Family Friday Night – chatting, reading, working out and sewing

The Art of Conversation

It is so fun and cool to see one’s child grow and change over the years. My daughter is nine (ten late this year), and I feel like one of her biggest burgeoning signs of maturity is that she has started to really enjoy talking. I don’t just mean talking to make noise, which she certainly enjoys (she gets that from me), but talking as in conversation.

More often now, she will ask me or my girlfriend about ourselves, seeming to especially like hearing what it was like for us when we were younger, what we were like when we were younger. She likes to hear “stories” about our childhood and teenage years. A month or two ago, my girlfriend’s mom was visiting, and we all sat around talking, my little girl delightedly listening to my girlfriend and her mom tell stories about Texas and Minnesota and what life was like there when they were younger. It was pretty fascinating to see her so entertained by that. Full disclosure: she had been banned from TV, tablet, and toys as part of a consequence for a behavior issue at school, so it might have been at least part desperation. :]

Anyway, she really does seem to show more and more interest in “the art of conversation,” and will even comment on how nice it is to have those evenings–like last night–where we are all in the living room, doing our own things, but chatting, together. I was working out for a while, my daughter was playing on her tablet, my girlfriend was reading, and we all just chatted about this and that (thus my GF did not really get much reading done for a while).

Finding Some Sewing Time

Once I had finished my workout, both the GF and the daughter had settled into reading, and I decided to finally put together the mini-prototype of my new shirt design.

Looking at the way it goes together now, it seems so simple. Funny how hard it can be for me to conceive of these things “virtually” before getting the reality of it straight in my head. So, here’s what I threw together last night:

 

 

 

 

 

The proportions were very poorly scaled down, so ignore that part, including the wide collar that is more blouse than Spidey tunic. But the basic seam layout is there.

My daughter hoped my mini-version might be Barbie compatible, but it is actually a bit oversized for that. (She decided we should just make our own Barbie out of wood, with joints and all. I pointed out we don’t have a wood shop to speak of, and she is planning to do something with cardboard instead. I respect that she does not accept reality when it does not suit her.)

Anyway, I feel pretty good about drafting the full size pattern, with the right measurements, to see how that looks, and that should get me a bit closer to making the actual updated shirt. My spandex supply did arrive, so hopefully I will be digging into that soon.

I want to also do a mini-prototype for the new pants pattern, make sure that’ll work the way I expect.

And today is my daughter’s dance competition, plus whatever other weekend fun we can get into. Should be a full Saturday!

Up Next: Prototyping Pants and Patterning Shirts and Such

 

Nothing quite like the Classics…

So, I think I’ve finally got a shirt pattern that will work, so now I just have to have time to pull out the sewing machine and related mess and give the pattern a try. This weekend should be good for that, I hope. I might also try to make my daughter some shorts, since the summer heat is upon us. I dragged her to the fabric store with me not long ago, and she picked out some discount fabric to mess around with, so I’ll probably steal some of it to make her something.

Also, I’m making good progress on my latest Photoshop template costume design option, a “Classic” Spidey look in terms of the color and web pattern:

I’m also pretty happy with the traditional back emblem. The comics and movies have done some updated “cool” looks for it, making it more like the chest emblem, but I have a fondness for the old look. Even though it looks more like a bloated tick than a spider.

I’ll probably modify the chest symbol for this design as well. The current one might be a bit too modern. But I don’t want to go too classic. I mean, this is the first iteration from Ditko and the gang:

 

It definitely looks more like a spider than the original back symbol, but I really like the vertical mirroring of the more modern iterations that came a bit later:

It has the traditional look, but with more pleasing symmetry, and not overdone like some of the more modern takes.

All right, now let’s get this Friday started.

