How To Make Your Own Crashdown Uniform
Last year I decided I wanted to finally get Crashdown waitress costumes for my best friend and I, for her birthday. We had talked about getting them forever and dressing up as Liz & Maria.
I looked online and extensively researched what was available, but there weren’t very many accurate costumes out there. Many of them were enthusiastic, but were the wrong shape or an off-color.
I finally decided to look for the materials and get them made.
An amazing seamstress and friend of mine, Becky, made them for me and they turned out so well, we both shrieked when we got to put them on.
I put a photo on twitter of them and Shiri Appleby retweeted them and said ‘nailed it ladies!’, which was pretty cool to hear from the original Liz Parker.
I regularly still get messages about them from her fans that see the photos on her Twitter and Facebook page. Brendan Fehr also replied to me that he was impressed by them, I think they really do look like the originals.
If you’re interested in having them made or have questions about them, my seamstress can be reached at 12beeshandmade [at] gmail.com, but if you’re interested in making your own, here are the steps I took to recreate our favorite uniforms.
Crashdown Waitress Costume Guide
For the headband
I purchased inexpensive costume antennae like this one:
Head Boppers – Silver Glitter Balls on Headband
I then went to my local craft store, Michaels and purchased a piece of glittery silver scrapbook paper, similar to this:
CHIPBOARD SILVER GLITTER AC American Crafts Scrapbook Paper
I traced out a crown shape on it, using the headband part of the antennae to measure the head shape, and cut it out leaving an extra ½ inch at the bottom which I folded over and hot glued to the underside of the headband.
For the costume
We used McCalls pattern # m5847, the shirtdress pattern ‘B’ and measured the length to hit just below the knee.
The main fabric was a poly-cotton broadcloth in a light aqua color similar to this, it is a very common fabric that can be found at any fabric store: The eyes of the alien and the backing of the apron were made of similar broadcloth, in plain, matte black.
For the cuffs, collar and apron, a polyester silver fabric with a bit of stretch was used. I was unable to find the exact name of the one on my costume, but any silver material with a slight sheen and stretch to it should work. It’s important that the fabric is stiff enough to be able to stand up on its own, so that the collar and cuffs on the sleeves remain upright. Mine was found in the Halloween section of the fabric store, if that helps.
Two online fabrics that appear to look similar are below:
The construction of the uniform
For the actual construction of the costume, we used the ‘B’ option from the McCalls pattern. To customize the costume to include the shawl collar, she used these following tutorials:
The pieces she used to trace out the dimensions are below, they were made out of parchment paper and measured as follows:
The piece on the left used for the collar is 16 inches across.
The alien eye pieces on the apron in the middle of the photo, on top are 6 ¾ inches long by 2 ¾ inches high.
The small alien cutout that was used on the breast of the uniform are 2 11/16 inches across by 3 ½ inches long.
The piece on the right, used for the cuffs is 18 ¼ inches across, 7 1/8 inches high, and the diagonal corners are 4 ½ inches each.
The alien apron template was 19 inches long, and 14 ¾ inches wide.
These were all traced onto the parchment paper and measured, then used as templates to cut the fabric. The small alien on the uniform was made by ironing the fabric onto fusible webbing/interfacing, which helps stiffen it, then ironed onto the uniform. It was then zigzag stitched around the perimeter of it and around the small black eyes.
The apron was made out of the same silver fabric, with the black broadcloth eyes and backing.
If anyone has any questions about more specifics, you can e-mail Becky at 12beeshandmade [at] gmail.com, or you can reach me at plinko_128 [at] hotmail.com
I’m so happy with how these turned out, I hope this helps others make them and enjoy them, too.
Happy Sewing, Roswell Forever!!
Many thanks to Teresa for sharing this detailed instruction with fellow Roswellians! Please leave a comment below and make sure to say Hi via Twitter and Instagram. We assume that many Crashdown Waitresses will attend the 2014 Halloween parties!
Did you decided to follow Teresa’s guide to create your own Crashdown waitress uniform? We (@thebandiswithme & @crashdowncom) would love to see the result! Please send us a photo of your costume and we’ll include it in a special page that will be displayed on Crashdown.com.