Hi all!
I am working out some kinks in the boot pattern and design, so that will be delayed. But I realized I never showed the final successful[mostly] shirt that I sewed a while back (after the too-short shirt fiasco). So here I am, wearing it with my Superman pajamas. Hope to be back with a boots tutorial soon!
Before you go any farther in this post (I mean, any farther than this paragraph), first go visit the following link. Read the tutorial/watch the video, etc. Go ahead. I’ll wait: http://so-sew-easy.com/leggings-pattern-tutorial/
…
Hi there. Welcome back. You should now have a basic understanding of the measurements you need, how to get them, and how to record/auto-calculate them using the spreadsheet provided via download link in the tutorial. (Please tell me you downloaded the spreadsheet. You didn’t? March right back there and download it right now, young man/young lady.)
Now, that is an excellent tutorial, and an easy one to sew together once it all’s said and done. I am just going to add three things to it, for our purposes:
A) How to go about making certain…adjustments if you are making a Spider-Man costume as opposed to a Spider-Woman costume, if you catch my drift.
B) Adjustments for a high–and I mean high–waist to accommodate our costume needs.
C) How to digitize the pattern so that we can color it and have it printed on fabric. But you’re an old hand at that process by now, right?
Measurements and Adjusting Where Needed
If you are a woman making leggings for a costume, then all you need to do is take and record your measurements based on the So Sew Easy tutorial, then you’re almost ready move to the next section on Digitizing the Pattern. BUT there is an adjustment that needs to be made for costume reasons, whatever your sex: the waist.
What a Waist
Since we are doing a multi-piece costume, we want to pay special attention to the interaction between the shirt and the leggings. It won’t do for a hero to show any belly during a battle–well, maybe for some heroes, but not Spidey.
We will ultimately want to incorporate some way for the shirt to attach to the pants, such as Velcro. But additionally, we want to build in some extra waist to keep things covered.
When you do your measurements, you can either:
I made my adjustments to go a bit above the belly button, which should end up with several inches of overlap from the shirt waist.
Now, for you guys…
“…it kind of rides up in the crotch a little bit…”
If you’re a guy, there is another particular measurement you’ll want to adjust: the Rise Depth.
Let’s start with a little explanatory sketch of the pieces of the leggings. You might be more intuitive than I originally was about how all this works, but if you are like me, it isn’t immediately clear how the parts of the pattern relate to the parts of the body:
The part we are focusing on, as I said, is the Rise Depth. In the sketch above, that is basically comprised of the parts I have more honestly labeled Crotch, Butt 1, and Butt 2. After sewing, those three points will have converged beneath your nether region. The two front curves will be a seam running up your front, and the two back curves will be a seam running up your rear.
Here is a neater close-up of the area of concern from one half of the pattern:
When you do the measurements, you will be getting the Front Rise Depth and the Rear Rise Depth, the lengths marked with red double arrows. You will then make the curves based on that depth. Those curves will essentially become one curve running from the front center waist, under your crotch, and up to the back center waist.
I found that when I followed the Leggings tutorial, it worked great, but–as Deby at So Sew Easy designed it with women in mind–the crotch came out lacking enough room to be comfortable and appropriate for men. After some trial and error–and by that I mean actually sewing a couple of pairs of leggings from variations on the pattern, using un-printed spandex straight from the local fabric store–I got a satisfactory result.
Here was my genius method for a successful crotch:
A) I followed the tutorial for taking the measurements, including the rise depths.
B) I took a random guess and added maybe 0.75 inches to both the front and rear rise depths, for a total gain of 1.5 inches to that final, total curve.
The thing is, you don’t want to add too much, because then you end up with sag. While that may be more appropriate and comfortable, it is unbecoming for a super hero.
Here is the takeaway. You have two or three ways you can approach this:
So, once you’re comfortable with the meaning of the pattern and how it works, and the measurements you’ve taken, it’s time to move on…
Digitizing the Leggings Pattern
It should be clear from studying the So Sew Easy leggings tutorial that it served as the basis for the majority of my pattern-making and measurement-taking. Between that and your recent experience making a digital pattern for both the torso and the arm[s] of the shirt, you should basically know what to do with a minimum of explanation. So, to sum up, focusing on the differences from our former patterns:
1) Create a new Photoshop file with the following settings (there will be a different size this time):
2) Use the line tool to create the center line that is the total height, and then add the horizontal lines. Be sure to Combine Shapes when/if you want to keep it all on one layer.
3) For the top part, you will be adding some curves, as outlined in the So Sew Easy tutorial. Use one of our usual methods of achieving curves, such as tweaking an ellipse, etc. (Be sure to refer to the So Sew Easy tutorial while doing this, especially for tips on creating the Rear Rise Depth and associated curve.)
You should end up with something like this:
Adding the Color/Texture and Seam Allowance
Again, this isn’t your first rodeo, so to summarize:
1) You need your 5/8″ ruler lines, so either duplicate those from your shirt pattern file into this file, or make new ones in this file.
2) Use the 5/8″ ruler lines to create a Seam Allowance border around the entire leggings pattern outline. NOTE: In this case, you can use symmetry to your advantage for the bottom portion, but you’ll have to do both sides of the top separately, as it is not the same on both sides.
3) Once the Seam Allowance is in place, make a new layer for your color and move it under the leggings pattern and Seam Allowance layers.
4) Use the brush and paint bucket tools to add color around the outline of the pattern, letting the color bleed just slightly beyond the Seam Allowance border
5) If you’ve been using a Pattern Overlay, go ahead and add it to the color layer.
And voila:
Finishing up and Prep Time
Now, some simple steps to get this file finished up and ready for printing:
1) Save the file. And then…
2) Save As under a different name that indicates it is a FINAL version (as it will be after we edit; I like to do the Save As before doing the final edits, so that I don’t accidentally save edits that are hard to undo). Be sure to use the usual specs: tiff file, uncompressed. Should have been created at min 72 dpi.
3) OPTIONAL: Add SUBTLE seam lines using the pattern layer outline as a guide. As I’ve said before, this is not strictly necessary, as you will be marking the back of the fabric 5/8″ in, and if you measured your Seam Allowance properly, that should result in a good final sewing. But if you do choose to add seam lines, keep them discreet, and be aware of how you do the curved parts, because those are the seams that show on your crotch and butt. Just sayin’.