Not much to say–but that hardly ever stops me from talking anyway

Last night, after getting home from work, eating, and getting my workout done, there was just a bit of time to work on my modified shirt pattern for the costume. The details aren’t super exciting, but the tricky part has been the arm seams that angle from the base of the neck to under the arm front and back (like the cut of a typical “three-quarters length” t-shirt). But I think I’m almost there. Seems to involve having two “total” lengths for the torso, one on the side from underarm to the hem of the torso piece, and one from the base of the neck (where the angled sleeve hem intersects) to the torso hem. That corresponds with a “top” and “bottom” length for the sleeves (folded in half and viewed frontwise). I’m hoping to put together a “mini” version of the shirt this morning since today is my day to go in a bit later to work.

Also, my fresh batch of spandex is scheduled for delivery today, which is much earlier than I expected! I stuck with the cheapest shipping option, since I won’t really have a ton of time to sew until the first full weekend in June. But it’ll be nice to have the fabric on hand for when I’m ready.

I’m also making progress on a more “traditional” costume design for the Photoshop template. That’s fun to play around with. That is one nice thing about digital design and art, being able to edit and change and undo so easily before committing to a design. But of course there is such great satisfaction in a true physical act of creation like sewing, where you put something real together with your brain and hands. Well, and a sewing machine and stuff. But you know what I mean.

Well, that’s it for today. Now, let’s see if I can wrangle that shirt pattern into shape.

 

Spreadsheets Can be Fun! (or at least useful)

Re-Patterning the Tunic

I did some more sketching and planning for the way I want to pattern the new version of the Spidey “tunic” for version 2 of the practice suit, which included getting some fresh measurements. I took a lot of measurements. Possibly too many? But I figure it’s better to have some I might not use than wish I had some that I need. Or something like that.

Regardless, the notes I was taking as I jotted down the measurements quickly got out of hand, and I got weary of calculating and recalculating, and I finally got around to doing what he smart Internet people I have been learning from (this helpful lady and this helpful guy in particular) have done: I created a spreadsheet.

DISCLAIMER! I just finished the spreadsheet partially pictured below, and have not made anything based on it, plus this screenshot doesn’t even show the whole thing… What I’m saying is, it might suck. If you want something more tried and true for measuring the torso (etc.)  for spandex, Somewhat Stretchy’s page on measuring the arms and torso is the way to go.

“But why did you make your own spreadsheet if that Stretchy guy already has some good measurement and tables and stuffs? Heck, there must lots of well-tested shirt patterns out there on the Internets!”

Well, glad you asked. There are a few reasons: stubbornness; I learn by doing; I want to do this shirt a specific way with specific needs for seam placement, etc. But I definitely owe a lot of credit for the basic concepts for the torso measurements to the Somewhat Stretchy site, and credit to So Sew Easy for principles of pattern making and translating measurements to patterns and so forth.

You might be able to see in the pic that I have included a column that scales all the measurements down to 25%. This is so that I can do a small scale version of the shirt to see if the pattern will basicallywork without using a ton of fabric. And this will be good practice for making clothes for my daughter’s dolls.

Preliminary (Premature?) Research for Fabric Painting

I’m very excited to get a good, finished costume base patterned and sewn so that I can start the phase of laying down colors and patterns to truly make it a Spidey suit. So I thought I’d go ahead and look into fabric paints that will be good for this process.

I didn’t even think I could just paint on a bodysuit without doing silkscreening before I heard this skilled cosplayer mention it in a tutorial video.

Anyway, I dug around with Google a bit yesterday and found this helpful discussion about such paints. After looking at a few of the options mentioned, the most likely candidate for my needs seems to be the “Lumiere and Neopaque” line found at the Dharma Trading Company site.

Sounds fancy…

I need something that can cover black without too many coats and stretches well with the fabric. Plus, after looking at discussions of how some of the paints need “heat set” with ironing to be washable, I chose this one as it can be set with a blow dryer instead of a scary iron.

I want a dark red, so I figure I will choose a standard red, assuming that the black of the spandex will show through to some degree, thus creating a darker red.

