Fall Patterns - McCall's and Simplicity

 M7493 is a Regency era Costume with a Pride and Prejudice and Zombies feel to it.  While the actual dress is perfectly nice, the coat is the star.  I ADORE the long version of this coat.   The short version is also nice, though not nearly as badass.

While Regency has never been my favorite period for costuming, I've always loved Regency era Spencer coats.  And now I want to make this one.

Simplicity 8233 Cosplay Pattern is a little amusing to me because someone finally decided to make a pattern for Ciel's pink dress from Black Butler, which is one of the more popular anime cosplays of several years ago.  

I'm not sure if the black and white costume is also referencing something specific or not.  And, ok, you could make that pink dress in another color and it wouldn't automatically look like the Black Butler cosplay.  So, yeah, these are cute.

Simplicity has released two Alice in Wonderland cosplay patterns: this one and an Alice dress.  The Alice one is more specific, and in my opinion less potentially useful for costumes other than Alice.  This one I like, in particular the tops and think they could be used effectively in steampunk.

Overall the costumes are cute, but I'm not sure what I think about this "make costumes with short skirts for women" trend Simplicity seems to be going for.  The skirts are far too short to be Lolita, and this feels a little like having "sexy" versions of costumes for Halloween.

On the other hand, here's a men's cosplay pattern.  It's got a definite Assassin's Creed feel to it, especially the version with the hood.   But these pieces could also be used for a range of fantasy inspired costumes.

The red short jacket in particular would work nicely for steampunk.  The long blue coat would also work, maybe with a bit of tweaking as it looks slightly Renaissance.











Simplicity's fall collection also included several nice 40's and 50's vintage patterns and two bra patterns, which may be of interest.