4) Hide or Delete the Leg Pattern layer (but if you are going to delete, make sure you saved the original file containing the pattern somewhere so you don’t have to redo).
5) Duplicate the remaining layers, then Flip Horizontal to get the other leg of the leggings. Don’t forget to Flip, as the two legs need to be mirror images of one another.
6) Now, if you’re around my size or not much bigger, you should be able to save yourself some money on printing by doing a little rotating and rearranging of the layout here to fit the leggings into 36″ of height. Aim for something like the pic below:
Once you crop it vertically, this comes in at just under 36″ high, and it fits well within the 58″ wide. And it will cost half as much to print as the vertical orientation!
But note that there is not a lot of extra room on top and bottom, so if your measurements are even a couple of inches more, you’ll go over 36″. But don’t fret! That just means you’ll want to fit another part of the costume pattern on the same file. The mask and boots will probably both fit. It’ll just be like paying for two printings at once, but you’ll only pay one shipping charge, so there’s that.
7) Once you’ve got your file arranged and cropped to 36″ height (if applicable) and 58″ width, save it and get it submitted to Fabric On Demand or your alternative printer choice (I haven’t looked for any others, in case you’re wondering).
8) Once you have the final, printed fabric, follow the sewing instructions at the So Sew Easy leggings tutorial to put it together! It’s pretty easy. The trickiest parts of sewing for me are always where multiple seams come together, like armpits and crotches.
And now you have custom-printed leggings!
Up Next: Probably Boots…I think…
If the top of your sleeve piece actually is more of an arch than a line, that’s actually fine as long as you did your measurements right.
So, in the first part of the EARLY Guide for the shirt, we created the underlying pattern, which includes the dimensions based on your measurements and a Seam Allowance border for the eventual sewing process.
Before we go forward, let me just say this: We will ultimately hide the shirt dimensions layer[s] containing the horizontal and vertical measurements (the section inside the Seam Allowance in the pic above), but KEEP THAT LAYER throughout this design process. You will hide and unhide it as you go along, but it will be important to use for laying out the colors and lines and other design elements of the costume.
Anyway, in this second part, we will do the fun stuff, and add the colors, textures, and patterns for the shirt.
If you did a glove pattern/design based on the EARLY Guide for gloves, you will be familiar with the basic ideas here. Plus, if those gloves are meant to go with this shirt, you’ll want to be sure and use matching colors, textures, and such to bring it all together.
Laying Down the Color
Make a NEW LAYER, and place it under the torso dimension and seam allowance layers. Trace around the seam allowance line and fill that outline with the color. The important thing is to get the color to fill within the seam allowance line. It can go outside the seam allowance line as much as you want since, for the actual fabric, we will cut along that seam allowance line for the outside edge. But it’s nice to keep the edges neat, especially if you want to fit as many pieces onto a 36″ x 58″ piece of fabric as possible.
(NOTE: When choosing a color, you may want to go darker than you think you should. See notes below about allowing for fabric stretch in section F, part 3 of doing the costume layout.)
Choosing a Pattern Overlay–Or If You Even Want One
If you’ve seen the Spider-Man movies, and the Man of Steel movie, you’ve seen the thing they do with the costumes, the pattern overlay they add to the fabric to add texture. It’s not a bad touch. It does make the look more “interesting.”
But for our purpose, it’s totally optional. I’m of two minds about the way it has turned out for me. But I’ll cover that aspect briefly, and then you can take it or leave it. You can even add one now, and then remove it from all the pieces later. It’s easy to turn on and off in Photoshop.
If you’re not using Photoshop, there are probably other ways to do this, such as by making a custom layer manually, but that is beyond the scope of this Guide, I’m afraid.
Pattern Overlay Step 1: Get some Photoshop .pat files:
Photoshop has some built in pattern overlays, but they are not of the sort that I find to be suitable for this purpose.
The usual approach is to use some sort of hexagonal pattern, and I found a great free collection of those here at Shapes4Free. You could also do a search for “Photoshop .pat files free download,” but–of course–use caution downloading from unknown sites offering free stuff, as it is all too easy to end up with Malware (I know all too well. Curse you, video game emulators. {shakes fist})
Pattern Overlay Step 2: Import the .pat files into Photoshop:
Thanks to ObsidianDawn for reminding me how to do this for this Guide.
Once you’ve downloaded the .pat file[s], you’ll basically want to get those into the right folder to make them show up in Photoshop. There’s a good chance the files you downloaded need to be unzipped, so then you will want to unzip them into the right folder. Otherwise, just move the files into the right folder.
That folder should be something like: Program Files > Adobe > Photoshop (version) > Presets > Patterns
Once those .pat files are in the above folder, access the Layer styles in Photoshop and you should see the pattern[s] there, ready to use:
So, select the layer you want to overlay and then open up the dialog box above from the menu: Layer->Layer Style->Pattern Overlay. Choose the pattern you want, and adjust the Opacity (so far, I’ve used 10%, but it comes out almost too subtle on the actual fabric).
Click OK to lock it in and get a look at it. But then if you want to edit it after the fact, you can access the Layer Styles from the layer itself:
Laying Out and Detailing the Design
So, this is a tutorial for creating your own design more than it is offering a ready-to-use design, so this is where you will need to decide your own take on the Spidey (or other hero) costume and plan it out. I will offer some basic methods that worked okay for me.
But don’t worry. I will also show some examples of these ideas in action.
A) New Color = New Layer; New Design Element = New Layer:
Layers, layers, layers… Depending on how much you use Photoshop type programs, working in Layers may or may not be second nature to you. I remember when I first started doing art digitally, I had a tendency to just keep working on the same layer, because that’s how it works on paper, right? (I’m old, in case you didn’t know that.)
Anyway, sorry if I’m preaching to the choir, but keeping your colors and other major elements on distinct layers will make them much easier to edit.
B) Name Your Layers – and use descriptive names:
I don’t always follow this rule very well, which is why I am saying how important it is. It’s easy to get caught up in the creation process and forget to be organized. The next thing you know, you have 50 layers, and 40 of them are named things like Shape 6 or Ellipse 1, along with Layers 3, 8, and 4. Just sayin’: you’ll be very glad if you name your layers with descriptive names.