As to the webbing pattern, it should be interesting. Since the suit is black, I figure I can make webbing stencils to paint through that will add the red areas and leave the webbing areas the black of the suit.

Crude Artists’s Rendering

The front center and top arms of the shirt will take up the most of the paint, I suppose.

I’ve considered trying to pattern this out where I could actually sew red and black spandex together to get the base color pattern and then add the webs, but that is a bit intimidating. And not as fun. We’ll see.

Up Next: Making a Mini-Suit (probably)

Gearing Up for the Next Steps

Yesterday was the last day in my long holiday weekend sewing extravaganza, so I had to dig the living room floor out from under the pile of fabric scraps and pattern pieces and get ready to head back to work. But before I did that, I wanted to do at least a bit to get started on the new–and hopefully improved–version of the seven piece practice costume.

I found a relatively cheap, large roll of drawing paper at Jerry’s Artarama–having grown a bit weary of the hassle involved with taping several pieces of printer paper together–and drafted a modified leggings pattern. I increased the rise quite a bit, and added panels of fabric at the top of the front and back:

I think I must have been basing this on a similar seam setup apparent on the costumes in the Amazing Spider-Man movies:

We’ll see how this goes. There’s a slight fear that it draws more attention (I did not notice on the movie Spidey after all) but my leggings will be black instead of blue and I think the seams will blend more.

The increased rise will help the most, I believe. There’s no real concern about how high they are on my waist (I measure almost up to my belly button for the rise on this pattern) as the tunic will overlap it (and connect to it, so a high rise is ideal for that purpose).

The similar panel on the butt is not present in the movie Spidey costume, but it seemed like a good idea at the time, so we’ll see how it goes.

On the digital design front, I have finished up the details on the design for the final-final non-practice costume in the full-size Photoshop version of the file (having gotten my computer processing/RAM issues worked out). I am now playing with the colors and opacity levels, the latter affecting how much–if at all–the underlying muscle pattern will show through on the final screen-printed design.

Here I’ve got a very muted color palette, as I experiment with maybe doing some blue after all (especially if my 7 piece costume is black and red). But this looks a bit washed out. I have the muscle design showing through just a smidge, and that lowered opacity of the color layers is what makes it hard to get the blue and red right. Seeing as I’m not totally sold on the “fake muscle” look anyway, I might simplify my life and cover it over with “pure” colors, which will make it a lot easier to choose the colors I want.

That’s about it for now. I ordered some more fabric (it was a good bit cheaper that way) and will be continuing to re-draft my patterns while I wait for the fabric–and while I wait to have more time to spend sewing! It was an unusually quiet weekend.

I might even make mini-versions of the patterns and sew mini-versions of some of the costume pieces from my remaining scraps of spandex. I am going to be getting a bit creative with the pants (adding the panels) and the shirt design–while okay–needs some modification as well. I might try a shirt pattern with shoulder seams that angle from under the arms to the base of the collar:

Just gotta figure out the measurements and layout and such.

But for today…back to work!

UP NEXT: Lots of Drawing and Designing

Scary Sewing of Spandex Part 5: Gloves & Mask & Everything Else

So, I’ve done all the pieces, but I am definitely not done. Back to that in a minute.

The Gloves

I had originally imagined that these would be the hardest to pattern out and sew. Turns out that they were just the hardest to sew. But the patterning part was not bad at all, thanks to what I think is a rather ingenious little “Instructable” post.

I used chalk instead of a Sharpie to trace my hands, and that worked fine. It got a little faded out during sewing, but I just re-sketched the lines as needed.

Sewing was a pain! I knew that the ends of the fingers would be crazy turns to make, but it was even harder than I imagined. For each finger, I ended up doing a seam on one side that curved in toward the tip as best I could, then a seam on the other side that curved in as best I could, ending up in pointy fingers. After I finished a whole hand, I went back and sewed straight lines across the tips to square off the points. Not ideal, but it worked okay once I trimmed the fabric around the seams.

