How To Care For Your Costume

Costumes can be quite costly these days.  This means you should try to make them last as long as possible.  Caring for your costume will help keep it looking like new for many years.  I have a roman soldier costume and will refer to this item in the following paragraphs to teach you how to properly care for you own costume.

The first area you should look into after wearing your costume is cleaning your costume.  You will want to remove all dirt and sweat so that your costume will be ready for wear the next time you need it.  Here are some general tips to use when cleaning the various types of costumes you might own.

When cleaning cloth, make sure you read the tag to determine how it needs to be cleaned.  When a tag says “dry clean only”, you should take its advice and bring it to a dry cleaner.  Some costumes should not be cleaned at home and others can, you just have to read the tag to find out.

Washing down a metallic costume will be more intense than placing a cloth costume in the washing machine.  The roman armor I use for my medieval soldier costume has a large amount of metallic pieces to clean between wear.  This metal is not stainless steel and will rust if it is not dried properly.  What I do when cleaning the metal is to use a wet paper towel to scrub the metal and then dry it off with a dry paper town.  The reason I take these steps is to make sure that all metallic pieces stay in optimal condition.

Costumes are not invulnerable and do need to be mended from time to time.  Cloth can be repaired using a good seamstress or a needle and thread for the skilled costume owner.  My strategy is to find an exact thread match to bring to my local seamstress.  This plan ensures that she will not mistakenly use a thread that does not match up correctly.

Repairing parts of the costume that are not made of cloth can be much more difficult.  You may want to contact your seller or manufacturer and explain to them which pieces are broken so they can sell you an exact replica of the damaged piece.  I once put a dent in my roman armor and found out the hard way that it could not be fixed by banging the dent out with a hammer.The last area you should look into is costume storage.  

You will want to make sure that you store it with cedar so that moths will not destroy the fabric. Remember that moisture can be just as bad as moths so be sure to keep your costume dry as well.

Strategies For Buying A Costume

Finding the perfect costume to wear can be a challenging task. There are many things one needs to consider before even starting the search. This article was written to give you some basic tips on how to find the perfect costume.

 
The first question you have to ask yourself is, why do you need this costume? Costumes for small parties will probably be different than a costume you purchase for a play or a high budget film. Knowing why you need to purchase a costume is the most critical step to making a satisfying acquisition.

You now have a better understanding of why you need a costume, but you need to identify the place you will be wearing the costume. Costumes purchased for high budget film making should be different than tricker treat outfits. Most people would not want to purchase a three thousand dollar costume just to have it soaked in beer and whiskey from a wild party an hour later.

The length of time you will spend in the costume should be your next consideration. Two costumes may look equally great, but one may not be comfortable for long term wear. Standing outside in an uncomfortable costume for days on end is not something you should strive for.

Your comfort and the costume wearing venue will decide on how much craftsmanship needs to be put into your outfit. This question should be easy to answer since you already know where you are going to wear it as well as how long.

Determining where to buy it should be based off what kind of costume you need, how quickly you need it, and how much you are willing to spend. Outfits such as roman armor can be found in ecommerce stores much easier than they can be found in local shops. When deciding on buying a costume online, make sure you know what the arrival date of the costume will be so that you know you will receive it in time.

Once you have worn the costume you may decide you no longer need it. You can now decide whether or not to sell it or give it away. Places to give are the Salvation Army and Goodwill. If you decide you like money more than philanthropy, seek out consignment shops and other used good vendors to sell your costume to.

I hope you found pleasure in reading our piece on buying costumes. Please book mark this page and come back to it often.