EARLY Guides to Spidey Costume Pieces Part 3: The Leggings

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:

• add an extra measurement above the waist one, or
• just measure the waist at a higher point.

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:

• Option 1: Do Some Practice Leggings First! It might be worth your while to purchase–locally or online–some spandex for practice. Locally, I have purchased from Hancock and JoAnn Fabrics. You can get a better deal per yard ordering from Spandex World online–maybe half the price per yard?I can’t recall exactly–but I think there’s a minimum order that ends up with you ordering at least 2-3 yards. But hey, more to practice on, right?
• Option 2: Be a Sewing Pattern Genius: Maybe you can figure out–or find via research–a more accurate way to measure/account for a guy-level of Rise Depth. Feel free to share in the comments!
• Option #3: Take a Chance on Your Guesswork: You could make a guess on the Rise Depth adjustment and go ahead and carry through with ordering printed fabric. You might get lucky on the first try! I’m not being sarcastic. This really is an option. I mean, I’ve learned that I am going to make mistakes that cost me money in the process of learning and getting all this right.

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):

• tiff format, minimum 72 dpi
• If you haven’t been doing a white background layer, I recommend it for contrast
• This time, we’ll make it the usual 58″ width, but it needs to start out taller, around 60″ height. We’ll adjust that later.

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…

EARLY Guides to Spidey Costume Pieces – Part 2B: The Shirt Design

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:

• CHECK AND DOUBLE CHECK that it is looking the way you want, without any stray visible layers or blemishes or whatever.
• Flatten out all the layers and don’t Save. Rather…
• Save As a different file name so you can keep your original with the layers. I like to name my “to-be-printed” files something that ends with “_FINAL” or something like that. If it’s not already a TIFF file, go ahead and do that.
• Save it with NO COMPRESSION. It makes it bigger, but not too big. I’ve had troubles uploading compressed files to Fabric On Demand.

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.

 

EARLY Guides to Spidey Costume Pieces – Part 2A: The Shirt Pattern

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:

• Pattern creation techniques from the Sew So Easy Leggings Pattern Tutorial (which we’ll talk about again when we do the EARLY Guide for Spidey leggings)
• Methods and Measurements for catsuits (spandex bodysuits) from Stretchy.org.
• A good start on the shapes of the pattern pieces came from this T-Shirt tutorial from Made and this other T-Shirt Tutorial on Sew Inspired.

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.

• Horizontal: Top of neck circumference
  • Vertical: Distance from top of neck to base of neck*
• Horizontal: Base of neck circumference
  • Vertical: Distance from base of neck to chest
• Horizontal: Chest circumference (measuring tape should be snugly up your armpits as it goes around)
  • Vertical: Distance from Chest to Under Chest (right about where the rise of your chest flattens out. If your chest has no rise, then go about an inch and a half below the nipples)
• Horizontal: Under chest circumference
  • Vertical: istance from Under Chest to hips (about belly button level)
• Horizontal: Hips circumference
  • Vertical: Distance from hips to waist (below the “love handle” level)
• Horizontal: Hips circumference
  • Vertical: Total distance from top of neck to hips
• Supplemental Guesstimate-Measurement #1 – Shoulder Width: Distance from base of neck to top of shoulder. You can approximate this by putting on a T-shirt (if you’re already wearing one, you don’t need to put on another one) and measuring from the collar to the seam where the sleeve connects. (This guide does not use a rocket science level of precision, truly.)
• Supplemental Guesstimate-Measurement #2 – Shoulder “height”*: Put on a T-shirt that’s not too tight and not too loose. Starting from the spot where the shoulder seam meets the sleeve connecting seam, measure down to about halfway into your armpit.*
• Supplemental Guesstimate-Measurement #3 – Extra “Drape” length: Put on a T-shirt that hangs to a few inches below your belly button, or around the area where you want the bottom of the shirt to hit (which may or may not match up with the hip area from above). Measure from the point at the top of your neck (that you used above) to the bottom of the T-shirt, and then add a few inches. This will help account for the “drawing up” and the cling of a spandex shirt versus a standard shirt. We’ll talk more about this later.