C) Use Symmetry to Save Work:
Again, maybe I’m preaching to the choir here, but as you’ve already seen, we want to use symmetry to our advantage. Most of this design is the same on both sides, so think in halves. Do one half, get it the way you are pretty sure you want it, and then copy it, flip it horizontally, and move it to the other side.
This will also apply–to a more limited degree–to the back/front symmetry of the torso. For example, the Spidey web pattern can be mostly the same for the front and back. The main difference will be that on the back, you cover up most of the middle portion with blue, and if you do a straight-across belt, you will alter then web pattern there. So you can copy and paste the web pattern from the front and only change what you need to.
D) Spider-Man Specific Tip: Webbing – use separate vertical and horizontal layers:
Spider-Man’s web pattern is made up of two basic components: long “vertical” lines and “horizontal” curves “jumping” from one line to the next.
I found it easiest to lay out the vertical lines (grouped into one layer) with the line tool, roughing out any curvy portions. Then, I would make a separate bitmap layer for the horizontal curve jumps, and use the brush tool. I zoom in pretty close to keep the lines smoother, and I might draw a curve (or chain of curves) several times to get it just right.
I use a tablet PC with a digital pen, so I can “draw” pretty readily. If you’re using a mouse on traditional PC/Mac, or can’t get the curves smooth even drawing them, you could try other methods, like modified ellipses or the Path tool. Those probably take longer, but may result in less overall frustration.
Once you’ve got a batch of web pattern (do it in half-sections, remember!), you can merge/flatten the vertical/horizontal layers into one so it is easier to copy and paste for mirroring.
As you do other sections, just try to keep the spacing and curvature of the web lines consistent.
E) Making the Symbols: Sketch->Lines & Shapes -> Rasterize & Refine:
The symbols such as the Spider-Man’s chest spider logo and the spider symbol on his back (the comic version of which looks more like a tick) are pretty important parts of the design, but getting them to look symmetrical and clean can be challenging. I find this method to work well for me:
Do a rough sketch of the symbol (I like to use a simpler image editor for this).
Save the file as a PNG or JPG, and then place it in a Photoshop Layer. (File->Place->Select file). Move that layer/image to the general area where you want it to show up (you can center it later using the underlying torso dimensions lines, the usefulness of which was iterated in the intro to this post).
Take that layer’s opacity down enough that it’s visible but not distracting. Start laying down shapes and lines to get a rough layout of the symbol. (Yes, we will do half and copy and paste, but we can’t draw half-ellipses).
When you’re done getting the basic layout of the symbol, Rasterize your rough shapes/line layer:
Hide or delete the png/jpg sketch layer, and then refine the Rasterized half-symbol with the brush and eraser tools:
Once you’ve got the half-symbol polished up, duplicate the layer, flip it, move it, and you’re done:
F) General Notes & Guidelines for Laying out and Placing the lines, webs, and color sections:
1) USE the torso dimensions layer’s horizontals and verticals to get an idea of where the lines and elements will lay out in the final product. For example, if you want the front symbol centered horizontally just a little above your chest, use the center line and chest circumference line of the torso dimensions layer to do so. If you want the blue of the sides of the torso to meet the sleeves about halfway between your armpit and shoulder, you have the “shoulder height” measurement to guide you in achieving that placement.
2) Use the Puzzle Method to line up Torso elements with Arm elements:
As with many of my methods, there is probably some more mathematical way to do the same thing, but for lining up elements across different pieces–such as the torso and the arm–it seems to make sense to move the layers into positions that simulate how they fit together in the final product:
For example, here I’ve lined up the shoulder lines of the torso and the arm (NOTE: Don’t line up the Seam Allowance lines, but the actual lines of the torso dimensions) and started sketching in the blue for the arm, so that it will match up with the blue from the torso. You will also want to do this when you do the webbing lines for the torso and the arm.
NOTE: (I know, lots of notes…) It’s possible that your shoulder width and height measurements are such that lining them up for the above process results in the sleeve attaching at a downward angle. That’s actually fine. That’s how mine usually comes out, actually. The important thing is that you did your measurements accurately.
3) Allow for Stretch in your design:
I don’t actually calculate the design stretch, but I suppose you could, since we made the torso dimensions a particular percentage of the actual (90-95% to be more specific).
Regardless, remember that your design will stretch horizontally by a certain amount, so if the amount of red you have in between the blue on the front of the Spidey costume seems a bit narrow, it will be wider when you actually wear the costume.
This can actually affect color as well, since Fabric On Demand will print the design on white fabric. The color saturation is good, but the farther you stretch it, the more faded the color looks. This doesn’t become a problem for the most part, but I think that you might do well to make your colors slightly darker than you think you should.
4) Understanding the Seam Allowance and Actual Seam:
This part might be a little confusing if you have little or no experience with sewing (I’m only about 6 months into it myself), but it is important for your design.
As you work on the design, it’s important to understand where the visible portion of the design on the final product will end, which will be where the actual seams are (NOT the seam allowance).
It’s good to allow for some “bleed” of your design beyond the seam lines, but be aware of where those seam lines are for the purposes of lining up webbing and colors and such.
Your seams will coincide with the edges of the original torso dimensions, which you will hide for the finished file to be printed. You can make VERY SUBTLE seam markings, as in the pic below, but that is actually optional. I am not always making those marks anymore, as I end up needing to mark the backside of the fabric with chalk lines for the seams anyway.
You should keep the Seam Allowance’s outer edge line for the final printing (gray lines below), because this is the line you will cut along when you cut out the pieces, and it should be 5/8 of an inch out from your actual final seam, whether or not you keep visible (but SUBTLE) seam lines.
That pre-measured gap between the original torso dimensions and the out edge is what will allow you to properly mark the backside of the fabric with chalk lines in the right place.
5) Label your pieces:
So, since the Seam Allowance won’t be visible, you can use it to add some handy labels in your file. Just be sure to put these as close to the outer edge as you can, so they don’t sneak into the visible portion of the final product.
I like to label the left and right arms with an “L” and an “R.”
You might also want to get a good understanding of how the pieces fit together and label the spots where they will meet with little codes or something. Sort of a “fit Tab A into Slot B” sort of thing.
The Final Product: Pattern and Design:
You should end up with something kind of like the pic above. (This is an earlier pattern/design file, not the end result of the one from the screenshots in this tutorial. The almost pointy shoulder-tops are actually the usual way it comes out.)