To do different next time (besides getting better at the fingertip curves): I will spread my fingers out more. I ended up with funky areas between the fingers. Plus, I will not trace quite so close around the wrist/forearm, maybe. It’s a pretty big stretch to get my hands in through the wrists!

Anyway, the result:

The Mask

I said above that I originally thought that the gloves would be the hardest to pattern and sew. But if I had even thought about it for three seconds, I would have reserved that fear for the mask. I had it last on my list of parts to make, and when I got to it, I suddenly thought: “Wow. That’s gonna be kind of hard, isn’t it?”

I started by looking up the way to do measurements. The Somewhat Stretchy guy I’ve mentioned before has this page about hoods on his site, including the following images:

Source: http://www.stretchy.org/catsuit/extras/hoods/

Source: http://www.stretchy.org/catsuit/extras/hoods/

 

My first thought was “Uuuuhhhhh…” I think I might have drooled a bit.

Actually, now that I have stumbled through doing the mask another way, the above pics make a lot more sense, and i will likely revisit that method later. But at the time, I thought, yeah, there has to be another way.

And actually, this is how I learn. I have to suffer through cobbling together my own understanding via reverse-engineering, make a few mistakes, and then start having those “ah-ha!” moments. That’s how I have learned–and continue learning–a lot of my web programming skills.

In the case of the mask, I started with my existing Spider-Man costume’s mask. I had every intention of literally cutting it apart and tracing the shapes, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. So I mentally deconstructed it instead. (I used paper too):

You can see the superficial, crude resemblance to the math-y diagrams above. And if you’re more perceptive than I am (which is pretty likely) you can see a couple of silly oversights that will come back to bite me.

But I cut it out and started figuring out how to sew what to what (I feel like I’m getting better at that part, which was not intuitive to me as a non-sewer).

And here we go…

Call 911!There’s a creepy masked man in the house!

Not horrible, considering this was my first try, and the relative complexity of the patern. The problem areas are the chin and  the front of the neck. Looking back at the pattern, it’s obvious that my inexplicable flaring of the base of the neck in the pattern would  would produce the–well, flared neck in the finished mask. How about that? Also, the under-chin piece was obviously too narrow to span the gap, resulting in weirdness and bunching.

I tried to salvage this mask by adding a center seam on the neck front, thereby taking it in some:

A little better, but not good.

At that point, I thought I was done for the day, as in, “let me set this aside and revisit it tomorrow.” But I ended up going back and refining, wondering if maybe simplicity was the answer.

I cut out two pieces of fabric based on the “back of the head” piece of the pattern–eliminating the under-chin piece–and cut off the flaring sides.

Much better. And much easier to sew! Just a full length seam on each side of the head, and a not-quite half-length seam on the forehead and top of the back of the head.

I stopped short of cutting out eyes for now. I want to plan that out, think about how to properly hem around them, add lenses, and so on.

Taking Stock of the Practice Costume

So…all the pieces have been made, but there’s the question of whether to push on to the finishing work with hems and elastic and eyes and fabric paint and so on. I think that I might actually consider re-doing all of these pieces before feeling like it’s worth adding the finishing work and colors.

I am Justice, I am the Night, I am…the Black Beanpole

What to do different for each piece:

1) Leggings: Do I need to rehash the “Crotchening” here? No, I really don’t. But I have sketched up an idea for a pattern to accommodate the issues, which also include a somewhat higher waist.
2) Shirt: Came out surprisingly well considering, but the fit is tight enough around the shoulders/underarms that torn seams are a concern. Plus, it could be a smidge longer on the sides of the waist, which probably means a less exaggerated “point” in the middle of the center and back (part of the ultimate colored design).
3) Sock-Boots: Actually, 95% happy with these. Just need to add a curve to one side of the toe seam to make it less square.
4) Gloves: re-trace with more finger-junction room. A bit less tight around the wrists. Improve fingertips.
5) Mask: Again, 95% happy with the simplified design. Maybe some accurate measurements to achieve less nose-smushing.
6) Overall: Improve seam junctions; try to avoid sewing too far into my seam allowances (this is likely where the tightness comes from in some cases); practice adding elastic (ugh!) and hemming before doing the final work on the “real” pieces; somewhere along the way, I also need to practice adding “hidden” zippers, which will be a definite part of the “final suit”;  practice, practice, research, and practice.

