Not a Post…

Hi all. This is not *really* a post. I am leaving for Japan today, and just had a couple of “agenda items:”

A) I wanted to thank BritneyLee for the Liebster Award nomination. Sorry I never got around to fulfilling the requirements! I am really bad about those things. But thanks for thinking of me! She’s one of my most supportive WordPress comrades.

B) There Will Be Blog! A Photo Blog of my Japan Trip, that is. The first entry–lacking any trip photos as I haven’t left yet–is up to get you started if you’re interested: BAM in Japan

And that’s all for now. See you when I get back! (Assuming I don’t get forever lost in the Subway system of Tokyo…)

Sigh… The Good News and the Bad News and a Sad-Funny Sewing Story

The Good News

On the one hand, there were several things I did a lot better in making this second version of the bodysuit. I got a bit better at recovering from mistakes, figuring out certain aspects of the pattern, zippers… And I got the thing more or less together with relatively minor flaws (mostly), some of them fixable:

The Bad News

So it’s just too bad that the thing doesn’t fit.

Why doesn’t it fit? Well, that’s probably a combination of my lack of knowledge and experience, and the inherent trickiness and lack of room for error in this template. Plus, I am not convinced that the sizing is quite right for the template. I adjusted it according to the instructions for my height, and did my best to adjust horizontally (no instructions for that). The horizontal part is probably my bad. It’s tricky to measure the shoulder and upper torso, the way it comes together there. But the height aspect seems so far off… I don’t know.

Theoretically, someone shorter and less broad-shouldered than me (like maybe a tall Hobbit?) could wear this, but it has enough flaws in the shoulder/armpit area that I won’t bother trying to pass it on (plus, I have other plans for it, as you’ll see below).

Regardless, I don’t see myself using this template in bodysuit form again anytime soon. I am feeling pretty good about my multi-piece design that I will be starting on soon. It is based on patterns I have actually sewn successfully before.

That’s right. This is far from over, Spidey costume. I’m not giving up.

In fact, if the Ditko version of the multi-piece costume goes well, I think that I can salvage a good bit of this traditional costume attempt. I can separate the mask and I think the leggings, and sew a shirt to match using the above-mentioned pattern. I already have gloves on the way. Then I could have a multi-piece (with boots attached) traditional costume as well. This would require some tweaking of the existing pieces, mainly involving removing zippers and re-sewing some seams before slicing it apart. But it’s doable.

The Funny-Sad Sewing Story

Now, switching back to the subject of the process of sewing this traditional costume… As I said, despite the overall disappointing ending to that process, I feel like there were some areas where I really improved my sewing skills. Installing zippers is one of those areas.

The main zipper install on this costume was a particularly impressive feat due to how it takes two corners (curvy corners, but still) at the bottom of the “belt” in back. I actually put off finishing the thing for a week or more due to the dread of that zipper install. But I buckled down and starting fighting with it, and…well, it wasn’t easy, and the whole time I was doing it I doubted that it would work at all, but in the end, it really wasn’t that bad. I installed one side, then the other, finishing stitching it, and then was dubiously test-zipping it for the first time, thinking “no way did this actually work.” And then…

I zipped the zipper pull right off the end near the unfinished armpit seam. Right off. Zipped it right off the tape.

I was aghast. I was so aghast I couldn’t even get properly enraged. I wasn’t happy, but I was just too flabbergasted at what I had done to get truly and fully angry.

As it turns out, it wasn’t impossible to get it back one, and with a bit of help from YouTube, I did. Of course, it turned out not to matter in the end, but still. It was a memorable moment of Triumph-Seeming Defeat-Triumph. Snatching Victory from the Jaws of Defeat and so forth.

And even though I don’t have any desire to do a bodysuit style costume that requires zipper installation any time soon, I am not nearly as scared of zipper installs as I used to be! So there’s that.

Brief Partial Hiatus Followed by Longer Full Hiatus

There won’t be much cosplay action for me in the next couple of weeks. I don’t have the early pieces for my Ditko multi-piece yet, for one thing, but I also need to get serious about planning for my Japan trip (Japlanning, I call it).

Also, I have an interview coming up for the position of Manager in my department, so I should probably dedicate some thought and preparation to that.

I don’t imagine I will be sewing while I am in Japan, so this blog will lie dormant. However, you probably will hear from me in a different form during the Japan trip. I will probably do a travel blog. Maybe a Tumblr, since there will hopefully be a lot of photos.

Thanks for following, everyone! We’re not done here yet! (At least, not until I impoverish myself with this whole costume effort…How did that 17 year old Peter Parker afford to make costumes and web-shooters and web fluid?)

Belated Update: Costume Needs Spare Parts and Life Happens

So, been a few days since I posted, but then、 it’s been a few days since I did much sewing. This is due to a combination of a little detour regarding the costume structure and some general life happenings that need attending to.

The Costume Detour:

In sewing the Ditko costume, one of the tricky parts that I couldn’t get put together right was the glove portion of the pattern. I just figured that I had not spent enough time figuring out the proper way to fit it together, and that the guide numbers I added this time would do the trick.

But try as I might, I cannot get the gloves to go together the way the pattern says they should. I double-checked that in modifying the details of the web pattern, I did not modify the foundation of how the seams should fit. I tried this and that and the other thing. But no, if it does work properly, I cannot figure out how.

But then I had a thought. I had wanted a way to be able to slip the gloves off my hands if needed, which I was going to accomplish by adding a velcroed slit to each wrist seam. But between the potential complications of that procedure, and the issues I am having with the gloves, I decided to take a different route.

In making DIY spandex gloves, I had found a tutorial for doing a basic hand trace onto a double layer of fabric, and then sewing along the trace lines. The resulting glove fits like a–well, a glove. It is important to allow a little “give” around the tracing, but it works fairly well. So I made a Photoshop template for just gloves using that sewing pattern, and added modified versions of the web patterns and the red, patterned background that matches the rest of the costume. I can submit that to FabricOnDemand and have some removable gloves for the costume. Then I can just cut the hand portions of the existing bodysuit and sew it up like regular long shirt sleeves. I like this plan.

But since I will be paying for a yard of fabric printing regardless, and I had a fair amount of space left to play with, I decided to go ahead and see what parts of my Ditko rebuild I could fit into that space. So I have the mask parts and the boots from the Ditko design. It will be a great chance to test the pattern pieces. If they don’t work, I will know what to adjust. If they do work, I will have the next costume partly done already!

Life Happens Part 1:

I have been aware for a while that a management position is opening up at my workplace, and have been lurking, waiting to apply. The job finally posted, and I pounced, getting my application, resume, and such polished off and I submitted it all yesterday. Hopefully, interviews will take place sometime in the next couple of weeks. All very exciting and nerve-racking.

Life Happens Part 2:

JAPAN!

I have had a trip to Japan planned for months, and had kinda sorta put it at the back of my mind for the most part. But it’s coming up soon, so I realized I really need to revisit the details of my plans and make sure I have all my ducks in a row. That promises to occupy a bit of my time and energy.

Going forward…

I still plan to squeeze in work on the costume. I can go ahead and do the lower half of the sleeves, then add the zipper that goes down the sides and across the back, and then finish off the arm seams. Then I will have a glove-less costume until the mini-print of fabric arrives with the gloves. That will be 10 days-ish processing time, plus however many days it takes for FabricOnDemand to get their site working. It’s been down the past day or so! I wonder if it is overwhelmed with cosplayers and Halloween costume seekers? {shrug}

またね！