Cosplay – Michael Jackson Thriller

I took a bit of a break after sewing this beast, but I earned it – look at this thing!

Nico couldn’t decide if he wanted to be Michael Jackson’s “Bille Jean” or “Thriller” for Halloween. About 2 weeks before Halloween I told him he had to choose, after much debate he decided on “Thriller”. He wanted the wolf mask with the iconic red leather jacket. I started sketching out how I would make this and what steps would be involved.

I started out by drafting a pattern based upon another jacket pattern I had. I made him a muslin to test the fit and then tweaked the pattern to a point that the only thing remaining the same was that it zips in the front. I made a second muslin and the fit was perfect. I couldn’t find any red pleather so I had to resort to vinyl. I ordered it online in both black and red. The vinyl was great and I saved some to make a purse from, but this was NOT the right fabric to use for this project. The jacket kind of stands up by itself! Oh well, I knew it was going to be a bit stiff but I felt like I had no other choice. It was that or real leather.

Sewing with this material was a challenge, but it went much better than I had anticipated. I used a leather needle and sewed VERY slow. Also – you can’t make any mistakes or else it will show holes! The other challenge was sewing through all the layers. This is fully lined with flannel:

I tried to mimic Michael’s jacket as best as I could. The only obvious difference is that I used velcro instead of snaps, but how the hell was I going to be able to put snaps through all those layers of thick fabric?!?! Nope. Not even trying.

The jacket has quilting too and I actually did a good job on it! Sometimes sewing a straight line is the hardest task 😉

Overall, I’m super proud of this make. It took me a good 40 hours of designing and sewing. There was a ton of math involved with the angles and the black portions. I’m saving this jacket forever!

For Halloween he demanded Andres and I be “the creepies”:

His Daddy did his face painting 🙂

Here he’s trying to be a “creepy”:

A few weeks after this we went to a Michael Jackson tribute show called MJ Live in Springfield, Ohio. It’s the same crew who performs at The Stratosphere in Las Vegas. The impersonator was a guy named Jalles Franca and he was amazing – a true entertainer! We had so much fun and Nico even got onstage and danced! The video is beyond cute <3

Afterwards we even got to meet “Michael”!

Jalles was incredibly nice and super talkative with Nico. He was impressed with the jacket I made and loved that Nico is so obsessed with Michael. He even signed the jacket:

Sorry it took me forever to post this, but better late than never! I love jacket and so does Nico – which is all that matters 🙂

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!