Lady Gaga American Flag Costume

I LOVE all the costumes in Lady Gaga's Telephone music video!  The American flag outfit at the end, however is my favorite!  

I have seen a lot of knock-off costumes for sale online but none of them do the outfit justice.  Follow these instructions to have an authentic looking Lady Gaga American flag costume!

Special thanks to Culturespy and frenzy, and scoochmaroo!

Lady Gaga and Beyonce are fierce in there American flag outfits in the Telephone music video.

Fabric:
2 yds of muslin
1/2 yd red satin
1/2 yd blue satin
1/2 yd white satin
1/4 yd white lycra
1/4 yd iron on adhesive 

Pattern Materials:
Measuring Tape
Pattern Paper
Pencil
Hip Curve Ruler 

Sewing Materials:
All basic materials including thread, sewing machine, pins, scissors, chalk, etc...

BOTTOMS:

Taking Measurements (check diagram): At first I was just going to make a patter out of an existing pair of underwear but this outfit is not stretchy so I had to make the pattern from scratch.
Waist (W)- take waist measurement from around your hip bone
Side  (S)-  I used 2 1/2" as my side measurement 
Crotch (C)- hold the tape measure from the front-center of the waist, bring it between your legs and under your crotch, back up to the back-center of the waist.  

Making Pattern - make two separate pattern pieces, one for front and one for back.  Follow these instructions for both. 

• Lay pattern paper flat - iron paper if it is wrinkled or curling
• Draw a straight line that is 1/2(W), mark the center point of this line with an X
• Draw a perpendicular line, length (S) from each end of the line you just drew
• Draw another perpendicular line starting at the X that has a length 1/2(C), mark the other end of this line X'
• Fold the paper in half on the line you just drew (X to X')
• Only look at one side of the fold
• Draw a line 1 1/4" perpendicular to the crotch line starting at X', mark the other end of this line D
• Drawing the hip curve: draw a curve from the bottom of the side line to point D using the hip curve ruler.  This is why the front pattern piece and the back pattern piece are different.  Up to this point the pieces are made the same, but the front of the bottom garment has more of a curve than the back piece.  To figure out the curve. use a pair of your underwear and check to see what the curve is like and try to follow that in your pattern.
• Cut out pattern piece.  Keep the paper folded when you do this.  This will ensure that the bottoms are symmetrical.

TOP:

I found this great tutorial for making a corset pattern. Just plug in your measurements and it will walk you through the rest. After I completed the pattern I made a few of my own adjustments to make it look more like Gaga's top. Few adjustments to keep in mind:

• Top of Lady Gaga's top curves at the breasts a bit more
• The gap in between the red and white stripes and the blue and white stars.
• This is a really short top, most of the torso is shown.

I couldn't find good quality star fabric so I decided to make my own.  It is super easy!!

Use a fabric that doesn't fray for the stars.  I used lycra fabric.

• Cut a large piece of the lycra fabric and iron adhesive and press them together.
• Use a pencil or piece of chalk to trace 25-30 stars on the fabric.
• Cut out the stars

Adhere stars to fabric once pieces are cut out.

Bottom Back

• Using back pattern piece cut out one piece of muslin and one piece of red satin.  Leave 1/2" for seam allowance
• Place red fabric on top of muslin and baste them together
• Finish the edges by folding them under and sewing.  Don't fold the crotch and the sides.

Bottom Front

• Using front pattern piece cut out one piece of muslin and one piece of blue satin. Leave 1/2" for seam allowance.
• Press the stars on to the blue fabric before sewing anything.
• Place blue fabric on top of muslin (stars facing up) and baste them together
• Finish the edges by folding them under and sewing. Don't fold the crotch and the sides.

Finish

• Place front and back on top of each other with colored sides touching
• Sew one of the sides together.  
• Finish the other sides by folding them under and sewing.  Sew snaps on these edges for easy fit!

You will need two copies of the top pattern piece.  One will be adjusted for the red and white stripes.

• On one of the pattern pieces mark off 7 sections as seen in the image.  It doesn't have to be exactly the same.  Mark each section with a number and a letter to indicate what color it will be (red/white every other piece).
• Cut out each section along the curved lines.
• Cut out each small section in muslin and the appropriate color (red or white).  Leave a 1/2" for seam allowance
• Mark the section number on each piece of muslin.
• Baste the muslin pieces to the corresponding colors

Attaching stripes together:

• Sew each section together in numerical order.
• Do this by hand first.  Because the edges are curved you will need to manipulate the edges of each stripe so the edges are aligned.
• Finally, sew over this line with the sewing machine
• Remove thread that you hand sew 

Use the original top pattern piece and cut out 2 muslin pieces.  You will want 3 pieces of boning: 

• One on the center front 
• One on the side of your body
• One a couple inches from the center of your back.

Attach the boning to the muslin.  The featherweight boning already has a casing around it so you can sew it straight to the muslin.

Do this for both pieces of muslin.  One will be the boning for the right side and the other for the left.  Make sure the boning is symmetrical.

Use the original top pattern piece and cut out 1 blue piece and 1 muslin piece.  The top part of the garment is half blue and white stars and half red and white stripes.  The instructions in this step for putting each half together is the same.  Treat the red and white striped piece you made in the last step the same as the blue and white star piece.

**Attach stars to blue piece: refer to step 4

Baste the blue and white star piece to the muslin piece.

Place the blue and white piece and the corresponding muslin-boned piece on top of each other.  The star side should be facing the inside and the boned muslin piece should be facing the outside.  Sew all edges together except for the back edge (see image).

Turn the piece inside out through the open edge.  

Now create a small 2"x3" piece of blue fabric to attach the two top pieces together.  

Fold the open back edges over so it looks polished and attach hook and eyes so the top snaps together!