* 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:

• Horizontal: About halfway down the bicep – circumference
  • Vertical: The distance from bicep to elbow
• Horizontal: The circumference of the elbow
  • Vertical: The distance from elbow to mid-forearm-ish
• Horizontal: The circumference of the mid-forearm-ish
  • Vertical: The distance from mid-forearm-ish to wrist
• Horizontal: The circumference of the wrist
  • Vertical: total distance from top of shoulder (roughly where the sleeve seam of most t-shirts fall) to the wrist

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:

• A precise sort of person probably uses the [vector] Path tool, which makes mathematical-type curves based on points. I suck at getting those the way I want.
• You can also make a path via making a circle using the Ellipse tool. You then resize and tweak one part of it to fit the curve you want, “rasterize” it (flatten it to a bitmap rather than a vector shape), then erase the parts you don’t need, leaving the curve. Usually, it takes more than one circle, or a circle combined with a line or two to get the curve, depending on the shape of it.
• If you are skilled at drawing with a mouse, or have a graphics tablet or a Tablet PC that allows the use of a Digitizer Pen, you can use the Brush tool to draw the curving line like you would on paper. You might even want to rough out the curve like this, and then string together a number of short straight lines to get a choppy curve, which is totally acceptable for this purpose.

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:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seam_allowance

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

Waiting for Supplies and such…

So, I am in standby mode in terms of actual costume and accessories. Here are the items that are being delivered:

• The printed costume fabric (traditional Spidey bodysuit)
• Worbla sheet (for eye frames)
• Mirrored window liner (for covering eye lenses)

Here are the items that have been delivered:

• Make-a-Zipper Invisible Zipper kit (a roll containing one long invisible zipper that can be separated in the manner needed, along with several zipper pulls)- color: blue, for the main entry zipper on the traditional Spidey bodysuit (gonna do the ‘down the sides, across the bottom of the back’ thing this time)
• A red invisible zipper for the back-of-the-mask zipper (to allow for pulling the mask forward off the head when needed)

Here are a few sundry items that I will need to buy/make:

• Base coat and main coat paint for Worbla frames
• Heat resistant board for working with Worbla (similar to the one in this clever how-to: Working with Worbla Safely)
• Duct tape: Useful for so much (including previous list item), but specifically for building out the circumference/size of Bob the head model’s head.
• Clear plastic of some kind to line with the mirrored stuff.
• Construction paper (recommended base medium for tracing onto Worbla, which makes sense as it will curl less than printer paper.

So, today I will go out and grab a few things, and I can get Bob prepped for when I do the Worbla frames. But it will likely be the weekend after next before I have time to start the main work on the traditional Spidey bodysuit.

In the meantime, I’ve continued working on modifying the Photoshop template for the Ditko style costume to separate it into the component parts:

It’s not as hard/complicated as I feared, but it is superbly tedious! It’s coming along, though. I’ve separated the top and bottom fairly well, built up the height of the waist for good fit and so that there’s plenty of overlap. Just started on separating the gloves, then we’ll do the boots, then the mask. And I want to try and piece together the back halves of the shirt, because there’s really no sense in them being separate in this new configuration.

No hurry on that design, since I have the traditional costume to work on, and I really should forego spending more on costume fabric for a long while!

That’s all for now!

 

Limping toward the Finish Line…in Third Place…Hopefully…

Not much picture worthy to share in terms of progress. I did the other glove, and no, it did make much more sense this time than the first time. I feel like something is off about the pattern lines, so I will be looking into that for the next iteration, as well as searching for a clearer sewing guide for this particular glove pattern.

I am working on getting the arms attached at the shoulders, but that is not going smoothly. I am 90% sure that this has to do with a mistake I made early on in putting the mask together, the sides and bottom of which integrate into the shoulders. I believe a connection point(s) got off track, which is having a bit of a cascading effect. But I think I can cobble it together, more or less.

I have also been working on the new and improved template with built-in guides for matching up the right points, so as to make this process much easier the next time. I will also go ahead and give it more detailed custom sizing, for my circumference measurements in addition to my height.

So…{deep breath} here’s to seeing this “learning experience” through and being much better prepared for the next version!

Spidey from the Waist Down

Well, I’m getting there. Slowly. Sort of.

I did actually fix those little nubbins on the hips in the pic above. Just needed to bring in those partial stitches a bit more in line with the seamless parts of the legs below them. And I am hoping that once the top is done, the saggy crotch will be pulled up a bit. May just be a matter of final adjustments after donning the suit.

I’m actually really happy with my design and how it looks IRL so far. But I hope to improve on sizing and details next time. I might have underestimated my height in sizing the costume (which is hard to do, as I am not what they call “tall” in the common parlance).

