I saw an Instagram seller I follow was selling vintage costume patterns and two of them were patterns I knew my mom had when I was a kid. Did she still have them? Yes. Could I have them? YES! Did I immediately decide to make a creepy clown costume for one of my 5 ft tall skeletons? YOU KNOW IT!
I didn’t have enough fabric in my stash to make the costume, so I did have to buy it (sale + coupon!), but I was able to use stash for pretty much everything else: interfacing, trims, buttons, elastic, bias tape.
I did lots of distressing to make the clown look extra…well, distressing. 
On to the detail shots!
Fading and grungy stains on the hat and collar. The “wig” is faux fox fur from stash.
The striped fabric claimed to be 100% cotton, but that stuff WOULD NOT BLEACH. I was able to sand off some color and then use diluted paints to give it stains on the front, the wrists and the elbows.
The tie-dye looking print was much easier to fade and stain! I did the neck bow, ankles, knees, and butt.
Here are the patterns my mom sent.
I was a clown for a children’s parade when I was a kiddo (view 2), but used view 3 for this. I was always tall, so this pattern is for Adult Small. I shortened it a bit for my skeleton who is probably taller than I was at the time, but doesn’t have much in the way of muscles! I have a red clown nose somewhere that I will probably add to its look. A fun thing about this late 1970s pattern is that it includes measurements in both inches and cm right on the tissues. I remember in elementary school being taught both systems, because at the time the US was going to switch. We all know how that worked out.
ADDENDUM:
This year I actually set him up in a bit of an opening in the woods on our property - you can’t really see him from the house, but if you’re driving up the road you might catch a glimpse of him out of the corner of your eye. I added the prop chain a solar spot light that isn’t super bright.
And then I repainted this prop wrench and added it.
I generally really hate clowns (please note - hate, not fear), but creepy clowns are in a totally different category. I want to give Tim Curry’s IT a cuddle. This hits all the right creepy notes, and you did a great job with the distressing!