The Titanic
THE IDEA
The 110th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic prompted our costume in 2022—that and I'd always wanted to build a ship. I KNOW the Titanic had four smoke stacks, ok? Even so, I was pretty proud of this costume, which I spent hours making. So much meditative cutting out of tiny railings and the like.
I know the sinking of the Titanic was a horrifying human tragedy. But it has a lot of staying power in our cultural history and led to safety requirements at sea, such as enough lifeboats for all passengers, radio rules for ships, standardized meanings of flares, and the monitoring of icebergs by the U.S. Coastguard. Also, we were the Titanic before it sank, so we were still having a good time.
We weren't the movie version of Titanic, just the ship. Still, since I had never seen the movie back in the day because of all the hype, I used this occasion to watch most of it on YouTube. It was SO good! I can see why people went apeshit for it, and I'm sorry I didn't see it when it came out in 1997.
Before I get to making the costume, I want to give a big shout-out to Connie, who really put her heart into her portrayal of Captain Edward Smith. Connie made the ship's wheel by attaching pegs to a wagon wheel. She sewed on a little RMS Titanic label to her shirt. She carried a pipe and managed to keep that beard on all night. A stellar performance. I laughed a lot looking across at Connie that night. Our friend Annelies joined us to play the villain—the iceberg. (When Annelies would wander away from us, people thought she was the Georgia Guidestones, an odd, prophetic Stonehenge-like thing that was recently destroyed in a nearby town.) I was just a first-class passenger.
Some photos from the night.
THE IDEA
The 110th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic prompted our costume in 2022—that and I'd always wanted to build a ship. I KNOW the Titanic had four smoke stacks, ok? Even so, I was pretty proud of this costume, which I spent hours making. So much meditative cutting out of tiny railings and the like.
I know the sinking of the Titanic was a horrifying human tragedy. But it has a lot of staying power in our cultural history and led to safety requirements at sea, such as enough lifeboats for all passengers, radio rules for ships, standardized meanings of flares, and the monitoring of icebergs by the U.S. Coastguard. Also, we were the Titanic before it sank, so we were still having a good time.
We weren't the movie version of Titanic, just the ship. Still, since I had never seen the movie back in the day because of all the hype, I used this occasion to watch most of it on YouTube. It was SO good! I can see why people went apeshit for it, and I'm sorry I didn't see it when it came out in 1997.
Before I get to making the costume, I want to give a big shout-out to Connie, who really put her heart into her portrayal of Captain Edward Smith. Connie made the ship's wheel by attaching pegs to a wagon wheel. She sewed on a little RMS Titanic label to her shirt. She carried a pipe and managed to keep that beard on all night. A stellar performance. I laughed a lot looking across at Connie that night. Our friend Annelies joined us to play the villain—the iceberg. (When Annelies would wander away from us, people thought she was the Georgia Guidestones, an odd, prophetic Stonehenge-like thing that was recently destroyed in a nearby town.) I was just a first-class passenger.
Some photos from the night.
Above you can see the costume in the parade!
THE COSTUME
I used a large box to make the ship, and since I had never done this before, I took a small box and made a dummy (see below). By cutting and squeezing and taping the small box, I explored how this might work. After I cut the big box based on what I'd learned from my small box, I spray painted it black and let it dry. I then used red duct tape to create the large red section on the bottom, and I used yellow duct tape to create the small stripe at top. I cut out the letters TITANIC and glued them to both sides of the ship. I used white duct tape on the top of the box. I used some thin styrofoam packing material to cut out little guard rails and that took a long time. I used styrofoam blocks for the center/top and drew black little windows with a Sharpie marker. I repurposed another costume to create the smoke stacks and I forced them into the styrofoam (I should have also taped them because they tilted some as the night wore on). Finally, I taped tiny lights to the side to stand in for little cabin windows. To attach the ship to us, I cut a slice in the front and back of the stern/bow, reinforced the slices with black tape, and used a running belt, one for Connie and one for me, to belt the costume to us. (A running belt is a black, stretchy belt that runners use to carry small items with them.) Kind of unbelievably, the only thing I bought for this costume was the tape and the dress I wore (which was inexpensive costume dress on Amazon).
It was a bit hard to figure out how to walk in the ship, but we managed. All in all, this was a big night for us, and a success, and people seemed to really appreciate the effort and the costume.
Below, the small box is maybe five inches long. It really helped me make decisions about the big box.
THE COSTUME
I used a large box to make the ship, and since I had never done this before, I took a small box and made a dummy (see below). By cutting and squeezing and taping the small box, I explored how this might work. After I cut the big box based on what I'd learned from my small box, I spray painted it black and let it dry. I then used red duct tape to create the large red section on the bottom, and I used yellow duct tape to create the small stripe at top. I cut out the letters TITANIC and glued them to both sides of the ship. I used white duct tape on the top of the box. I used some thin styrofoam packing material to cut out little guard rails and that took a long time. I used styrofoam blocks for the center/top and drew black little windows with a Sharpie marker. I repurposed another costume to create the smoke stacks and I forced them into the styrofoam (I should have also taped them because they tilted some as the night wore on). Finally, I taped tiny lights to the side to stand in for little cabin windows. To attach the ship to us, I cut a slice in the front and back of the stern/bow, reinforced the slices with black tape, and used a running belt, one for Connie and one for me, to belt the costume to us. (A running belt is a black, stretchy belt that runners use to carry small items with them.) Kind of unbelievably, the only thing I bought for this costume was the tape and the dress I wore (which was inexpensive costume dress on Amazon).
It was a bit hard to figure out how to walk in the ship, but we managed. All in all, this was a big night for us, and a success, and people seemed to really appreciate the effort and the costume.
Below, the small box is maybe five inches long. It really helped me make decisions about the big box.