The Ballad of My Dean Winchester Costume

 Hello Geeky Friends,

This Saturday is the Spring WNC Comic Con, and I'm once more going as Dean Winchester. I told my Mom I just haven't had the mental capacity to get a new cosplay together yet this year so I'll wear Dean again. Then I realized what I said and I'm like that sounds kinda messed up. Then I thought about the show and was like actually that works. It's like some demon or angel going "Fine I'll wear the Dean vessel again!"

I also realized recently I hadn't talked about how my current cosplay came to be, so let's do that in honor of the upcoming convention.

 

The First Inkling of an Idea

The first time I ever broached the subject of doing any sort of Winchester cosplay was I think the day after Hillywood Productions announced they were making their Second Supernatural Parody. This may have been in 2017. If you haven't even seen the first parody then go watch the playlist that features both parodies and their associated videos! Fangirl and I were eating at this restaurant we have called Bogarts, and after telling her about the parody I told we should dress as the Winchesters, I mean we both love the show and it'd be easy cosplays to put together. It was discussed a bit and cropped up in my thoughts from time to time, but never acted on.

It All Happened Because of A Vest

Fast forward to 2024. It was a matter of weeks before Helene hit. For the last year I'd been working on doing an updated version of a Mad Hatteress costume I'd worn 9 years prior, but things came up like my Pop dying, not being able to find my hat, and not pushing my Mom to find it in the wake of my Dad's death. The costume was pushed back till that fall. The first weekend of September I was preparing for Ren Faire. At this point I had like five things left on the costume, a couple that were not necessary, when the final nail on the coffin so to speak happened. I was gonna wear my vest that I use for that costume for the faire. Apparently it'd been a few years since I used it and it no longer fit. I didn't have money buy or time to try to make one, or more likely get help making, so I decided to fall back on the 11th Doctor costume again. I was a little disappointed because while I love it, I'd wore is so many times since I debuted it in 2019, I wanted to throw new costumes in the mix.

So the Monday after the faire I'm at Goodwill, I'd found a CD "The Very Best of Meat Loaf" and was heading to checkout when I saw a jacket that reminded me of Dean. Then brilliance struck, I could go as Dean! It'd be easy to put together in a month and I'd recently added him to my potential cosplay ideas, so why not this year? The why not came a few weeks later when Helene hit and both my Fall conventions were canceled. This just gave me extra time to get it together, and the 2025 debut put it in align with the 20th Anniversary celebration.  

Let's Break It Down

The Red Shirt:

The first thing I got was the red shirt, I bought it the same day I decided to cosplay Dean, I started hunting the Goodwill for a good shirt in my size. I found this shirt that fits well in most places, but couldn't get buttoned up on me which is fine cause I was leaving it unbuttoned anyway. It was actually ironic the CD I bought and the shirt fit the theme well, plus that meat loaf CD had "Bat Out Of Hell" on it which I thinking is a fitting song title for the character.

 

The Samulet:

 

The one item I knew would be tricky, actually was the easiest to get. I did a search on Etsy and found FirePhoenixBeads who sent me five.I originally used an of string from a capsule machine necklace I had in my stash, but it broke after first con, so I bought some string from Dollar Tree to replace it.

 

 

 

 

The Knife:

   

 

The knife I already had on hand. Mom made it for my award winning Vampire Hunter costume. It's made out of an old lint brush handle, cardboard, and duct tape. I'm so happy to have a Mom who is willing to help her adult daughter with her cosplays.

 

The Undershirt:

 

I thought this would be the easiest, it ended up being a headache. Could not find a plain t- shirt in my size at the thrift stores, when finally I came across this Torrid shirt at a Mountain Projects Resale Store. 

 

 

I debated back and forth about it until the Captain said she thought it'd work. I figure it can be a faded shirt Dean has in his clothes. Unfortunately it's very thin so I have to wear a black tank top under it.

 

The Bag:

 

This was a tricky one, I always have to come up with bag ideas for characters, so I can hold my money and stuff at cons and events. I searched and found Dean used a duffle, but I didn't wanna lug something like that around, so I thought to do small army bag purse. This was proving to be difficult to do, then I settled on this Army Green Spencer Bag I found at the Goodwill I got the red shirt from. I'd actually passed on it when I saw it at first, then on a second trip I got it, I was getting desperate. It looked like something that'd been made of an old Army Bag, we actually had to repair it so looked more beat up.

 

 

The pins on the bag are convention purchases. The trio was from a previous WNC Comic Con, and pouty Sam was from the Spring WNC Comic Con I debuted Dean. I'd wanted to get a Dean, but they'd sold out.

Hair and Make Up:

The hairstyle I do is simply a low hanging bun so it stays out of my way in a "fight". Last year I used a plain black black hair tie, this year I'm holding it in place with a bobby pin, which has the dual purpose of being a tool just in case Dean needs to "pick a lock". When it comes to make up I don't do anything. No eye shadow or finger nail polish, I feel Dean would have words if I did.

So there you have it the ends and outs of my Dean costume. I hope you had fun today, perhaps maybe inspired you to cosplay. Have a good weekend and for my WNC Comic Con goers: I'll see you there.

*Thrifty Geek*