Now, as a preamble/disclaimer: No, I am not an employee of Fabric On Demand nor do I get paid for sending people their way. Feel free to find another company that does the same thing. FonD is just the company I have been using, having heard of them from Gun Head Design.
In any case, if you are using Fabric On Demand, you’ll want to prepare the file in the following way:
1) Pay and Send File: Go to Fabric On Demand, click the Get Stared button, and follow the instructions. The process of purchasing a printing and uploading a file is a little confusing at first, because really you can either order the fabric first or upload your file first. But you’ll figure it out. Just be sure to choose the Lycra Spandex fabric and the “Centered” design option.
If you have trouble getting the Upload to work, you can actually go ahead and complete the Order and Purchase first, and then send an email (indicated on the upload page) with the design file. Include the order number and other info in the email.
2) Approve Proof and Confirm: Once you’ve paid for your order and sent your file, you should get an email from them within one business day (in my experience) that includes a small version of your file as a “proof” for you to review. CHECK AND DOUBLE CHECK (I guess we’re into quadruple checking now) again to be sure it’s how you want, and if all is good reply to let them know they have the go ahead to print.
NOTE: The proof will be a downsized, lower-res version of your design, so it won’t look as crisp as your original. What you are looking for here is actual mistakes and such.
3) And Now We Wait… They say it takes 10 business days for processing, and that is usually about right. I usually choose the 2-3 day shipping option. So within basically a couple of weeks, you should have the printing. I did get one printing a few days earlier than I expected, but overall, 10 business days to process and a couple of days for delivery is pretty spot on.
Putting it Together
So, as new as I am to sewing, I will have to draw the line at an actual, in-depth sewing lesson here. You would do better to consult much better sources than me for the details. But I would refer you back to some of my sewing equipment and accessories advice from the gloves EARLY Guide. And I will provide a basic assembly guide for this pattern, since it is not something you can readily Google. Even still, if you find a tutorial on putting together a long-sleeve T-shirt pattern, there will be a lot of similarities.
Basic Shirt Assembly Guide
1) After cutting out the pieces along the outer edge line, lay the main torso pieces together with the colored sides facing. Pin/baste and sew the shoulder/neck edges together.
2) With the front and back now sewn at the shoulders/sides of the neck, lay those pieces out as pictured, with the colored sides facing up and the collar tucked inside out and under.
3) Choose which sleeve to attach first, match it up with the proper shoulder, and lay it as pictured above, with colored side down. This part can be confusing, so be careful to lay it out properly.
Pin/baste, being sure to line up where the torso blue meets the arm blue, and being sure to match up the end corners of the arm-armpits with the end corners of the torso-armpits front and back. These are curvy seams, so be careful to baste evenly and watch for bunching when sewing. Also, after basting, go ahead and check again that you are not attaching the sleeve wrong side out.
4) Turn the in-process shirt inside out as pictured, and then pin/baste sew the sides, preferably starting from the bottom and ending at the armpit.
5) Pin/baste sew the arms, preferably starting from the ends of the sleeves and ending at the armpits.
6) Turn it right-side-out and you should be mostly done, other than hemming the bottom, neck, and sleeves.
What’s Next?
So, this has been a long guide, but I think I mentioned before that it introduced a lot of concepts and methods for the first time.(Is it redundant to say that something was introduced for the first time?) The upcoming guides for the other pieces will refer these processes, but assume your familiarity with them and focus on what’s different for those particular costume pieces.
And actually, the next Guide should be pretty easy for me and for you. It will be how to make the leggings, and much of the heavy lifting will be done by the tutorial I started with (and have linked to a billion times) at So Sew Easy.
Hi all.
I am finishing up the second part of the EARLY Guide for the shirt portion of the costume, but I am continually aware of how poorly qualified I am to advise on this process. I just started teaching myself to sew 6 months ago, and while I am very happy with my progress and all I have learned and accomplished, I have yet to be able to present a truly finished costume.
So I was glad when I ran across a link on the Gun Head Design page that I had somehow missed until now (because I was too buried in my own costume process, I suppose).
As a disclaimer, NO I do not work for RPC Studios, nor do I get any payment from them for mentioning them, nor am I affiliated with them in any way whatsoever. (Same with Fabric On Demand, whom I have mentioned more than once in these Guides and posts and such.)
Anyway, at RPC’s site, you can get a costume made based on your measurements for around $400 (UPDATE: Looks like closer to $700+ as the lenses/frames don’t seem to be included). That may sound pricey at first, but I can profess from experience that unless you are an experienced seamstress or seamster, you will spend AT LEAST that much making the costume yourself, what with the trial and error and so forth.
Now, it’s not all about price. There are pros and cons to ordering from RPC or some such place as opposed to making your own.
Cons:
Pros:
Here is an image from their site showcasing some of their costumes:
I personally don’t love the style, especially if you get the raised webbing option. Also don’t love the rather visible seams on the pants of the movie symbiote costumes… But if these are your style, then rock on.
You also have the option of purchasing and/or customizing a design from Gun Head or 4 Neo Designs, getting it printed by Fabric On Demand or a similar place, and then hiring a professional sewster to put it together for you. You could then either make your own accessories or order them from RPC Studio.
I just want to make the professional options clear as I remind you that I am very new at this and can make no guarantees about my guides.
You’ve been warned. This whole costume making thing has been quite the rabbit hole for me.
All right? Well, if you end up sticking with me, be on the lookout for the next part of the Shirt Pattern/Design Guide, coming soon! 🙂
If you’re just joining us for the EARLY Guides, please do see my intro and general disclaimers on the previous post.
To sum up: I am very NEW to sewing and pattern making, and this is just my take on things, and it is still very untested so I cannot guarantee ANYTHING with these guides. Got it? Good. 🙂
Also, this post is REALLY long. Just thought I’d point that out…
Thanks!
Credits: The Pattern
So, I ended up with the actual sewing pattern for this shirt from a sort of mashup of techniques, methods, and images culled from the Interwebs. I can’t point to a singular guide, but here is a list comprised of what I remember informing the final form of the pattern:
Credits: The Design Technique
First, let me clarify what I am referring to when I say “the design technique.” Obviously I don’t mean the tried and true design of the Spider-Man costume itself, or the design of whatever super hero costume you want to make. Here, we are talking more about the method of replicating that design in a form that can be transferred onto multiple pattern pieces and ultimately recombined in a relatively cohesive way once it is all sewn together.
