Pilot Sheila B. Bangin - costume discontinued by DreamGirl - review by Breas

The Pilot Sheila B. Bangin costume by DreamGirl is available in sizes small to extra large. I had purchased the XL for myself. I love costumes and couldn’t resist the 40% off sale that EF recently had. Costumes are great for role-playing in the bedroom, costume parties, and Halloween. I have a lot of costumes already but love adding to the collection.



The outfit arrived in a durable plastic package that has a hanger at the very top of it. It also has 2 snap closures at the top back of the package. There was a cardboard insert in the bag that had an image of a model wearing the costume and stated the company name, costume name, included contents, size, suggested weight bracket, and company website. I usually store my costumes in a drawer and use the packaging to store my stockings, fancy underwear, etc in my closet.



The outfit consists of three pieces: the hat, the badge, and the dress. The badge and hat were sealed in a plastic bag and the dress was folded around a thin piece of cardboard. The dress is 100% polyester. The material is thin, stretchy, and opaque. It does not become sheer the more it is stretched.

I’ve taken a few measurements of the dress lying flat, not stretched. If you need any additional measurements, please send me a message and I will get them for you.

Sleeve length (armpit to cuff): 17 ½ inches
Chest (armpit to armpit), not stretched: 20 inches
Chest (armpit to armpit), stretched as much as I could: 34 inches
Width at bottom of dress: 21 inches
Length of dress (armpit to bottom): 24 ¼ inches

The dress has snap closures down the centre front of the piece. They are gold in colour and there are 7 in total. The diameter of each button is approximately 5/8 of an inch. The dress has long sleeves to it. There are 4 gold lines that run horizontally around each cuff. The bottom of the dress has 2 gold lines and they run around the entire bottom of the dress. Each shoulder has a badge on it that measures 3 ¾ x 1 ½ inches.



There is a flap of gold fabric on each side of the dress. The flaps are 5 inches x 1 ¾ inches. They are supposed to make it look like the dress has pockets but there isn’t actually any pockets to the outfit. The flaps are just for decoration. The chest area of the dress does not have any padding or underwire. You’ll want to wear a bra, pasties, or similar item beneath the dress if you are worried about nipple outline.



The badge is black with gold coloured writing on it. It reads, “Mile High Captain” with a star and wings beneath the text. It measures 2 ¾ inches wide and just less than 1 ¾ inches long. The back of the badge attaches to the dress with a safety pin. It’s nice that it’s removable.



The hat has the same star and wings image that the badge does but there is no text on the hat. The hat is adjustable in size, which is nice because OSFM hats are usually too small for my large head. The back of the hat has two plastic bands, one has little tabs on it and the other has holes to put the tabs inside of. There are 7 tabs in total and each band measures approximately 2 5/8 inches.



The beak to the hat is black but, unlike the rest of the rest of the cap, it has a wet-look to it. The beak is 8 inches wide and 2 ½ inches long at the middle. When the tabs are done up to the tightest fit possible, the circumference on the inside of the hat is 20 ½ inches. The largest circumference I was able to adjust it to is 24 ½ inches.



DreamGirl’s size chart states that the XL is best suited for those with a D/E cup and a hip measurement of between 40-42 inches. The packaging gives a suggested weight bracket of 160-180lbs. I wear a C cup with a 38 bra band, my hips are 41 ½ inches, I weighed in the high 160’s last time I checked (I may be a bit more now), and my height is 5’6”.

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The hat fit me well and because it is adjustable, most people should fit into it comfortably. The dress fit me. It was almost perfect until I tried to do the bottom button up. I have very thick thighs and the width of the bottom of the dress didn’t want to work for me. The black material to the dress is stretchy but the gold lines that run around the bottom of the dress are not. This means that you can’t stretch the bottom of the dress to accommodate the width of your thighs if you need to.



Ugh. The shape of my body is doing absolutely nothing for this dress. You can see in the photo above that the material around my thighs is really being stretched. The rest of the dress is stretched when I wear it but not to the point where it’s unwearable. I did that bottom button up just to show you what it looks like but I can’t actually have the button done up when I’m walking around. When I try, the button undoes itself. The rest of the buttons seem to stay well secured but that bottom button doesn’t.

I measured the area where the button was on my thighs and the circumference around both my thighs is about 38 inches. If your upper thighs (together, not separately) have a circumference of larger than 38 inches, you may find it uncomfortable. I’d recommend the outfit to those who have a circumference of at least a few inches below 38.


Since the bottom button does not like to stay done up, I just keep it undone when I’m wearing it. To make it look more even, I undo the top button as well. I find that it makes it look like I’m doing it on purpose if I undo that top button too. Since the dress is not very long, I’d wear opaque leggings beneath it if I were to wear it out in public. Those who are taller than me will probably want to do this as well.

The quality of the outfit is good. There were no loose threads or uneven stitching that I had seen. The safety pin badge is pretty cheap looking but you don’t have to wear it with the outfit if you don’t want to. The material of the dress is soft and comfortable against the skin. I didn’t experience any skin irritation while wearing it. The care tag states that the outfit should be dry cleaned only but I plan on gently hand washing the dress instead.

Overall, this costume is okay. It’s not the worst outfit I own but it’s not the best either. The sale price is great (40% off) but I wouldn’t recommend it at regular price. I don’t find it that sexy and the bottom of the dress bothers me. If you have thick thighs, I’d stay away from this piece.