Kaylee from Firefly Costume

So, instead of sadly moping around my house, lamenting the fact that I was not at ComicCon last week, I decided to post some how-tos I discovered when making my Halloween costume from this past year--Kaylee's coverall outfit. Yes, I'm a bit behind schedule, but given the Firefly reunion panel (sniff!) I thought it would be timely.

A good starting place is always Maggie's Costume Site--she does an amazing job of documenting costumes and gathering pictures into one place, and I used many of her tips in making my own outfit. Look at her Kaylee Costume page first!

Coveralls
I lucked out with my eBay purchase, an olive green pair of coveralls that, while a bit oversized, were tall enough. (I'm not very tall, but have a 36" inseam--you get the picture.) Their surplus shop sells a variety of coveralls, if you want to check them out--they also offer free shipping. It will take some persistence to find the right color/style depending on which version of her coveralls you're doing. Some good keywords to try are mechanic, coveralls, flight suits, army, military...you get the idea. Or, shop local and see if a military surplus outlet near you has them. The added bonus of buying them used is they already have that worn-in look.

First order of business was to hack off the sleeves and re-hem those armholes. I then took a few box pleats in the back to make them a bit more fitted, but you could also experiment with an elastic and casing to cinch in the back.

The cute teddy bear patch is easily found--I bought mine from Wash-o-saurus and was very happy with it. I had terrible luck finding a heart and flower patch, so I actually ended up making my own patches. If there's any interest, I'll make up some more and post them for sale in my Etsy store (leave me a comment below, or convo me). I tried to make the flower look homespun--I designed the stitches to be a bit "off" because I wanted it to look like it was hand-worked to cover a bullet hole!

The shirt is just one I had on hand, and I had a pair of Sketchers combat-style boots that worked well. You can't see the Chinese characters on my coveralls because I did them in pencil--I was a bit short on time, and being kind of a perfectionist, I didn't want them to be permanently messed up. And speaking of messed up, my coveralls should be much more grungy, but I had a hard time wanting to ruin them after spending all of that time on making them cute! =) I'll add a wig next time I wear it, unless by some miracle I actually let my hair grow out for once!

Parasol
Unluckily for me, I was in a bit of a time crunch so I couldn't order a white parasol in time. But if you have an Asian market nearby, try there. A trip to Hobby Lobby uncovered all sorts of colored parasols--no white, but they did have a lovely shade of pink. So my parasol was done rather backwards--I taped off the pink swirl, spray painted the rest of the parasol white, then painted in the yellow and green swirls. I don't recommend it because the paint tends to flake as you open and close it, but in a pinch it worked.

Necklace
Kaylee's actual necklace is different, but I wanted something with a little more obvious Firefly tie-in. The necklace I'm wearing in the photo is a shrinky-dink pendant with the Chinese serenity symbol. Since then I've made a fancier version in a laser-etched acrylic that I really love. I'll be posting those for sale in my Etsy shop as well.

So there you have it--the tips and tricks I discovered in putting together Kaylee's outfit from Firefly. Stay shiny!