The “Real” Goal:

Of course, this is all supposedly about working toward the successful assembly of the suit pattern from the professionally screen-printed fabric. I definitely need more practice before then. So maybe re-starting the construction of my multi-piece practice suit is a good way to achieve that. And if it means I end up with two finished suits, well, that’s cool too.

UP NEXT: I Need More Spandex!

Scary Sewing of Spandex Part 4: Simply Complex Socks

Before going to bed last night, I felt like I just had to sneak in one more piece (pair of pieces, technically) of the bodysuit: the boots/socks. I was examining the foot portion of my existing Spidey suit, the one I bought on eBay years back. (Incidentally, it is a bodysuit with attached feet, but separate gloves and mask.) The “boots” were basically just extensions of the “tubes” of the legs, with the inseam continuing down to the big toe and taking a right turn to close off the end across the ends of the toes. Like a tube sock with the seam continuing up one side.

But, as you can see from the pattern above, that was too simple. I decided that since a sock was a relatively small investment in fabric, it was worth experimenting. It was a bit daunting at first, trying to visualize how to account for the right-angle-ish turn of the foot at the ankle/heel/foot junction, but I just started measuring and then thinking of it like the foot was extended, the top of the foot and toes pointing along nearly the same line as the shin… So, again applying the same principles of measuring and pattern-making learned from the wonderful Internetters I have mentioned in previous posts, I came up with the pattern above. It didn’t look anything like a foot to me, at first, but after I cut the fabric and did the sewing…

Huh. Those look a lot like socks. Actually, worn without the leggings and shirt, they look pretty much exactly like dress socks (somewhat shabby dress socks, but still).

Now I can see the foot shape in the pattern. And I can also see that, ideally, I might want to take some little curves inward on either side of the center line. The outside of the toes–opposite the seam side–came out a tad square (I tucked it under for the pic).

I think the “tube” approach would have been mostly fine, but it seems to me that it would create unnecessary stretch on the heel, stressing the fabric and possibly affecting the aesthetic in terms of fit and allowing some of the color of the skin underneath to show through. I will be adding fabric paint at some point, and figure an even stretch will be important for that as well.

Later, I will attach soles of some kind, which will likely involve lining inside the feet and the soles outside, attached via strong glue through the fabric.

These still need hemming and elastic (as does the shirt), but I think I will save the rest of the finishing work on the components for after I have done the gloves and the mask.

Plus, just as I will be coming up with a way to keep the shirt-bottom and pants-top together, I will be doing a similar thing with the boots and gloves, to avoid sagging and maintain clean, pseudo-seamlessness for the suit.

Additionally, I think I have a good solution for the “junction” issues with the leggings. At some point, I will probably sew up a new pair of those incorporating that solution that should provide appropriately greater roominess.

Of course, at this point, I am almost down to scraps and remnants of my original pile of spandex, so here’s hoping I can squeeze gloves and maybe mask out of what’s left before I need to get more.

NEXT UP: Gloves, preferably in a hand-like shape

Scary Sewing of Spandex Part 3: “Already? Didn’t you already post today?”

It’s not the photo, I made the pattern blurry in real life.

So, had some extra time today and decided to go ahead and tackle the next phase of the costume, the “Tunic.”