In terms of the design technique on the shirt and some other pieces, it certainly started with my efforts to work with the pattern/designs from Gun Head and 4 Neo Designs. I debated how much I felt I could share of my technique since it started with designs that are for sale on those sites. But three things make me feel okay about it.
(A) The basis of the technique shows up in various places, including those two sites and the process that goes into this video tutorial (which is a pretty helpful tool if you go the bodysuit route and are brave enough to sew it on your own).
(B) Even though I started with the bodysuit templates/designs, I have had to modify the process and make it my own enough that it feels pretty independent of those designs I initially paid for.
(C) I am not charging you for this. Though I wouldn’t refuse any voluntary offerings of cash or fabulous prizes that you feel compelled to send my way. 🙂
Okay, now that I have gotten that out of the way…
Taking Torso Measurements
What you need for this section: A body measuring tape; a second measuring tape or a ruler; paper to write on; a pencil; a friend and/or a mirror; a body
For advanced advice on taking measurements, refer to the Sew So Easy or Stretchy.org sites above. You at least want a mirror, because sometimes you just can’t easily see certain measurements, but having a friend to help is very nice.
Recording the Measurements: So, there’s nothing wrong with writing things on paper and stopping there. I sometimes do. But more often than not, I lose the paper and then have to start over later. Just saying, you might want to consider transferring your numbers to a digital form, and a spreadsheet works well since it can be set up to automate the math we need to do.
Torso Measurements (for best results, read all of this part before starting the measuring)
You’ll want to use a measuring tape for the horizontal measurements (circumferences), and either another tape or a ruler for the vertical distance between the horizontal measurements. Exactly at what vertical point you take each measurement is less important than accurately tracking the distance between measurements.
It might help to go ahead and choose the levels where you’ll measure and stick pieces of not-too-sticky tape at those spots to mark them.
Here is a visual example that will either clarify that or make it even more confusing…
With that in mind, get the following measurements. I usually end up writing them in two columns, one for horizontal and one for vertical, but do what makes sense to you.
* Does this help with the shoulder height measure?
Now, you should have a list of numbers that represent your actual torso measurements. (We’ll get to the arms in a minute.) But those are not the final numbers we’ll use. Since we are aiming for a snug/skintight level of fit–this being a super hero shirt–we’ll need to adjust most of those numbers accordingly.
In sewing terms, I believe that adjustment is called “ease.” For standard clothing, you’ll adjust upward, so that the garments are looser. But for stretchy material like spandex, which we want to fit snugly, we’ll adjust downward.
To do that, you will want to use some minor math to convert each horizontal/circumference measurement you took to 90-95% of it’s original value. Again, adjust the circumference measurements by 90-95%, not the vertical ones. The sort-of exceptions is the shoulder “height” measurement–which is actually a half-circumference–and the shoulder width measurements. Do the 90-95% thing for those too.
Anyway, 90% is pretty darn snug, so you might want to try loosening it up a bit and using 92% or 95%. I leave that experimentation up to you.
If you’re math-challenged like me, you’ll want to know that you just have to get a calculator (virtual or otherwise) and multiply each measurement by a value between 0.9 (for 90%) and 0.95 (for 95%).
For example:
100 x .9 = 90
I use inches, because of the American allergy to the metric system. From what I’ve read, you get uglier decimals using inches when your final measurements don’t come out to whole numbers. So if you don’t already use metric, it might be worth a try. It might be too late for me. In any case, if you end up with a number like this after calculating…
32 x .9 = 28.8
You might as well round that up to 29. It’ll be easier to work with going forward. I would say just round those decimals to the nearest .0 or .5 spot. Sometimes I do some .75 or .25, but I’m not convinced that the final product–being spandex–is ultimately affected that much by a .25 difference either way.
But I digress.
So, soon enough, you should have a list of your 90% adjusted circumference measurements and the distances between each.
The Arm(s) Measurements
Now that you’ve mastered the basics of measurements, repeat that process on an arm (or both arms if your arms are of drastically different lengths, which I suppose could be the case).
The horizontals/verticals for measuring the arm are:
Now, get the 90% values for the horizontal/circumference measurements (not the vertical/distance ones).
Digitizing the Pattern
By this point, you should have a list or two of arm and torso measurements. Even if you have so far avoided going digital, it’s time to whip out the computer.
I’ve tried this digital pattern thing in two different programs: Inkscape–a free vector imaging program–and Photoshop.
I am going to recommend Photoshop and give instructions based on using that, because the design portion of this Guide (coming next) will require things that Inkscape can’t do as well as Photoshop or a comparable image editor.
Step 1: Open the image editor
Step 2: Go ahead and create a file with a similar setup to what we used for the gloves in the previous guide: minimum 72 dpi, with dimensions of 36″ tall and 58″ wide. Depending on your height, you might end up having to go taller than 36″, but keep it at 58″ wide for purposes of ordering the fabric later on.
Step 4: Make a new layer and name it something like “torso dimensions.”
Step 5: Referring to your measurements list, use the line tool to make a vertical line that matches the total length of your torso from neck to hips. (There will be a picture below, so hang tight.)
Tips: Make sure the line tool is set to inches (or the metric unit you are using), and in Photoshop and many image editors, you can hold SHIFT while drawing the line to make it stay straight.
Step 6: Referring to your vertical measurements, mark off the spots where you’ll place your horizontal measurement lines. For example, how far down from the top of the neck to the base of the neck, etc. I usually do this with a combo of offset vertical lines and horizontal lines.
Tip: In Photoshop, the line tool will create a new layer for each line by default. But there is a place in the options to Combine Shapes into one layer. It will generally default back to “New Layer” if you switch tools, so it’s good to check often.
If you do create multiple line tool layers–accidentally or purposefully–and then want to combine them, you can just select all the shape layers you want to combine (CRTL + click to select multiple layers) and then right click the layers so that you can select “Merge Shapes.” (If it’s a mix of Shape and bitmap layers, it will say “Merge Layers” I think.)
