MCR marching band tutorial ( of sorts...)

So, I bet you are wondering. Did she just wake up one day and say, you know what? I am going to make a My Chemical Romance costume...cause you know, that's badazz.
nope. It didn't go down that way...
THURSDAY:
hey mom, can I go to a party on Saturday?
aaaand mom? It is a MCR party and I have to wear a costume from Black Parade...I was thinking the jacket...

I was all like sure. sounds fun. let me see where I can find you a costume....
Enter me being blown away.
After searching all over the place the jackets alone were all over $130. bucks!
Not only that, but in order to have anything shipped to me in time for the party, we were talking hefty shipping fees too.
I googled patterns and tutorials...I even started just searching for marching band uniforms. Nada.

Me: hey, I don't know if I am going to be able to find a jacket. It all costs too much.  Maybe we'll just have to get you a t-shirt
{sad face }

FRIDAY:
well if you know me....t-shirt?
Bahahahahahahaha NO.
I woke him up.
"come on, I am not making any promises, but I think we're going to make you a marching band uniform."

(this was my pile when we returned. Front and center? that MCR outfit.)

First stop.
Salvation Army.
Size 16 Boys suit.
The elderly lady at the checkout raved on what a nice suit I got and for such a great price.
I didn't have the heart to tell her, I was going to be um, altering it. A LOT.
$7 (I think we got really lucky)

next stop the fabric store.
I bought out all of their silver buttons (9 smaller silver ones and 2 larger for the shoulders)
I got 3 packs of white bias tape
I bought a LONG black metal zipper that fit from the top of the jacket to JUST where it started to curve.
( I knew I would be cutting that part off)
$20.
BAM. this was starting to look like he was going to get this costume for $27 bucks!

Ok. so FIRST things first.
Cut off all of the buttons.
this suit also had a tag on the arm and buttons at the cuffs.
gone.
Next I cut the bottom of the suit. I had seen a super expensive MCR jacket in my searching that had a cool cut out shape on the bottom, so I went for that. you can see above how much total was cut. BUT, don't throw those away yet! you are going to be using them later to make the shoulder pieces.

Okay so if you are still playing along I will list the rest of the steps for you:

• I used bias tape to line the entire bottom of the jacket and this took care of any raw edges I had just created with my cuts.
• I also turned the collar up and used bias tape to line that as well. It seemed to do the trick for keeping that collar up too.  just keep remembering to cut the bias tape long enough to turn under the raw edges.This was starting to look not like a suit and a little bit more like a marching band uniform.
• Next we want to cover up all the button holes. I cut strips of the bias tape that were pretty equal in length and laid it out. I made sure I had enough buttons for each side of the bias tape going all the way down. (I did. score!) Then, one at a time I stitched each strip down tucking the unfinished edges under and sewing them down. This wasn't rocket science. I tried to keep it all fairly straight and even but didn't stress about it too much.
• next I cut more bias tape to lengths that would wrap around each arm cuff. It was tricky getting this straight and feeding it through the sewing machine but it added enough detail to make this jacket really start to look like a marching band uniform.
• We needed shoulders...I used the fabric that I had cut from the bottom of the jacket and cut out 4 ovals. I sewed the ovals right sides together and then insided them out. I attached bias tape all the way around each oval. I placed one on each shoulder and then sewed one of the larger metal buttons to each side.
• the edges of the center of the jacket were already finished for me...so I opened up my zipper and pinned a side at a time. Zipper just underneath the edge and then all I had to do was top stitch each side.
• I wanted to be sure the zipper would not come off at the top so I used MORE bias tape to put little tabs at the top of each zipper side
• I attached all of the buttons last to the end of each bias tape line 
• Let me tell you. it was very late on Friday night at this point, and I was delirious. But I was pretty impressed with myself if I do say so myself.
• Saturday morning,  (lastminutemuch?) I took more of the bias tape and sewed a strip down the outside of each pant leg....cause remember? I got a whole suit out of this deal....and voila.
• I was done.
• He was happy. AND in the end it made every single minute worth it.

SO, there you go. this seemed long and tedious. but it really wasn't that bad. And if you are really desperate for a MCR marching band uniform. I think this is an option. I posted this by request. But I hope if you happen to stumble upon it, it will make you a rockstar mom some day too.