As a baby costume designer, I’m so eager to learn and enhance my craft and I spend a lot of time studying other artists’ work. I am always inspired by the costume pieces from some of my favorite films. So, I decided to start trying to recreate, and in some cases, revamp or put my own spin on some famous and not so famous pieces from these films.

Get On Up follows James Brown’s meteoric rise from poverty to super stardom. He is the poster child for pulling one’s self up by their own boot straps. I have always been in awe of his costume choices throughout his life and thought the costumes that Sharen Davis created for the film were beautiful. And I considered remixing one of his jumpsuits. But after rewatching this film for the umpteenth time, I decided to take a stab at one of Little James’ costumes, his brown overalls.

Funnily enough, my hubby asked me to make him a pair of overalls, so everyone wins in the end.

Pattern: Simplicity 8615 Simplicity Sewing Pattern Men's Vintage Jumpsuit and Overalls

Fabric: Poly stretch twill from Rye Canyon Supply Co.

Style: Overalls

Vintage/Contemporary: Vintage

I altered the pattern slightly because it has a 70s silhouette (translation: bell bottoms baby). And even though I thought I cut the legs in such a way to accommodate hubby’s muscular legs, I. had. Not. Anyway, my solution was to add side panels in the base fabric as an attempt to fix this faux pas. When I tell you it was a disaster…I mean it was a fucking disaster.

I also considered maybe adding a diamond panel in the crotch to give the overalls more of a jogger or harem look. But decided to cut my losses and back out before this project got too out of hand. I was going to scrap the whole idea, but then I decided to start from scratch with a new fabric. This time I went with a poly suiting material. Everything was going great until I went to iron the seams and had the iron set too high and burned a hole in the pants.

Thankfully I bought enough fabric this time around to recut (and reserge and resew the pants of the overalls. And FINALLY, after two separate types of fabric, three attempts, and one very patient husband, I made a good pair of overalls, or rather good enough.

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Costume Remix #25: Get On Up (2014)