Throughout the process of conceiving and drawing the pattern, I was back and forth as to how successful this attempt would be. I was cobbling together principles of pattern-making from the leggings tutorial, glimpses of homemade long sleeve t-shirt patterns, and shapes/structures gathered from examining some old shirts from my closet.

Design for a sleeve or an arm cannon?

As things moved along, it sure started to look shirt-like:

I ran into some more bunching issues at the armpits. I need to work on my–seam junctions, I guess you’d call it? Whether it’s crotches or armpits, I’ve got issues.

Once I finished sewing it up, I was eager to try it on. I actually wasn’t expecting much…

Is breathing *that* important, really?

I am skinny, but I think this mirror elongates the reflection…

 

But not too shabby, actually. A bit tight, but overall…not too bad. Spandex may be hard to sew, but when your goal is to achieve that “painted-on” look, it’s actually pretty forgiving in terms of fit it seems.

It does ride up a bit at the waist, but my plan all along has been to find a way to connect the tunic and pants at the waist once putting them on, so theoretically that should all work out okay.

Whew! This has been quite a whirlwind of spandex the past couple of days! (The apartment floor certainly looks like there was a whirlwind of spandex… )

Coming soon: Boots & Gloves, probably

 

Scary Sewing of Spandex Part 2: the Crotchening

The First Attempt

I finally got some time to put in with the sewing machine and spandex. Pictured above is my first attempt at the leggings mentioned in the previous post. I didn’t get around to hemming the ankles because of other issues. The other issues are cropped out of the picture because no one really wants to see that.

These leggings really were actually pretty easy, overall. Now, being inexperienced at sewing with spandex–and sewing in general–I did a fair bit of research and practice first to make sure that I could actually get stitches into the fabric. Here’s what I learned.

Of Stitches and Presser Feet

I’m still using a capable but very basic borrowed sewing machine, and the only real “hardware” tweak I was willing to invest in was a set of stretch needles. I will be able to use those on whatever machine my girlfriend and I end up buying (and yes, we do want to buy one!).

But my research indicates that for sewing spandex I, ideally, need a machine that has settings for a “stretch stitch,” and it might be nice to have an “overlock stitch” as well. Plus, it would ease some stress to have a rolling presser foot and/or a presser foot that basically has its own “feed dogs” (who decided to call them that?). Essentially, this helps fabrics like spandex feed evenly on top and bottom to help avoid bunching and puckering and other such unpleasantness. I could certainly purchase one of those types of presser feet for this machine, but again, I’d rather avoid any further investment in hardware for this machine if I can get away with it. (Then again, that might be nice repayment for my friend who let me borrow it, to return it with “extras.”)

In any case, I discovered that by using a decent zig zag stitch, and by going slow and steady with the sewing, I could stay on the straight and narrow, and avoid puckering and wonky stitch lines for the most part. At least for the main seams, where I had a good stitch allowance.

Sewing near the edges–as was required for sewing in the elastic at the waist–was another matter. I got the job done, but that was an exercise in frustration. I think this is where a smoother feed setup would be really helpful. Or it might just be a matter of practice. But it’s probably a combination of both.

Incidentally, I tried the method of using a layer of tissue as a stabilizer. Maybe I wasn’t doing it right, but I found the added frustration and higher level of preparation outweighed the benefits, especially considering the benefits for me were zero. I am sure there are situations where that practice is invaluable, but it was not a solution for my needs.

In summary, my research and practice yielded the following:
1) Use a stretch needle: I could not lay down a single stitch before I got that needle in the machine!
2) Pin your fabric!  Plus, for me, orienting the pins perpendicular to the stitching (where possible) and aiming the pointy parts in toward the main body of fabric made removing them while sewing easiest. I did have to pin parallel to the elastic when it came to that part, though, since the elastic was too narrow for the opposite approach.
3) Tweak settings for a good zig zag stitch: If you don’t have a stretch stitch setting, then play around with getting a decent size zig zag stitch. I think that also made a big difference in puckering and avoiding the machine “eating” the fabric.
4) Slow and Steady: If I tried to go too fast, the top and bottom feed of the fabric was uneven on my borrowed machine, so I had to be sure to keep to a low to moderate speed. I would add here that another item for my sewing machine “wish list” is more fine-tuned foot pedal control.

