McGrew Studios

Specialty Design & Production for the Creative Industries

Specialty Design, Fabrication & Production for the Creative Industries

Costume and Fashion History

Deluxe Custom Velvet Santa Suit

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The incomparable William B, in his snazzy new, old-world-style Santa suit.

Custom Santa Suit build, 2019.

Plush burgundy velvet and fully lined in green satin. Velvet welt buttonholes and trim. Antique brass buttons. Full circle capelet. Custom Santa overalls. Plush fur trimming all around. Plus a big leather-bottomed toy bag to match:)

William’s boots and belt are by Spear’s Specialty- Springfield, Massachusetts.

Thank you Marc Reynolds for the terrific studio photo session and beautiful photos!

delux custom velvet santa suit
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William B. in custom made velveteen Santa overalls by McGrew Studios

Studio photos by: Marc Reynolds

B-3 Leather Bomber Jacket Alterations

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Some surprises revealed inside this WW II era B-3 bomber jacket while altering it for our famous military museum client.

 

 

Before and After: A size 48 B-3 bomber jacket shortened 4 inches.

A beautiful jacket in outstanding condition. I altered its length for a military museum client on the east coast.   The Heddels company provides a nice historical overview of jacket types created during WWII and other campaigns. Check it out. Good summary of various jacket designs and adaptations for particular uses.

 

General Patton in his B3 bomber jacket. Pic from the Heddels site.
And check out General Patton here in his B-3 bomber jacket! Pic from the Heddels site.

Before alterations: Our client taped the back, indicating the position where he wanted the horizontal top-stitched trim pieces to be moved. B-3 bomber jacket in really amazing condition. It’s rare to find vintage pieces this nice. A pleasure and an honor to work with such a cool piece of history. 

All the lower pieces needed to be removed, then carefully repositioned about 4″ higher and restitched through their existing holes. I ordered some specialty thread from Germany and waited about five weeks before it arrived to do all the new top-stitching.

The factory that originally made this bomber jacket ran 3/16″ green cotton cord under every top-stitched trim piece! Its color made me scratch my head a little- pretty interesting. Functionally, the cord fills in the ‘ditch’ created where separate pieces of sheepskin have been sewn together.

Map pocket on the lower front left also had to be removed, then repositioned 4″ higher and reattached.

A 1″ x 2″ leather tab is top-stitched for reinforcement at the base of each side of the zipper, next to its pull and stop. These tabs had to come off and also be repositioned and restitched 4″ higher.

The horizontal leather trim pieces now are repositioned and stitched directly under the tape line. The jacket’s almost ready for me to turn its lower edge up to top-stitch.

Vintage separating zipper in great shape. No rust or broken teeth. The whole zipper had to be removed and repositioned. I shortened it from the top, actually cutting it after removing several teeth. then prying off its top brass stops, then re-crimping those into their new positions. Some dicey surgery. I searched high and low for suitable, shorter replacement zippers, but alas. There were none I could buy anywhere online or in person. Superb that this original zipper was in such great shape!

Lower front left looks naked without its map pocket, now removed.

B3 bomber jacket before and after its alterations- shortened about 4" total.
B-3 bomber jacket before and after its alterations- shortened about 4″ total.

 

Meanwhile… over at the American Rust Company in Salt Lake City, another B-3 was there, longing to go home with a loving new owner! If that’s you and you’d like me to give it some love, I’d be thrilled to work on another of these jackets. I still have the matching specialty thread plus the industrial machines to sew it. This jacket below needs some good leather reconditioner, some stitched repairs plus a new zipper. Rust never sleeps!

 

Here’s another jacket I spotted around the same time- at the American Rust Company in Salt Lake City. It’s small- about a size 38.

Tattered map pocket needing some TLC and restitching. I reached inside and found a pack of vintage filterless cigarettes!

The American Rust Company features in-store items every day on their media sites! They accept credit card call in, PayPal and Venmo as well. They even do shipping and curbside pickup! Give them a call at (801) 671-3882.

 

Spendy spendy- but eager to go home with a loving collector! Let me know if you wind up as its proud owner and I’ll give it the repair and restoration attention it deserves:)

Mayflower Society Custom Pilgrim

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In his custom, colorful new attire,  the Wyoming’s Society of Mayflower Descendants’ Governor, Elwood M. Porter, II.  A delightful gentleman to work with and know.

