Costuming!
So you ordered the Costume Shop 'ey? Mighty good choice! This is one of our favorite places where we can help you with your costuming troubles. Some basic things your CATS costume will need is a unitard, a wig, a tail, shoes, etc.
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Directions
Unitard
The unitard is the most important part of a CATS costume. A unitard is like a full body leotard and in this case you're going to need a "long sleeved mock turtleneck unitard." This unitard is the same kind you see in CATS. Most unitards come in nylon/lycra and cotton/lycra but if you find millskin get it! Millskin is the same material the real CATS costumes are made out of but if you can't find that I suggest nylon/lycra because it is shiny like the real costumes. Cotton/lycra looks...well, cottony! Every CATS costume needs to be dyed no matter what character you are (yes, even Victoria for those of you who aren't that observant). It is best to get a white unitard (unless you're Misto or Tugger) because it is easier to dye. Dye pens work great when making a CATS costume, but you have to be carful of what kind you get, such as Marvy Uchida Brush Pens. These pens literally run out of ink the second you place it on the material and I think that some of the pens don't even come with ink! The pens we used were Deco Fabric Pens and they worked great (despite what Demeter's old costume looks like cuz she made a booboo) and you can get them in millions and billions of colors, weeeee!!! Floral spray and other spray dyes also work great. You probably should watch out for that airbrush stuff because the tools are pretty expensive, but all I did was put the dye ina spray bottle and it work fine for me! You could also hire someone to dye your costume for you so you don't have to do all the work but it's really expensive and I'm not sure I'd trust anyone dying my costume if they really don't know too much about what the character looks like! RIT dye is also ok, but don't go and throw it in the bucket and dye it unless you need your unitard completely that color. Use a sponge for RIT dye instead.
Wig
Ok, here's the tricky part although a very groovy part. A perfect CATS wig is basically impossible to find, but you can use a Japanese Beast Wig, a yak haired wig from the Joke Shop, a Rubies "Cats" Wig, or you can make your own. A Japanese Beast Wig basically sucks. I know from my own experience and the darn thing's $40, but I have seen some that have been styled nicely. It's a pain to style and doesn't cover your ears. The Rubies wig is good from what I've seen and heard but they comeas kind of a furry hood with plastic ears so you have to do some cutting and sewing and you kind find directions at Marzi's Kingdom. You can find a yak haired wig at the Joke Shop but it's very expensive, I think it's around $125-$200, and I think it's a clown wig anyway, but don't ask me about it! The best CATS wig I know about is to just make one yourself. It is pretty simple but it will literally drive you insane because it takes so long to make! Start really early so you have enough time unlike I did. I stayed up till 2:00AM trying to finish the stupid thing and I never had time to brush most of it out! You can use either a bald cap or pantyhose (I suggest you get new ones!). If you use pantyhose cut off the legs and sew the end together so you don't have a huge hole in your wig! It is probably best to use use rug yarn or Ready Spin from Bullen Woolen's (no clue where that is). The rug yarn is basically thick, soft yarn that you just brush out and the Ready Spin is pretty much ready! I used the rug yarn and it worked just fine, it just took a freakin long time! All you really do is sew the yarn to the pantyhose or bald cap and brush the wig like crazy when you're done. You see it's just that easy! No, actually I'm just kidding with ya. It sounds pretty easy but you need to make sure you're putting the right colored whatever you're using in the right place so it doesn't look psychadelic and you will go insane after a while...at least that's what happened to me. I was very happy when I was finished, not just because I felt like singing "Alleuia"(SP?) but because the wig turned out fantastic. I am currently working on a Tantomile wig and those of you making one or a Coricopat or Cassandra should probably keep the yarn or whatever you're using short and use fabric stiffener. Good luck!
Tail
The tail! This may very well be one of the most fun parts of making your costume! Well at least I think so...Where was I? Anyway, for making Cassandra's tail, this is what I did (Cassandra's talking right now). I bought a big thing of brown yarn. You can get any yarn you like, just as long as you're happy with it! Then I got an old black shoelace for when I tie the tail around my waist. OK, so I took the yarn and cut about 75 pieces of it; each of them 8' long. I then folded/doubled them over the shoelace making them 4' long - ya follow me? All I did then was divide it into 3 equal pieces and braid them. There was some extra yarn at the bottom of the tail which I simply snipped off with a pair of scissors. Oh, yeah, and I secured the braid with a small piece of yarn. It turned out great!!! The rest of the cats have a more difficult to make tail. You can use a feather boa, this weird looking scarf, or there's several different ways to make your tail out of yarn. You can find a thick piece of string or whatever and tie little pieces of yarn to it or you can sew pieces of yarn to it. I sewed mine but I probably should have just tied the yarn on. It took me quite a long time to finish the blasted tail and when I finally finished it, it started shedding. The tying idea works better just as long as you use a thick piece of string to tie to and I don't suggest you use yarn cuz it'll probably break. Not a pretty picture.
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Extras
There's more to a CATS costume than unitards,wigs, tails, and shoes. CATS need legwarmers, gloves, collars, fluffy shoulders, etc.
Legwarmers
Most of the characters in CATS need legwarmers. Cassandra is not one of them. Legwarmers are those cool little things that the cats wear on their arms and legs that keep your muscles warm when dancing. I love legwarmers :). Looking for the right kind of legwarmers is not as easy as it sounds. There are milliion and billions of different kinds of legwarmers!!!!! There are legwarmers with stirrups, legwarmers that look like socks, long legwarmers, and itty bitty legwarmers. Or you can crochet them or make them out of fake fur. You can use dye pens to color these too.
Gloves
Gotta love gloves. Some characters in CATS wear gloves instead of armgwarmers and some don't wear anything...wait, let me rephrase that. Some characters is CATS wear gloves instead of armwarmers and some don't wear either...err...it still sounds weird. Oh, who cares. Most of the cats wear those smooth fancy looking gloves but if you're Rum Tum Tugger you need biker gloves, heh heh. You can find the smooth, fancy gloves at Claire's, After Thoughts, and other places, and you can find the biker gloves at Hot Topic in many different types and colors. You can also dye the fancy gloves pretty easily but I'm not sure about the biker gloves.
Collars
Collars, weeeeeee!!! This part is really cool. You'll notice that some of the cats have collars as you watch them. Each cat wearing a collar has a different one, Demeter's collar has huge spikes and red gems or rubies on it, Jemima/Sillabub has a bunch of spikes on hers, Cassandra's collar has little pearls on hers, and etc. So while you're at Hot Topic looking for gloves you can get a collar too :). If you want a more custom looking collar you can make one out of fabric, Sculpty clay or Fimo for the spikes, and fake diamonds or pearls that you can find at any craft store and glue them onto the fabric.
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Things to Do in a CATS Costume
OK, so some of you think you only wear your costume on Halloween...well that's not true! There are many occasions when you should wear your costume.
*on Halloween go running through the mall and get candy
*July 19, which is CATS Day, go anywhere in your costume
*Wear your costume when you go to see CATS live
*On your birthday go running through the mall again or to any place you can think of
*Just go running though anywhere cuz your bored and if anyone asks, say your in the cast of CATS, a junior cast of CATS, dance recital or just tell them it's none of their business!
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