Many people have emailed me and asked where we got our "Ace and Gary" costumes, whether they were for sale,
or whether we could make a set for them.
I'm thrilled so many people like our Ace and Gary costumes. Ours are not for sale, and I do
not do commission work, but I'll be happy to describe how we put them together. It actually wasn't very hard:
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The yellow gloves and booties were ordered from www.spandexwear.com. They
will actually do entire superhero costumes if you give them enough lead time.
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To make it easier on our feet, we took white cotton slippers ("China flats") that we bought in
Chinatown in SF and dyed them yellow. Since they were cotton, we used a Jacquard's Procion dye
to dye them yellow. (See the section below on dying the bodysuits. You can get the Procion
dye from the same sources)
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The yellow briefs were ordered straight from Undergear at www.undergear.com.
We used their trademark "Buns" bikini swimsuit.
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The bodysuits were white nylon dance unitards that I bought online from a
dance supply company, Dance 4 Less (www.dance4less.com). They were the "Unisex Crewneck Unitard" Adult Style #AS-700 .
Note that there can be significant lead time in ordering dancewear, depending on the time of year.
- We dyed them blue using Jacquard "acid dye" (it uses a little white vinegar to fix the color; that is the only acid involved). You can order the dye from jacquard online http://www.jacquardproducts.com/ )
or from Dharma Trading company at http://www.dharmatrading.com/ . Both
websites have very straightforward instructions on using the dye.
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After dying the unitards I took the time to tighten them up so they fitted more closely, especially for Andy's, as it turned out the men's large unitard was large in girth as well as in length.
If you need to do this, be sure to use a stretch stitch, zigzag stitch or serger to keep the unitard stretchy.
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The insignia I drew after looking at many images of Ace and Gary online. I
then cut them out of yellow spandex I had fused onto a sheet of "Heat N
Bond" iron-on adhesive (fusing them first meant I could draw on the backing
paper and cut them out without their stretching out of shape). I then peeled
off the backing, ironed them onto the unitards, and used a zigzag stitch to
bind the edge down.
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If you don't sew, you could achieve a respectable effect by painting the
insignia on with yellow fabric paint.
- To make your life easier, here are images of the logos that you can save to your own computer for reference:
(They are each
- The masks were cut out of 1/8 inch thick black craft foam (the soft kind that they make kits out of for doing sculptures).
Ace's mask has corners and is bigger; Gary's mask is two ovals and is much smaller... it should look like it just fills the eyesockets, like Chris O'Donnel's Robin mask did (I re-did the Gary mask after seeing the photos on this website).
Use black nylon cord elastic to secure the mask around your head
Have fun! I hope you like the ways yours turn out! Drop me a line if you do!
Kevin
