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The Rusty costume was made for my 16 year old brother Thomas, for the costume meet on the 19th of August. It's currently being modified and maintained so that he can wear it again on the 22nd of December (in particular he wants to put a glowing red light in the backpack, which I'm leaving up to him). This costume is pretty basic - it was made in a bit of a hurry to be ready in time for the costume meet. I meant to add to it afterwards, but now I have lots of other things to do before the next costume meet....maybe some other time. I think it clearly shows what character he's meant to be playing, though, and I am quite proud of it considering how long it took me (ie not long). This Rusty costume is quite straightforward if you have the right bases. The belt and kneepads are pretty standard, in black and brown - see the accessories page for info on how I made those. For this costume, you will need:
- old pair of black jeans |
Trousers
Tom had an old pair of black jeans with holes in the knees that he was going to throw out, so I was allowed to sew and paint all over those, which was nice. The basic decoration to the jeans was with sewn on patches of brown fabric, with suitable decoration on them in felt and fabric paint. Look at some photos of Rusty for ideas - I used wheel and cog designs. I'm meaning to add more patches at a later point - ideally the trousers should be completely covered.
T-shirt
After much searching, I found a brown T-shirt in BHS for £3. The only decoration is on the front, a piece of brown material with a design on it in felt and fabric paint. Here's the basic design (drawn very badly in PaintShop Pro, but I think it illustrates the point):
This design was copied from Adrian Hansel's costume.
Baseball Cap
Tom's baseball cap had a design on the front, so I covered that with a piece of brown fabric with the number '4468' on it in gold fabric paint. I then took strips of brown felt, about a centimetre wide, and put little dots (for rivets) on them in silver fabric paint about a centimetre and a half apart. After that had dried I sewed the strips along the seams up the cap. Then I sewed the bottom of the brim to the side of the cap to make the brim stand up (not very successful ;) ), and drew slots on the front of the brim in silver fabric paint - ideally I should have cut slots in it but I wasn't sure how to go about it or if that would break it, so I drew them on instead.
The picture on the left isn't a very good picture of the hat but it's the best one I have at the moment. I'll try and get a better one next time.
Backpack
The backpack is basically a cardboard box held onto the back with rucksack-like straps. How I made the straps - I cut two long strips of black fabric and hemmed the edges. I then opened out the box and cut four slits where I wanted the straps to attach (two for each strap). I fed the end of the straps through the slits, and folded the fabric over several times on the inside and sewed it so it wouldn't slip out of the slit again. Then I closed and sealed the box (brown parcel tape is a beautiful thing) and painted/decorated it.
The box was painted a dark brown, with redder brown streaks drybrushed on (to look like rust). On the top was glued old bits of sponge, painted black to look like coal. The buffers were made out of cardboard - a roll with a couple of circles stuck on the end - covered in tin foil, drybrushed with brown paint to look rusty, and then glue-gunned onto the backpack. Both of them had come off by the end of the day however so obviously I need to find a more secure way to attach them. Tom has opened up the box again to put a light inside so maybe they can be attached from the inside, we'll have to see.
Some of the photos on this page were taken by Pally and Boushgirl - many thanks for letting me use them!
