Captain Hook/Killian Jones (with a Twist!)

You may remember that I did a "Once Upon a Time" replica of Captain Hook/Killian Jones two years ago. It was part of a big order that got rather crazy at the end, so I was really glad to have another chance to tweak and perfect some details of this costume. My client wanted to do a more female version of the costume, with a corseted vest. I think it came together pretty well!

This time around I used different patterns for the bases and it worked pretty well.

 I used Butterick B529, view A,  as the base for the coat, but made a lot of changes. I didn't use any of the darts, instead adding a curved seam in the back piece and taking in the waist further. I also cut out the center overlap and added a bit more flair at the bottom of the coat. It's a little difficult to gauge how much flair to do on this costume, because the style of the time is more flaired, but pleather does. not. like. flair. So next time I'd scale that back a bit. I also exaggerated the collar bits. I totally made my own lining pieces, and skipped the pockets. (Hook's coat does have pockets, but I'd need to charge more to do them, they weren't in the original replica I did either). I also extended the sleeves to create the cuffs.

For the corset vest I used Simplicity 2346, view D as my base, but added darts and changed the armhole slightly, as well as adding the two points in front.

The shirt was completely self-drafted.

Pretty happy with how it turned out!

Here you can see the back seams I added as well as how the pleather does not like to play nice.

The front of the coat should have been cut more straight, and this caused my husband a headache when he was pinning the twill tape embellishments in place. Because I've been having hand pain lately, my husband had to do any serious pleather pinning and sewing, which means he put all those buttons on the coat!

Unfortunately, I couldn't handle the physical work of invisible stitching the inside of the binding, and my husband didn't have the expertise to do it, so I had to outsource that to my former apprentice, Hannah. She did an excellent job and I (and my hands!) were very thankful.

The pleather and coat contrast were from my fabric stash, the black voile for the shirt came from Fabric.com, and the red brocade was something we found on eBay. (Weirdly enough, I find the best brocades on eBay.)

The coat buttons are the same I used on my last incarnation of this costume. They are the best design for the best price I've found, and you can purchase them in 3 different size options at Bennos Buttons.

The shirt buttons were really hard to find. I needed some that were smaller than 5mm and that's just not in high demand! Finally I did locate some at ThimblesandAcorn's Etsy Store, which was ironic because I've purchased from her before and already had a high opinion of her service.

There is a single strip of boning on each side of the vest opening. For a curvier figure I would have added more, but the vest laid very nicely on it's own, it just needed a bit of boning to keep that center lacing straight and firm.

The first time I made this costume, I used hooks and eyes for the shirt closure. Since then I was able to find a better high rez photo of the original show costume and could see that it appeared to be tiny button closures. So I made a bunch of little loops to hold them shut when desired.

Even though the collar will never be buttoned all the way up, the buttons do continue the full way for design purposes. Fun stuff...

So that's my latest project, folks! To see my other work, check out my costume page. If you'd like to commission your own piece, learn how the ordering process works here.