The Nightmare Before Christmas: Jack Skellington

  
The Nightmare Before Christmas
Jack Skellington
Created October 2009 

Items Made: Jacket, Trousers, Tie.

 A LOT went into the costume.  It was one that I've wanted to make forever but I could never find a fabric that I thought suitable... and I really didn't want to hand paint all of those pinstripes onto every piece of fabric. 

Luckily I came across this awesome uneven pinstripe in Dark Charcoal from an online fabric store.  It was on clearance and I bought all they had... 11 yards.

The base of the pattern came from a Burda pattern for a women's suit/tuxedo.  It took a lot of altering to change the shape from a normal woman's figure to a man trying to emulate that of a disproportionate skeleton puppet.  I also had to change the collar from a shawl collar to notched collar.  Also the tails took a bit of work to make look tattered but tailored all at the same time. 

The tie uses stiff felt for the wings and the bat head brooch is made from Sculpty which has been painted.

The glove and mask were purchased from a Halloween store.  After a few events, I decided I hate the mask.  It's vinyl and it's hard to breathe while wearing it.  Also the vision is extremely limited.  And it's never been round.  It's always been kind of lumpy.  I've even tried to heat the vinyl and reshape it to no avail.

 The black part of the mask where the eye sockets are was actually solid vinyl painted black.  There were small holes cut for a wearer to see through and there was some thin black fabric that basically disappeared anytime someone used a flash and you could see my eyes.  Eventually, I cut out the entire eye socket and covered the larger holes with 2 layers of black chiffon... I have more range of visibility, but when the light is dim it's still hard to see. 

I'm currently working on building my own mask.  And I'm planning on making new hands and a new tie.

Still... It is THE BEST costume ever. IMO.

 Awards:

 3rd place. Animation Category. All-Con Dallas Costume Competition 2011
2nd place. Nightmare Before Christmas Party at the Elysium. Austin, TX 2011


New Mask WIP

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