Also, let me just do a THANK YOU SO MUCH paragraph for the authors/creators of the content at the following links: So Sew Easy Leggings Pattern (of course); How to Sew Lycra without Puckered Seams; Sewing with Stretch Knit Fabric;  Sewing Stretch Fabrics without a Serger

And anyone else I forgot. The Internets can be so helpful!  How could Peter Parker have ever made a costume without the Interwebs?

The Leggings

Pair 1:

DO NOT PIN THIS PATTERN LIKE THIS! I did it wrong, but then corrected it before sewing.

I was super nervous once I got past the practice phase and actually cut the material for the leggings. But I did it, and then decided to mark the seam allowance with tape. This worked really well for me (and I only sewed through the tape twice, which was still easily peeled away). NOTE that in the above picture I had pinned all the way down one side right off, but this is WRONG. I corrected it before sewing, only pinning the top curves–which translate to the center seams on the top front and back. After sewing those, you then line those seams up, line up the leg edges, pin and sew.

Nervousness aside, it was pretty quick and easy to sew the leggings. But it was at the last couple of seams that I got a bit messed up.

Essentially, all the seams–top front and back, and the inner leg seams–converge at the crotch. At first, I didn’t get them to quite match up. There was some minor bunching and pinching in the fit at the crotch, and there was a barely noticeable–but definitely there–gap at the convergence. So I went back in and sewed some more to try and finish it off. I closed the gap, but produced major bunching at the crotch. Plus, I think I had not been generous enough with the “rise” measurement. I mean, not to get graphic, but when you’re wearing form-fitting leggings, and you’re a guy–well, you know, you need to make some allowances if you want to be able to go out in public. And it’s a matter of comfort.

I made some hilarious attempts to insert a diamond of fabric in a space I cut out of the crotch, so that there was more stretch and less tightness, but that did not go well. So that leads to…

Pair 2:

Yes, I sewed two pairs of leggings in one day (and even managed to go and see the new X-Men movie as well. It was pretty cool, BTW.).

I modified the pattern to add some more drop to the rise, as it were, and proceeded to sew again, this time being careful to make the seams converge. I overdid it a smidge again, but not quite as bad as last time. I think I could’ve added even more to the rise. There was still some bunching and pinching at the crotch, but better than before. I am still not going to give the “full frontal” view until I get some biker shorts or something to wear underneath and “smooth the lines.” But here they are on the floor, showing the bunching, which smooths out some in actual wear:

And here is me wearing them, with convenient shadows (I didn’t even have to Photoshop them in):

Not too shabby.

The elastic at the waist (I did NOT like doing this part):

It came out kind of “meh.” Practice and maybe a better feed/foot setup will help?

And the ankle seams:

 

Not perfect, but I think I know what I did wrong to correct next time. The hemming part (minus elastic) was not nearly so bad as I thought it would be, honestly.

So, while I hope to figure out a good solution for a less bunchy and more appropriate crotch, and I think I will want to do a higher waist (as it is now, Spider-Man crouches are more like Spider-Plumber crouches), I am overall pleased with this portion of my “homemade style” practice costume project.

Next I want to finish my shirt (or super hero “tunic”) pattern and go for it. I’m still brainstorming some methods for linking the tunic and leggings in a “removable” way. We’ll see.

UP NEXT: “IT’S NOT A  TUNIC!” (in the voice of Arnold Schwarzenegger)

Scary Sewing of Spandex Part 1: Patterns & Measurements

So far, I’ve mostly been playing around with plain ol’ fabrics, knowing that non-stretchy stuff is generally easier to work with. Plus, I do have a general, long-term goal of learning to sew beyond making a Spider-Man costume. But making the costume is a pretty darn big short term goal, and I’ve decided that since I need to at some point learn to sew with spandex, I should start working with spandex. And if I can get pretty good at that, then the other fabrics will be even easier, right?