Step 7: Now you know where to put the horizontal lines. Ultimately, you want everything to end up centered across the vertical total length line. Instead of worrying about all that, just do half-width lines on one side, on which we will base our final outside lines. We can just do half of the outside and then copy an paste it to the other side, using the center line to be sure the total width is correct. Make sense?
Step 8: Now you should have something that looks like one half of a weird, old-fashioned TV antenna of some sort.
Here’s an image of what you should roughly have, minus the handy/distracting notes that label each line:
NOTE: See how I didn’t draw a horizontal line for the “Extra Drape” portion? Well, if you’re doing a Spider-Man costume shirt destined to bear the traditional red and blue design, you will need to incorporate the “point” at the bottom of the shirt. I am saving all that for later steps.
The next thing you’ll want to do is connect most of the horizontal measurements with more straight lines. (Don’t connect the chest and neck base horizontal lines yet, as pictured below.)
Depending on how dramatic the differences are between each measurement, you might end up with steeply angled lines. If these lines are extremely angled, I might recommend using the brush tool on a separate layer to eyeball a curve based on a rough average of the angle, and later merge it all into one layer if you want.
NOTE: Below you see that I have added a line from neck base toward the shoulder area. I initially neglected to use the shoulder height measurement from above, and have since corrected it. The corrected image will start showing up below, around the time I start the instructions for the arm portion (which is when I realized what I had done).
Just be sure that the distance between the chest horizontal measurement and the end of the shoulder width line matches the shoulder height measurement, as notated below:
Step 9: Now, for the space between the chest measurement and the neck base… That is, as you might imagine, where the sleeve connects and the shoulder slopes into the neck. We want to close that gap with a gentle half-curve.
Here is where we do some quasi-calculated guesswork with a dash of artistic math. (If you want more accurate measurement techniques, I again refer you to Stretchy.org, where you can find measurement techniques so precise your head will explode.)
First, we’ll guesstimate the halfway point of the gap. Draw a vertical line that matches the shoulder height measurement from our list to span the gap. Calculate half that length, then draw a second line just to one side of the first to that half-length. Then make a small horizontal line to mark the halfway point:
Do quarter width marks by doing half heights of the half-heights:
Now, delete those vertical lines, and add one that lines up with the end of the shoulder-width line at the top. (Your shoulder width line will–and probably should–be a little further in than the armpit, as indicated below.) Line up the inside edges of the horizontal marks with that line, like so:
Now, here we come to one of those “Choose Your Own Path” moments…
We need a curved path. There are a few ways to make curved paths in Photoshop:
I personally tend to use the ellipse->rasterize method above.
Make a circle. Aim to have the circle intersect about halfway across the first quarter width mark and then line up with the shoulder roughly halfway up. Roughly. (I did mention this is all somewhat imprecise, right?)
Rasterize the ellipse layer:
Erase the top and side of the circle:
Add a line or lines to connect the bottom part of the curve to the shoulder, and erase the guide lines (the purple ones in my images):
Use that method to do something similar for the shoulder/neck curve:
You may want to rework the original lines of the neck and shoulder. Ultimately, you should have something like this:
Step 10: Now, before we go too much further, let’s think about the bottom of the shirt, specifically the distance between the hip measurement and the “extra drape” length.
If you’re not doing a Spidey shirt, then you can just finish out the bottom with another vertical line on the side and a horizontal line across the bottom. But if you are doing a Spidey shirt, with a point at the bottom, it’s time to consider that aspect. But we’re also going to want to plan ahead for the back of the shirt too.
Even in the “traditional” red and blue costume design, there are a few variations on the “belt” portion of the shirt. How thick the red is below the blue on the sides of the shirt, how many rows of webbing and so on. But for this portion of the pattern, we need to decide on two things. (A) The curvature of the lines running from the point at the bottom to the sides of the waist and (B) whether the “belt” at the back is straight across–like in the comics–or pointed downward similar to the front, like some of the movie versions.
For the purposes of making the pattern, it is in some ways easier to make the back and front bottoms match. On my latest one, I did that. But it’s not hard to do a straight back either. It’s just good to go ahead and plan for how you do the back.
If you’re going to make them match, just do your point on the half we’ve got, and carry on, with plans to copy and paste the final front outline to use for the back. But if you want to do the back bottom differently, then we’ll double up on our design. I’ll use that approach for the demo.
10A) First, we’ll do the front bottom lines that will form the point. From the hip measurement on the side, add a line that extends down about half the distance of the total length line. Then, make an ellipse and tweak it to form a smooth, gentle curve between the side and the point. (You can also just do a straight diagonal line, as I have done for my most recent version. It’s a matter of preference, mostly.)
Rasterize the ellipse and trim off what you don’t need:
10B) Maybe the simplest step yet: add a straight line from the point where the curve meets the side to the center line:
Step 11: Next, a little cleanup before we continue.
11A) Identify any layers you don’t need–such as guides and marks–and delete them. (I am a bit of a “layer hoarder,” and will often hide such layers instead of deleting “just in case I need them later.” Sometimes I do. )
11B) Identify the layers that are part of your half-torso and select all of them (CTRL+click or select the first in line and then hold SHIFT + click the last in line).
To make all that easier to work with, merge those layers. You might want to rename it something that will make it easily identifiable, like “torsoDimensionsRight” or some such. NOTE: This will rasterize/flatten all the shapes and lines into one bitmap.
11C) Right click on the newly merged layer and select “Duplicate Layer.”
11D) With the duplicate layer selected, go to the Edit menu, and then Transform->Flip Horizontal:
11E) Move and adjust the mirrored layer to line it up as the other half of the torso dimensions. You might reveal some stray ellipse portions that were invisible off screen. You can erase those, of course:
Step 12:
Now, you have your torso base dimensions. But now we need to do one more thine before we are ready to start the fun part with colors and textures and web patterns. Since this is destined to become screen printed fabric that we can sew into a garment, it needs a Seam Allowance.
If you are not familiar with seam allowance, it is basically the “extra” fabric along the edges of a garment that overlaps to be sewn together, and is hiding on the underside of the seams of your clothing:
Don’t worry too much about the sewing lesson for now, though. For our purposes, we just want to create a simpler outline around our base torso dimensions. We are going to create a seam allowance of 5/8 of an inch, which is roughly 0.68 inches. If you are using metric, I will let you do your own conversion, so that I don’t mess it up.
