Urgent help and/or advice needed from folks in the Toronto and/or Mississauga, Ontario area. I need to dye! Oh, and please note the spelling of dye because this isn't a suicide plea...yet. My situation is this: I'm making my own homemade Santa Claus suit. I want it to be something of a distinctive old-fashioned Santa with a darker red coat and hat with animal fur instead of white, green pants and brown boots and a gold sash instead of a belt. And of course the obligatory white beard. I couldn't find a suitable red coat in a second hand shop for the life of me (men's or woman's), but I did find (style wise) an ideal woman's winter coat of that I only have to reverse the buttons, add the fur collar and trim and lastly dye the coat from light brown to red. Now as I understand it the best way to dye this is professional where they use a heat set to make the colour permanent. Great, except that I have been unable to find anyone who provides this piece service to the public and hopefully at a reasonable price. If anyone out there knows of someplace in the Toronto or Mississauga area that does provide this service then your help would be greatly appreciated. I really want to get this costume right so help(!), please. I'm getting desperate and short on time.
I'll send an email to the folks who run the Masquerade at Polaris - they would probably know of somewhere that this can be done.
Santa suit.... sounds like the kind of thing most people simply buy pre-fabricted. Good luck with your search though, there should be someone in the whole of T.O. that can provide that service to you. That being said, when I Googled "Toronto, professional dye heat service" the first link that came up was to this thread. Don't know if this is any help to you, but there are a lot of seemingly related links on this page.
I'm not going for a pre-made suit like last year because they're crap--that furry velour like finish looks, well, effeminate. And I've grown to dislike the candy red commercial look Santa. It looks like such a joke. Even the look established by Coca Cola in the '30s is better looking with its brown belt and boots and not so much furry trim. I've looked at pictures of Santas from around the world and through history. I've seen variations of red coats, green, blue, brown, white and even black(!). Distilling that overall I'm going for something that looks somewhat late 19th/early 20th century with a little darker and richer shade of red coat and hat, faded dark green pants (jeans I found at a second hand shop), a dark gold sash about the waist with little bells attached instead of belt and brown boots. The fur trim will be a light brown animal colour rather than white and then of course the obligatory white beard. Santa often hasn't been fat either. I may not be able to get the coat coloured, but I can get it covered with just the right colour fabric and voila! If I can get this together then I'll try to post pictures. I had fun playing Santa last year and look forward to doing so again with my own homemade costume. Then all I'll need is a hip flask to keep jolly.
You should go for the "real" Santa Claus - Sinterklaas aka Saint Nicolaas, the bishop of Myra. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinterklaas http://vir.homelinux.org/blog/uploads/Sinterklaas_Zwarte_Piet.jpg Much more "original"! =)
A Christmas miracle came early. Turns out the local Talize second hand store just got in three red coats almost the exact shade I want. I've now got one and I just have to add the fur trim. I'll also have old looking big brown buttons or perhaps even more old looking eyehook fasteners. I also found very affordable soft brown boots in a nearby liquidation store. Things are looking up. The other day I felt rather dispondent that this whole thing was going to fall through. Now I feel encouraged that this will look cool.
I saw him in person once - doing pushups, shirtless, on the subway. Apparently it's what he does. Warped9, good to hear that you found what you wanted - I haven't heard back from Barb yet, but if I do, I'll let her know that you've taken care of it.
Arrrgh! Those three red coats were useless after all. Funny thing is sometimes obstacles turn out to be opportunities in disguise. My original intent was to make an older style looking Santa--that's why I wanted the darker shade of red. But by thinking a little more radically and inspired partly by some folks' offhand comments I'm going for an ancient looking style Santa. His coat and boots will be a soft medium brown with little barely discernible gold flecks in the coat and red hat and sash along with the green pants and vest. The unifying element will be the long-haired white animal fur on the hat and coat. Most people's reaction is, "I prefer a traditional looking Santa." What they mean is the corporate/commercial Santa they're used to seeing in advertisements on TV and print media. They're thinking of the glossy version of the Santa first seen in the 1930's Coca Cola ads. But when you start to research Santa from around the world and over time as well as see the variations that individuals apply to their own Santa costumes there really is no "traditional" looking version--it just depends on what you're used to. In fairness a couple of people have expressed that they think my idea sounds interesting and that they're anxious to see the final product. But I don't often go wrong by trusting my instincts when others are doubtful. So if all works out I'll have a distinct and cool looking Santa.