TOTAL COST OF ENTIRE OUTFIT: £140-£214.

NOTE: Columbia's costume(s) take arguably the most upkeep. Sequins will fall off. You just keep adding more and keeping it special.

GOLD TOP HAT
Overall cost of mine: £22
YOU NEED: A top hat ....gold spray paint .....about 40m of gold sequins to be safe .....Magna-tac or strong material glue .....Time.....
1. For my top hat, I went to my local wedding and costume shops and asked if they had any old top hats I could buy. They found me an old grey felt hat that had a rip in it. (Mixed cost depending on shop.) This didn't matter as I knew it would be covered up in sequins.
2. I removed the ribbon, then sprayed the entire hat gold using decorative spray (£2.50 a can). Plenty of paper down for that one.
3. Once it was dry, I got my gold sequin thread (35p/metre) and Magna-tac glue (£5). I put the glue on in stages, in the line I wanted the sequins to follow, then laid the thread on top. I put them as close as poss to strengthen the damaged area. This took about a week.
4. Finally, I used spare individual gold sequins to fill in any gaps.
Mine is not a film accurate hat. It is covered in sequins, round the main trunk, and over and under the rim.

GOLDEN TAILCOAT
Overall cost: £36 - £110
YOU NEED: A tailcoat....gold spray paint .....glue and glitter, sequins or fabric.....Time.....
1. Find an old tailcoat roughly your size (£25).
2. Spray it entirely with gold spray paint (£5 for two cans).
3a. Spray it with spray glue (£3 a can) and throw a shed load of golden glitter at it (£3). Or...
3b. Sew billions of sequins on to it (£20). Or...
3c. Bit by bit, sew on patches of gold sequinned material (£40 a metre) until the whole thing is covered.
If you have a little extra to spend, I can highly recommend Saffy as she does a range of variously staged tailcoats.

PINK SEQUINNED BOW TIE
Overall cost: £6
YOU NEED: 1m square of pink sequinned / disc fabric .....50cm length of black ribbon .....a popper.... Some sponge .....2 pink rubber bands....
1. Make a bow shape out of the sponge (£2), smaller than you want the bow tie to be.
2. Sew the material (from £2/m) round the bow tie in the right shape. Make the sponge of the bow tie symmetrical so that you can sew the material on DISC SIDE INWARDS (yes, disc side inwards) then turn it inside out before you sew the last side (ie left or right), leaving all edges on the inside.
3. Turn material inside out, replace cover newly made cover on bow tie, sew last side. Using rubber bands, follow the sponge curve to find the ball type bit in the middle. Place a band either side of this to define it.
4. Attach the length of ribbon (£1) to the back of the bow tie. Firmly attach a popper (50p) to the back of each length so it can be put on firmly but doesn't strangle.

SEQUINNED BUSTIER
Overall cost: £20
YOU NEED: a cheap basque.... foil dot material
1. Cut the straps and suspenders from the basque (£10). You should have a bustier shape. The boning in the basque (albeit cheap) should be enough to keep the top up. Better than a cut-up t-shirt in any case.
2. Cover the basque in foil dot material (£5/m) or any other material you deem suitable. If you want to buy the proper sequin material, you're looking at at least £40 a square metre and multicoloured sequin fabric is very rare.

STRIPED SHORTS
Overall cost: £20
YOU NEED: Pair of black dress shorts.....2m lengths of ribbon in yellow, green, red and blue
1a. For basic shorts (£10), sew the ribbon (£8) in vertically with an even space in between.
1b. For more accuracy, stop a ribbon colour halfway and continue on another, i.e. blue for the top two third, then yellow for the remaining third length.
1c. If you want to be film accurate, get a still from the film and use that as inspiration.
2. Sew with an inch of ribbon going inside the waistband and an inch going up the leg. You'll be wearing fishnets, so these bits won't itch.
3. Avoid frayed ends - hem the ends of the ribbon to reduce this.

FISHNETS
Overall cost: £5
YOU NEED: A pair of black fishnet tights / pantyhose with a back seam. Any'll do really.

BLUE SOCKS
Overall cost: £3
YOU NEED: A pair of blue socks. A nice light but bright blue is always good. Remember - the shoes are the star!

BLUE SHOES
Overall cost: £25
YOU NEED: A pair of Mary Jane style shoes in your size regardless of colour, with a heel .... Approx three large bottles of blue nail varnish .... Spray-on-sealer (Plasti-cote) .....Magna-tac or strong material glue .....about 100 individual silver sequins
1. After laying down plenty of paper, paint the shoes (£5) with your blue nail polish (£9). Bonus points for a sparkle finish. Probably two coats. Don't forget the side of the heels.
2. Stick the silver sequins (£3) on sporadically with the material glue (£5). you should have about 30-40 per shoe.
4. Spray the shoes with a coat of Plasti-cote (£3), Scotch Guard, or similar clear spray.

RING
Overall cost of mine: £5
YOU NEED: A silver ring with a 'moat' running down the middle.....blue nail polish.....a needle.....
Using a needle, take the polish (£3) and gently place it round the ring (£2) in the moat. You may wish to put a couple of coats on.

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