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:rofl:
They can be the best kind!
Thanks, Ms idgie. Nope, only some of the Elvis dudes make their own suits -- the more 'realistic' kind, I mean -- and many of them sell them to others. I do it for a couple of reasons. One is that I save a ton of money (this was especially important when I started out, after my job vanished on me and I was utterly broke, but it's still a very important factor and my financial status is utterly lacking in security of any kind). This suit, a fairly elaborate one, would cost me $2600 if I bought it from the premiere outfitter of Elvises, a company that's hooked up with the dudes who designed Elvis' originals and that claims to have some of the original patterns. It also, though, allows me to make the suits as accurate as I possibly can. I've always been very detail-oriented, including in art (which is basically what this is...Elvis's '70s jumpsuits were works of art more than just stage costumes) and in this Elvis thing, as in many other things, I'm very much a stickler for accuracy to the greatest extent possible. For making and studding these suits I work from available photos and have already seen that the people who make these expensive replicas get some of the studding details wrong. No big deal, maybe -- it's not like the public I interact with will notice or comment -- but I will know, and this way I've got nobody to blame but myself (and, in the case of this particular one, and some other suits that were very rarely photographed, unavailability of shots of every angle of the suit).
It's also fun, in a way (fulfills my creative needs, too), and very satisfying when it's all finished. I had never sewn with a sewing machine before I decided to do this, last year, but I reminded myself that I could do anything I put my mind to (though, really, I wasn't entirely convincing to myself when it came to the prospect of making jumpsuits), bought a basic machine on eBay, got a couple of sewing books from the library, and went for it, totally amazing myself when that first jumpsuit actually fit me. It was a good feeling. :D
The total cost on this one's likely to be $200-250 or so, I'm guessing. Maybe a bit more with the belt supplies. So I save over $2000, for a start, and -- as the single most major expense in what I do -- they pay for themselves very, very quickly. I recently risked fiscal oblivion by buying about $2000 worth of studs and stones from the manufacturer, 'cos the Elvis thing (don't leave home without it) lets me bypass some of the usual rules (like them not selling to individuals) and buy bulk without middlemen, including 50 000 of these little #20 studs. That rather disconcertingly sizable investment is going to save me a ton of money over the next eight or nine (at least) suits, though. The early-studded-suit-era jumpsuits I've made up 'til now go for $1600-$1800 apiece, for example.
Making a suit -- studding it, especially -- eats up a lot of my time, of course, but I don't mind because the journey's part of the reward and it's just for me...it wouldn't be worth making suits for others (not this kind, anyway -- simpler ones I could probably knock out in two weeks of part-time effort) if my time was going to be compensated for. I've always been one who can sit there and do some endless, tedious task for far longer than would seem possible, anyway.
It's a Zen thing. :-)
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