You might be smart enough to figure out a better way than mine to add this allowance around the edges, but simple copying and resizing did not seem to get the right outcome. So for what it’s worth, here’s my basic method:
12A) Use the line tool to create a line that is 0.68 inches long. Use a bright color that is distinct from your other line colors. I use yellow. Duplicate that layer multiple times:
12B) Position the rulers around the edges of your torso dimension shape, angling them to roughly correspond with the changing angles of the and curves. Start a new layer of lines that will be the Seam Allowance Border:
I just create a handful of the ruler lines and move/adjust them as I work my way around the torso dimensions. You could, if you wanted, create enough to do it all at once. Either way, remember that you only have to do one half of the seam allowance border, and then you can copy and past to the other side!
12C) After finishing half of the seam allowance border, duplicate the layer (you did remember to keep your line shapes Combined, right? If not, Merge Shapes for those layers), Flip it Horizontal, and position it as the other half of your Seam Allowance.
And there you go. Seam Allowance.
Now, hide–do not delete–the little ruler lines. Those actually will be needed for future seam allowance purposes.
That takes care of the Torso portion of the shirt. Now we need to make the arm[s]. But since you are now familiar with the basic techniques, we should be able to speed through that a little faster.
The Arm[s]
Start with the same basic technique from above and do the vertical line matching the total length of the arm, and add the horizontal lines at the proper heights based on the vertical measurements between:
Copy and past the shoulder curve:
Rotate and position the shoulder curve, with the straight part against the center line of the arm:
NOTE: This is somewhere around where I figured out that I didn’t use the Shoulder Height measurement and I had to fix things, so if the screenshots seem to show a slightly different torso, that’s why. 🙂 But as long as you’ve been following the method instructions with your measurements, you’re golden.
Connect the horizontals:
And now smooth out those angles a bit (I used multiple short lines in this case):
It doesn’t have to be perfect. The general outline is what’s important.
Copy and paste to make it two halves of a whole:
Using your “mini-ruler” lines, add the Seam Allowance border to one half, then copy and paste it over:
And now we have the arm pattern!
Finishing Notes for the Pattern re: Next Steps
We now have completed the Pattern portion of the Spidey (or other hero) Costume Shirt Tutorial.
“But we only have one half of the torso and one arm!”
Yes, but there’s no sense copying and pasting and then having to repeat the colors and web patterns and such for both halves. So we’ll see how all that works in Part 2!
Thanks for your patience everyone! Hopefully part 2 of the Shirt Tutorial won’t take as long as Part 1, but I can’t make any promises. 🙂
Up Next: EARLY Guides Part 2B: The Spidey Shirt Design
Someone asked about my glossed-over statement regarding “digitizing” the easy glove pattern, and about the pieces of the multi-piece costume in general. So I figured I could do some posts with some basic guides to how I am doing each piece. I cannot promise that these will be done in a timely fashion, but I am certainly willing to share.
DISCLAIMERS:
Guides Part 1: The Gloves
Original Source/Reference: http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Gloves-for-Yourself/
Equipment Needed for my version: Scissors; chalk (a pack of colored chalk for contrast with different fabrics); white paper; pencil; ruler; scanner (smartphone camera will work if you’re careful and get a good straight down shot); computer; pins (such as for sewing); sewing machine (as the original source says, you could hand sew these, but it would take a long time);thread (useful for sewing things); stretch needle (it’s worth it for Lycra sewing)
Optional: A rolling or walking type of foot attachment for your sewing machine. This helps spandex feed more evenly.
External Screenprinting Resource for my version: Fabric on Demand
Step 1: Using the pencil, trace your hand and about 1/2 to 3/4 of your forearm onto a piece of white paper. (I excluded my forearm in the pic below. Ignore that.) Be sure to spread your fingers out pretty well.
Step 2: Using the ruler, take some horizontal and vertical measurements that you can use to create an accurately sized image file in later steps. Where you take the measurements is less important than getting the proportions and size right, but the below method seemed to work for me.
Step 3: Ideally, you should SCAN the tracing of your hand & forearm. If you don’t have access to a scanner, you can use your smartphone (or digital camera, if you’re into that kind of thing) to take a picture. Just be sure to get as close to a straight down shot as you can, so you don’t end up warping the proportions too greatly. I actually took the above pic with a smartphone (for this guide. I scanned the image for my original process), and it came out okay.
Step 4: Open up the scanned/photographed hand trace in an image editor* and do a clean version of the lines by tracing on a transparent image layer, like so (note the line gaps I left at the measurement end points):
You’ll want to keep the original image or paper that has the measurements on it for later reference.
*Interlude: Notes on Image Editors
I primarily use two image editors for my sewing pattern adventures: PAINT.net (yes, it’s a program, not a website) and Photoshop CS6.
PAINT.net is free. Photoshop CS6 is…what’s the opposite of free?
It’s not a deal breaker if you can’t access Photoshop. Ultimately, what you need is something that can save in one of the formats allowed by Fabric on Demand ( .jpg, .tiff, .png, .psd, .ai, .eps, .pdf), but you also want it to be something that works for you in the creation process.
Things to Look For in the Image Editor:
Again, my experience with this has been in Photoshop for the main stuff and with PAINT.net for simple stuff, such as the clean lines for the hand trace. PAINT.net does not seem to handle large files very well, so it worked best for simple planning and sketching type purposes.
You could try GIMP, but I have not used it for this purpose and am honestly not a huge fan of that software in general. But I haven’t used the most recent versions of the last several months, so maybe improvements have been made.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
Step 5: If you’re already in the Image Editor you will use for the final file, go ahead and “Save As” under a new filename.
If you started with a simple Image Editor for the last step and are moving to Photoshop, import the clean hand trace image as a new layer into your PS file.
FILE SETTINGS AND RELATED NOTES:
Refer to your hand measurements, and resize the hand trace layer to match the measurements. (You might have to change the measurement units in the software from pixels to inches.)
Step 6: Make a new bitmap layer under the hand trace layer. Then, choose the base color for your glove and paint the shape under/around the hand trace lines.
Choose a pattern overlay if you want.
Extend the color out a good bit around the lines, maybe an inch and a half or so. The extra in fabric form will be cut off eventually, but is important for the process.
Note that I guesstimated the forearm, but you were good and traced that part too.