Mayflower Society Wyoming Pilgrim, Governor Elwood Porter

Mayflower Society Descendants at #Rootstech 2020, Salt Lake City, Utah

Future trend predictions: Ancestor cosplay/re-enactment is gonna get huuuge! and it’ll blossom in some really interesting ways-

#Rootstech 2020 genealogy conference recently showcased these super cool Mayflower Society descendants, staging a big parade for them at the Salt Palace. The entire main hall audience viewed their procession plus were urged to attend a special session about the International Mayflower Society and its upcoming 400th year anniversary celebration this September in Plymouth.

Mayflower Pilgrim doublet front detail
Mayflower Pilgrim doublet front detail

Period costume drawings in John Peacock's The Chronicle of Western Costume
Period costume drawings in John Peacock’s The Chronicle of Western Costume

Mayflower pilgrim sleeve detail
Mayflower pilgrim sleeve detail

Illustrations from Janet Arnold's Patterns of Fashion
Illustrations from Janet Arnold’s Patterns of Fashion

Find out more about our Mayflower history at https://www.themayflowersociety.org/

Custom Ren Faire Footwear

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New shoes to rock ren faires across the land. Black bison leather with stitching by hand and machine, black grommets and black lacing. Delicious.

custom renaissance shoes black bison leather
custom renaissance shoes in black bison leather

custom renaissance shoes in black bison leather
custom renaissance shoes in black bison leather

custom renaissance shoes in black bison leather
custom renaissance shoes in black bison leather

Custom Jousting Attire: DGY Jousting

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We built custom costumes for Young Living’s jousters, squires AND horses in this fantastic project.

This is the DGY (David Gary Young) Jousting Team of Young Living Farm in Mona, Utah, and they are amazing.

DGY Jousting during Utah’s 2018 “Days of ’47” events at the Utah State Fairpark. Photo: David Boyd

The open, lattice-like costumes for the horses are called caparisons and their face shields are called chamfrons. We’ve created these with leather cut-work and inlay, embellished with decorative metal pieces, rivets and crystals.

DGY Jousting during Utah’s 2018 “Days of ’47” events at the Utah State Fairpark. Photo: David Boyd

We built the horse gear using chrome-tanned leathers backed with synthetic Rhino Cloth for extra weight, durability and resistance to wear and mildew.  Each horse echoes its jouster’s colors and sometimes his or her coat of arms, as in the case of Jacob Young’s dragons in black and red.

The word caparison originates from the 1585–95 Middle French caparasson (now caparaçon) and the Old Spanish caparazón, akin to capa or cape.

DGY Jousting during Utah’s 2018 “Days of ’47” events at the Utah State Fairpark. Photo: David Boyd

We made jousters’ sleeveless surcotes from black bison hide. Each of these tunics laces up its sides and has specialty leather inlay as well as hardware and rivets in either gold or silver.

DGY Jousting in their new 2018 attire at Young Living Farm in Mona, Utah Photo: Robert Hirschi

DGY Jousting in their new 2018 attire at Young Living Farm in Mona, Utah Photo: Robert Hirschi

DGY Jousting during Utah’s 2018 “Days of ’47” events at the Utah State Fairpark. Photo: David Boyd

DGY Jousting during Utah’s 2018 “Days of ’47” events at the Utah State Fairpark. Photo: David Boyd

Our design/build team for this was a big one- our shop’s principle  staff with additional stitchers and craftspeople jobbing in.  A great project to make such fantastic looks for DGY.

Jennifer McGrew
Hraefn Wulfson
Diane Thompson
Madeline Mann
Alex Buie
Carolyn Richardson
Liam Buie
Wendy Harbaugh
Andrea Fabrega
Isaac Doubek
Anastasia Najarian
Elijah Najarian
Nathan Dobbin
Konley Shanahan
Dresden Williams
Eliza Williams
Cate Allen
Nick Burke
Magen Mitchell
Uptown Embroidery
Heather Skola
Aubrey Kuefner
Todd Baker
Monica Ramirez

DGY’s armor in these photos is by Valentine Armouries in Las Vegas, NV.

Visit the Young Living farm events page for more info about jousting dates.

Our thanks to

The Buffalo Leather Store in Hayden, Colorado for your great customer service and for finding us the nicest black hides.

HeadnHome for the leather cavalier hats. These are beautifully made and you were wonderful to work with:)

Our thanks to Liz Davies, Young Living‘s Director of Farm Events. Our team loved working with yours. We look forward to more creative design as your production grows.

Thank you to Robert Hirschi and David A. Boyd for your photos here:)