Good Omens Aziraphale

Right photo by Donald Manning
I have a few other blog posts to finish, but thought I'd put this together now, as really, this was pretty quick and will be helpful to other Aziraphales.

I knew pretty quickly that I wanted to cosplay from Good Omens and when Cyanide Kisses said she'd be my Crowley, my choice was made for me. Who doesn't love the ineffeable husbands?

The only real work I did on this costume was the vest. Everything else is thrifted or part of my wardrobe already. I have a remarkable collection of random things, really. The wig is one I'd bought for Daenerys, just styled like a messy librarian.



But the vest I definitely didn't have.

My favourite of his vests is the most modern with the weathering on it. The pattern was the one I had created for my Janet cosplay (blog coming) based on the pattern Simplicity 2566 (Project Runway vest pattern).  I had altered it to be front darts instead of princess seams for Janet, so just used that.

I bought a velveteen that I liked for the front of the fabric, and then went to my stash for fabric for the back. I knew I'd never survive a full day in costume with all velveteen so I used an inherited very light, possibly silk, probably old sari material that kind of had a Mesopotamian feeling about it. It felt very Aziraphale, even though I know its not accurate, but I was really trying to do this costume on a budget.


I cut everything out, put it together, and draped a collar. Then I panicked that I hadn't tested my weathering methods on it and I didn't have enough front fabric to mess it up. I wanted the faded look, and there's really no better way to do that than with bleach. I found some scraps, and thankfully, the bleach didn't burn through either, so I put it all together without closing the bottom or side seams, so I could make sure it was where I wanted it to be.


Then I googled "How to make a welt pocket" and after watching a couple of videos, including a particularly easy to follow one by Gentleman Jim Tailor, I made pockets ready to be inserted so I could weather their corners before I put them in.



Ireland is strange in what it does and does not have commonly available, but I'm actually feeling lucky that the only bleach I could find locally was toilet bleach.


The toilet bleach was ideal for the project because it was thick, not watery, which meant I could paint it on like a paint and get it exactly where I wanted it to go.


It also gives a more yellowed color instead of trying to make it white white which isn't really how age-related distressing works.


I had to do this a couple of times because I had to wait to see how much the bleach took and also I then wanted to make the bits around the buttons deeper. But this worked great.


If you've never worked with this before, you just put the bleach on and wait. It will start to turn color almost immediately (if it doesn't, your bleach is bad), and in 5-10 min you probably have as much as its going turn. Keep an eye on it, and when it looks like you want it to, rinse with cold water (and gloves to protect your hands).


To get the centre of areas really 100% yellow, I did have to apply the bleach on both sides of the fabric so it really went all the way through. Otherwise you could still see some of the velveteen's color at the base of the fibres, and if I'd bothered to shave the fibres down so it was more distressed like Aziraphale's it might would definitely have shown.


I may go back and paint the gold detail on the buttons at some point, but looming con meant I didn't bother.


Anyway, then I just made button holes, finished up the build by putting in the welt pockets, completing the lining, and voila!


I'm really happy with how it all came out.

Photo by @hopeandluckphotos on Instagram
I did put my "pocket watch" together from a thrifted necklace, a T-bar, and a locket I had inherited that came complete with photographs of my great-grandfather.



The only other thing I did for this was create a copy of The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch. But that is for another blog.

Photo by Donald Manning


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