and-spread method. I then drafted a collar and stand using this very helpful tutorial from Threads Magazine.  The fabric I used was a crisp, white, 60” wide poly-cotton that I managed to nab for $5.00/meter.

Sewing it all together was pretty straightforward. One helpful trick I did learn from Sewing.org's helpful guide to sewing princess seams (see page 2 of document 11.310 under section 11, “General How-To”)

was giving the princess seams only a 1/4” seam allowance. This made them much easier to sew – I didn't even have to clip the curves!

I finished the blouse and was happy with the end result...

...only to realize that we were going to be in for a COLD Halloween. Oops. Thankfully I had enough fabric to make a long-sleeved version and since I had a pattern that I knew worked, I was able to just swap out the puff sleeve pattern for my basic long-sleeved ones.

Long sleeved version (before final hemming!)

For the vest, I used an existing vest pattern with shoulder princess seams that I had previously drafted.  I used the same navy blue broadcloth as my Tessa costume, fully underlined and interfaced in strategic areas for stability. I lined it in some black polyester I had lying around and used red broadcloth cut into bias strips for the edging. To finish it off, I sewed on three gold buttons and three hooks and eyes.

Closeup of the bias trim and button

 

At first I intended to make the striped tie from scratch with bias cut fabric and fabric paint, but then I completely lucked out and found the perfect tie at a thrift store (for 99 cents, no less!). Because of the weather, I ended up wearing gray pants instead of the skirt.

For my friend's Dalton costume, we managed to find the perfect blazer at the same thrift store for dirt cheap – it even had the right type of buttons and everything (I'm convinced that place is magic). 

The blazer before the bias trim

 

I took it home with me and sewed red bias tape all around the edges and along the pockets. I also stitched on a Dalton patch that other friend made for our costumes.

Overall, the costumes were a big hit and we had a lot of fun! People instantly recognized us and we got our pictures snapped quite a few times – ironically, I didn't get too many shots of us (sadly I don't have any pics of my friend's super awesome Cheerios uniform).

Me in my costume

My friend in his Dalton blazer. As for the red marks on his face....we may have 

decided to include a nod to the *coughcough*Canniblaine meme*coughcough*

I had fun with this costume, so I'm planning to re-wear it in May to Anime North, with a few changes: I'll wear the puff-sleeved blouse and skirt I originally planned to do since it'll be warm enough then, plus I'll probably make a matching headband to top it off.