Step 7: Now we have half of one glove. Now we need the other side of that one glove. Duplicate the layer, and then flip it horizontally:
Step 8: Now we have both halves of one glove to eventually sew together.
But now you have to decide if you just want gloves that are a solid color, or if there will be more detail. If you just want solid colored gloves, skip to the next step. But Spider-Man gloves, for example, need a web pattern.
The focus of this tutorial is not to go into specific details of creating and implementing a design for your particular costume, but I basically used a combination of the line tool and the brush tool, eventually ending up with a single, merged bitmap layer for the webs on the back of the glove. I then copied and pasted that web pattern layer, lined it up properly with the other half of the glove, and modified the palm portion to reflect the pattern I wanted for my Spidey glove:
Two points here:
(A) Note that I still have the hand trace in place to give me and idea of where–generally–to place the lines where I want them to eventually fall.
(B) Note that I carried the web lines to the edges-or almost, in some cases. We will be cutting off the excess fabric around the edges, but we won’t know exactly how much we’ll cut off until later. That depends on the size of your hands and thickness of your wrists and forearm. So we are giving ourselves flexibility. That will make more sense in a bit.
Step 9: Now, it’s time to delete the layers containing your hand traces. You don’t need those anymore. You will actually be doing a new tracing of your hand and forearm onto the printed fabric with chalk. We just needed the digital hand trace to guide our sizing and design.
Now, after getting rid of the hand trace layers, copy and paste the remaining layers, and then flip them horizontally to get both sides of the glove for the opposing hand. Makes sense, right?
All Hands on Deck? (Sorry, couldn’t help myself.)
Checklist time:
Step 10: As I mentioned before, you might want to hold off on ordering the fabric with just the gloves, and wait until you have other designs to fit onto a 36″ x 58″ inch file. Just trying to look out for you.
Step 11: Order your fabric and so forth. Wait until it arrives before you start sewing.
Step 12: Once you have the printed fabric, cut out around the edges of the glove color. You’ll want to stick to the outline fairly closely, to have the best chance of lining things up.
12A) Take the front and back of one glove, and lay them together with the printed sides against each other.
12B) Pin the two pieces together. Line them up as best you can, and pin relatively close to the edges. The un-printed sides of the fabric should be the outside on the top and bottom of this pinned-together affair here.
12C) Lay the relevant hand down on the fabric, centering as well as possible (if this is a glove with a web pattern or other bold lines, you should be able to see those lines through the back to help with hand placement). Using the chalk (in this case, the back of the fabric is white, so you’ll want non-white chalk), trace the outline of your hand and forearm, aiming to keep the chalk as level as possible.
NOTE: This is going to be a rather messy trace, regardless, but this is spandex, and we have some wiggle room. The part that always comes out a bit tight for me is the wrist, because you have to shove your hand through that part to put the glove on, so you may want to consider tracing a bit to the outside there.
It’s okay if there are minor gaps (such as if the pins get in the way), or even if it’s a dotted line.
Step 13: Now, you’re ready to saw the two parts together.
Set your machine to a stretch stitch. If it doesn’t have a stretch stitch, use a medium zig zag stitch. If you have no idea what I’m talking about (I am pretty new to sewing myself), then go read up on sewing via Google and/or books. And then practice and practice, and then practice some more. I’m still practicing, but just on increasingly expensive fabric printings.
Sew along the chalk line. It’s going to get tricky around the fingertips. If you’re a sewist, you know that there are some ways to turn tricky corners. I sometimes do that. But for this, I just as often make several passes at different angles to get non-pointy fingertips.
Step 14: After you’ve sewn all around the arm and hand and fingers, you can cut off the excess fabric. Leave a decent bit of room outside the stitches. Then, turn the gloves right side out–getting the fingers turned out can be a pain–and try on your new gloves!
Step 15: If you’re like me–or just a normal, fallible human being–you might have to do it all over again. That happens.
But at some point, you should end up with a glove! Yay.
I never did figure out the right way to do the gloves on the bodysuit template. The best I managed was a cobbled together mess that covered up my hands, but that is a pretty rough definition of “glove.”
But by digitizing the simple trace-and-sew gloves pattern I found months ago and laying a design on it in Photoshop, I finally have gloves that will work with the suit. The gloves pattern fit on the same yard of fabric that included the latest shirt pattern, and it probably only all fit because the shirt was too short. 
So…yay! Of course, I still have to sew the other glove, but no hurry. I have a bit of a wait for the lengthened shirt pattern.
Happy Friday everyone!
You ever hear that phrase, “Always go with your first instinct?” Well…I’ve disproved it many times in my life (most especially in my dating life (and let me clarify that I mean my past dating life, in case my girlfriend is reading this)), but in the case of this latest Spider-Shirt, it is actually true.
I had initially designed it to be a good few inches longer, but then something made me think it would be too long, so I shortened it. Guess what? It’s too short. By a few inches.
But even still, I am actually very pleased with the way it came out other than that detail. It was very easy and relatively quick to put together. I did it in just a few hours last night, including having to tear out and re-do one stitch.
Other than the length, the fit is good, it looks good, the neck is more than high enough to work with the mask, I like the design…
I will have to re-work the length in the design file and re-do the shirt, of course, but this is clearly the first costume design that is ultimately going to work out in the end. So I am okay with that.
Yeah, I am going to call this a successful experiment in that there is a clear path forward to what works.
And once I get the kinks worked out with this traditional design, I can apply it to the Ditko design with even greater confidence.
Oh yeah, by the way, I’m back from my Japan trip. Been back a few days and–let me tell you, jet lag is a real thing, especially coming from a 13 hour time difference. Not that I doubted the existence of jet lag. I have just been surprised at how hard it hits and how long it takes to recover.
Anyway, I am obviously getting back into the sewing groove, but there will likely be gaps in between posts as I wait for the parts of the costume to arrive. Theoretically, I will have some in-between stuff to work on.
Today…back to work for the first time in over a week. I’m mostly ready. It’s just that “jumping into a cold pool” kind of phenomenon; once I’ve gotten that jump over with, it’ll be good to be in the water.
See you soon, everyone.
Italy & the UK in way too short a time
"A Word of Substance"
Who knew vampires need medical insurance?
Spider-Man Mashup Cosplay Costume: 