Dr. Horrible is here…almost
Friday, August 15th, 2008 by tcgGood question Skymouth. I was writing about Dr. Horrible today anyway, why not talk about the coat?
Dr. Horrible wears the classic mad scientist smock. Some call it a Dentist smock or a Howie coat. Also consider Chef’s coats as a possible match. The reason it is not a Dentist smock, but is very similar, is Dentist smocks are typically short-sleeved. Horrible’s coat is long-sleeved, white, buttoned at the shoulder, and long with side slits. Don’t fret, I have a suggestion.
We ordered our coat (product MCCX1) from a UK supplier. I can not testify to its quality as it has not yet arrived. International shipping is notoriously hard to track. My fingers are crossed. (They canceled the order and failed to refund.) Some costumers have taken to sewing the gown/coat. Admittedly, it’s a simple pattern for an experienced sewer, but us regular folks are better not to try it. My last suggestion is to buy a costume smock and modify it.
The Mad Scientist is very close. Remove all the black buttons. Then attach four buttons to the shoulder. Basic white or clear buttons are fine. Check the length and sides. You’ll want to hem if it hits below mid-shin. Add slits up the sides if none exist. The slit should reach the hip. This is an easy fix requiring only scissors and a straight seam (sew or heat bond). You might also want to take the scrap of length cut to make a waist band for back vents. Finally, add the caduceus logo right front pocket area. We ended up doing this and the results can be seen here.
Skymouth, Dr. Horrible’s coat is likely Dr. Simon Tam’s coat from Firefly. They look identical to me and the costume designer is the same. It could mean the coat was a custom job inspired by the antiseptic Frankenstein look. Let me know if you find something.
Good luck.
My Dr. Horrible post was going to be about the ever troublesome goggles. We had some on order. Back order, actually. That wasn’t a big deal because we knew that all the major suppliers were being overrun with orders. Just a few days ago we were finally notified that the back order that was supposed to take 10 days (ordered in July) will not be available until the first of September. Since we need them for Dragon Con which takes place Labor Day weekend that date was unacceptable. The order is now cancelled.
I’ve called all the local welding supply shops only to find none of them carry a model similar to Dr. Horrible’s goggles. I have found them online but most are international shops and can not be trusted to arrive stateside in two weeks. I’ve ordered them from a questionable little discount store. I have an order number but no tracking number as yet. The order will need to ship by Monday if we have any hope of taking the goggles to D*C. My fingers are crossed and I continue to call stores looking for the goggles.
Tags: Dr. Horrible, goggles, lab coat
August 18th, 2008 at 1:10 am
Looking to make this costume to. I was able to get the goggles from ebay (searched welders goggles). Still having a huuuge problem with the smock. Thanks for the ideas though.
August 19th, 2008 at 7:54 am
I would like to thank Johnson’s Apparel, and Pendergast safety, and Fibre-Metal and everyone else who has made making this costume a logistical nightmare. Johnson’s sent me an email yesterday saying that they don’t ship to the US…so there goes my howie coat. That’s not what their website says, by the way. Everyone knows about the goggle debacle. So, now I have a nice pair of gloves and a nice pair of shrimper’s boots. And nothing to wear them with. Great.
August 23rd, 2008 at 12:02 am
Hello!
Was Googling how to make a Dr. Horrible costume and came upon your site. The lab coat KILLED ME. I had to improvise. I got the green goggles and painted them silver. Check out my pics.
http://s291.photobucket.com/albums/ll320/Ka2Spider1/Dr%20Horrible%20Costume/
August 24th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Yeah, the lab coat has been tricky for lots of folks. I think you’ve done a great job. Now all you need is a nemesis.
August 26th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Goggles – Harbor Freight Tools
August 29th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
Perhaps a sidekick? Wrong colour, correct style (save the sleeves).
August 29th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
http://www.armynavydeals.ca/asp/products_details.asp?SKU=WC115&ST=2
September 5th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Mort_Q that coat is one of the best fits I’ve seen on the web, except for the blue color. Those websites also don’t mention the fabric used in the coats which could tell us whether or not we can bleach them white.
October 6th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
This is in regard to fellow US fans of Dr Horrible that might be looking for the costume… The members of my rock band, The Shake Ups, are all dressing as Dr Horrible for our Halloween show. I had to do a LOT of research to obtain appropriate garb, so I thought I’d let you know what I found…
First of all, unless you’re in the UK or Ireland it’s going to be difficult to find the howie labcoat. I found one that was close at Jamstore.co.uk, however they do not ship international orders – and have yet to process my refund… So unless you’re in one of the aforementioned areas, don’t bother with them.
The closest coat I found was through Pastelli, an Italian company that does actually have a US branch. Look for model T001 Tecnus or A001 Los Angeles, which are the closest to the doctor’s design. It took a while for me to hear back from someone, but the direct e-mail for the person that handles the US & Canada is sltenter@hotmail.com, and the website to find the coats is http://www.sltenterprises.com .
The goggles are model VG800H5 and are discontinued, and therefore out of stock at many places. I was able to find them at Amazon for even less than I had originally ordered them for when the original order I placed was cancelled due to unavailability.
For boots, do a search for “boot shrimper white” at http://www.acehardwareoutlet.com and then find your size.
Also, for anyone wanting to be Captain Hammer, you can get the perfect gloves (Darth Vader gloves!) at most party supply or Halloween stores. These are far closer than any other recommendations I’ve seen.
Hope this helps!
October 7th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Thanks for the research. I don’t know the cost yet, but I’ll try to find out. The Pastelli jacket is here:
http://www.sltenterprises.com/PastelliNA_Catalogue_Jackets_Mens.html
October 7th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
There is a site out of Canada that makes Howie coats and ships them to the USA: http://uniformsbyrayhiggins.com/Details.cfm?ProdID=131&category=12
It isn’t exact, but it should work.
October 7th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
Good find, Yellow Python.
December 24th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
I have a coat availiable on my site, it comes with googles as well.
http://www.theirongategallery.com/Dr-Horrible-Lab-Coat–White_p_1.html
Hope it helps!
October 15th, 2009 at 11:51 am
I made my boyfriend some goggles, actually. the overall cost for everything has been about ten bucks. it was super easy. i have images on my website.
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Okay, so this is totally way after Halloween. We’ll live. I do have a suggestion, though for future folk: before I ever saw Dr. Horrible, I made a Halloween costume of Dr. Herbert West from H. P. Lovecraft’s “Reanimator” serial (the literary-correct, period version of the character, not the goofy, Stuart Gordon movie one). I too, was stuck a bit on how to do the lab coat, as in those days, of course, they actually were still using the “Howie” style ones that I love so much. Now, I ran low on time toward the end of the process because life happened, so I didn’t use the buttons to actually close it (did a bunch of hooks and eyes instead and put the buttons on the overlap instead of beneath – something I intend to remedy). But, what I used was McCall’s “I Can’t Believe It’s Not the Matrix” pattern – the pseudo-Morpheus view. I did that because the collar was pretty close and it already had the beginnings of the necessary overlap, so the worst of it was already done. Then, when I got to that pattern piece, I simply shot a line out and redrew the already existing overlap to go over to the shoulder. It’s easy as pie like that. The results weren’t totally perfect, of course, but it wouldn’t take a very lot more tweaking to the pattern to make it perfect (not to mention doing the binding thing next time and the wig needs some serious help). http://mfsliberty.webs.com/apps/photos/photo?photoid=39264261 Mine doesn’t have the side slits, but those are dead easy to throw in at the side seams.
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Sorry, Simplicity, not McCalls.