Harold Zidler Costume

I was brainstorming ideas for a costume for a large man. As I was going through all of the larger awesome characters I came upon Harold Zidler and knew it was a done deal.

I got a picture from the internet and went to work.

Total cost: $215

Coat: $15
Red woman's blazer from thrift shop $5
Black material from cloth store for trim $5
Glue gun $5

Pants: $5
Oversized black dress pants from thrift shop $5

Boots: $40
Black hero boots from local costume shop $40

Hat: $40
Back Suede Top Hat from eBay $40

Cane: $20
Black wooden Cane from Costume shop $10
Wooden ball from craft store $2
Wooden stick from craft store $1
White wood paint from craft store $4
Wood glue $3

Tuxedo Shirt: $30
Tuxedo shirt from local tuxedo rental store $30

Tuxedo Gloves: $10
Tuxedo gloves from local tuxedo rental store $10

Bow Tie: $3
Bow Tie from eBay $3

Mustache: $8
Mustache from local costume store $5
Eyelash glue $3

Hair dye (for hair and mustache): $5
Temporary spray hair dye from local beauty shop $5

Vest: $39
Golden embroidered table cloth runner from discount store for primary cloth used to make vest $15
Golden antique buttons from cloth store $16
Velcro straps for connecting overlapping sides $3
Elastic strips for holding it on in the back $3
Box of safety pins $2

Assembly:

For the cane, I drilled a hole in the ball and in the cane, and broke off a piece of the extra wooden stick and biscuitted it in between them with wood glue. Before this, though I coated about 15 coats of white paint onto the ball until it was a solid white.

For the coat, I created a bunch of black tubes out of the cloth, ironed them down, and hot glued them on the edges of the coat at trim. It also took a substantial amount of ironing to get the crease right for the lapels.

For the vest, I kind of drew out the two sides, cut them out of the runner and hemmed the edges as best I could. I then used velcro, safety pins, and elastic to hold it on me and in place. I also ran out of time and ended up hot gluing the buttons on.

For the hair, I put my long hair up into a pony tail on top of my head, pulled the band near the end, and pushed it down into a turnip shape. I then bobby pinned it all as securely as I could. The only way I could get the hat to stay on was to stick about ten bobby pins down through the inside of it into my hair. I got lucky that there was a plastic rim on the inside of the hat that was sewn on and could hold the pins. :)

I then sprayed the hair dye on the mustache (which I had to trim a bit to look right), my "beard"?, and my hair.

Overall a bunch of good fun! (Specifically the guy who yelled, "Zidler!!!" from across the people filled street of downtown on Halloween night!) :D

Enjoy!