But whether it’s spandex or some other fabric, an important part of this whole process if learning the proper use–and sometimes creation–of good patterns. Of course, crucial to creating a good pattern is the ability to take good measurements.

There are plenty of helpful folks out there on the Internet, certainly even beyond those I have found so far. This guy at Somewhat Stretchy (love that site name) seems to have the process of making a bodysuit (or “catsuit,” as he calls it) from scratch down to a science. And I do mean science, with math and everything. I am not quite ready for this process yet, but it’s on my list.

What I have decided to do is partly about practice and learning for sewing spandex, and partly pseudo-experiment related to my previous thoughts (and those of others) on just how a teenage science nerd was able to create a Spider-Man costume from scratch. Now, this is not some crazy thing where I pretend like the only resources I have at hand are those that would have been available to Peter Parker in the late ’60’s in Queens/Manhattan, NY and so on. I’m more focused on the principle of putting together a practice costume (distinct from my eventual, final costume) piece by piece with the following general criteria:

1) Final Assembly Anonymity: No one place from which I am acquiring the materials could easily envision the final result of the combined materials. (That is in contrast to, say, Peter having ordered a custom made Spider-Man suit, thereby drawing a tad bit of suspicion that he was, in fact, Spider-Man.)
2) Relatively Homegrown: Minimize the use of professional services, such as seamstresses/tailors, professional screen-printing, etc.
3a) Comically Compartmentalized: The costume should consist of the “traditional” pieces as classically portrayed in the comics: shirt, pants, mask, gloves, boots.
3b) Pseudo-Seamlessness: Some means of achieving at least a partial illusion of “seamlessness,” as this is how the comic costume is typically drawn, despite that the mask, gloves, etc. are removable.
4b) Relatively Inexpensive: I don’t know that I can achieve “jobless (at that time) teen living with his cash-strapped aunt” cheap, but I’ll try to keep costs down where I can.

I’m not entirely sure how this will all be achieved as yet, but I have some pretty good ideas that I will be trying out and putting on display here.

But the costume of a thousand stitches has to start somewhere, and this one will start with a pair of–well, let’s call them spandex pants for men. Or leggings. Okay, they’re leggings.

This lady’s site, So Sew Easy, so far lives up to its name with this tutorial for leggings. It has an easy to follow video guide for taking one’s own measurements, a downloadable spreadsheet that allows you to enter in your measurements and get automatic calculations for the numbers that go into the pattern, and a great step-by-step for the pattern itself. This is the most sense this process has made to me so far. I made this:

Other than the poor planning involved in the vertical positioning, I think this turned out pretty well. Of course, we’ll see how this translates into an actual pair of spandex leggings. But that’s later.

There hasn’t been a good time to pull out the sewing machine yet, so I figure I would go ahead and get the pattern done for the next part, the shirt. (Sometimes the comics refer to this part of the costume as the “tunic,” apparently because regular, non-super people wear “shirts.”)

I didn’t immediately find a good tutorial for making the shirt, but I did see a couple of tutorials involving making a shirt pattern based on an existing shirt. Combining this idea with some of the upper body measurement tips from Somewhat Stretchy, and the principles of pattern-making/measurement-taking I garnered from the “So Sew Easy” lady, I pulled out my old Spider-Man costume, got the basic shape I wanted for the front and back torso pieces, tweaked that with body measurements, and came up with this:

It looks a lot like a shirt pattern (part of one, anyway). So, here’s hoping.

Next steps: Trace and tweak the sleeves, and do some practice sewing with a small sample of the spandex I’ll be using.

NEXT: (see previous sentence)