Since this pic, I have sewn the bottom of the back torso to the top of the back of the waist. That leaves it armless and with the sides unstitched. I will hopefully be able to get the gloves sewn, arms attached at the shoulders, and finish up the arm and side seams this weekend. We’ll see.

And I will probably have to forego more pics until I cut eye holes. I really cannot see through that mask fabric…

 

A Slow Beginning…but it’s a Beginning

Busy weekend out of town so far, but I was recently able to get at least a symbolic start on the costume before heading out:

It is definitely in multiple pieces now, instead of one piece. And I can’t sew it together if it isn’t apart, so there you go.

The Breakdown

I have also decided on how I want to break the whole process down into manageable chunks that my obsessive brain can handle doing in stages:

• Stage 1: Measurements & Marking
• Stage 2: Mask section (includes back center seam) — includes inserting invisible zipper on back of mask
• Stage 3: Gloves, lower arms
• Stage 4:  lower body section
• Stage 5: Insert invisible zipper for torso sides, rear belt, and close final seams on underarms and torso

The Practice

Since the second stage does include a small invisible zipper installation, I need to do a bit of practice on that between measuring and starting to sew.

The Supplies

I will need the following before I truly get going:

• Darker red thread to more closely match the suit’s red than the red I’ve been using for my DIY stuff
• Resupply of black thread (there will actually be no seams going over blue areas the way I’ve shaded the suit)
• Two more short invisible zippers (for a total of three, two for practice and one for back of mask)
• Two-three long invisible zippers (one-two for practice and one for suit)
• Scissor sharpener

So, once I’m back in town, I’ll grab supplies, and let the marking of measurements begin!

Saying Goodbye & Plans to Measure Twice and Stitch Once

The Brother slogan reads: “At Your Side.” He really was.{sniff}

I knew it wouldn’t be forever. Like two young people having a summer camp fling, I knew that the LS-1217 and I would eventually have to go our separate ways. But in the process of that fling, I learned so much. (Is this analogy starting to get a little creepy, or is it just me?)

Anyway, I returned the borrowed sewing machine to my friend and co-worker yesterday, and bought her an Iced Soy Chai Latte (size Grande in case you’re interested) as a thank you, even though she insisted that, really, it only sits in its box unused until her mom comes to visit, but still…

As I think I’ve said before, I’m really glad I started on a basic machine without the bells and whistles. I think it made me appreciate the fundamentals a bit. I am still VERY much a beginner, so I don’t want to go too far with that point, but I think it did make me “work for it” a bit more.

So, goodbye Brother LS-1217. You taught me much, and served me well. And I know you would want me to be happy with the Singer Stylist, even if you might occasionally scoff at its new fangled, fancy ways.

Measure Twice & Stitch Once

I’ve been doing a lot of careful mental prep for getting started on sewing the suit, and a big part of that has involved things that are only just now occurring to me that I wish had occurred to me when I was designing the template. For example…

When I am stitching the costume, I will be sewing the reverse side, the side with no lines to follow. I will hand baste based on measurements, so I can follow that basting thread line on the reverse side but–as I am not using a serger–I gather that it is best not to actually sew on top of the basting thread. So I need to have a way to use the basting thread as a consistent stitching guide without sewing over it.

The idea, I believe, is to mark the costume for basting 3/8 of an inch inside the eventual seam line to be stitched, and then, once I have basted, I can line up the basting thread line with the 3/8 indicator line next to the machine’s presser foot to place the stitch on the actual seam line.

Anyway, that’s just one of the details I am trying to carefully consider before I jump in and mess something up in an irreversible way. But in the interest of keeping to my goal of brief posts, I will not go into other details. Instead…back to the Costume Quest!

Happy Weekend everybody!

Tutorials Complete & Zippers + Spandex = Anxiety

Almost Ready to Start!

I just wrapped up the final steps of my multi-part tutorial for assembling and sewing the custom printed costume fabric. The obsessive side of me is tempted to go through and refine it all, but even though I will give it a once-over and probably add more items to my checklists, I will resist trying to prettify something that is just for my own use.

Zipper Madness

The final stage of the costume sewing will be the installation of the invisible zippers, and that is the part that causes me the most apprehension. But I am feeling better the more research I do. Other than the general concerns about doing something stupid like installling the zipper backward or out of alignment–issues that can be avoided with checklists and cautious marking and so forth–there is the rather more slippery matter of installing a zipper in spandex without rippling and curling. But I am getting some good tips and will be doing some practice and testing ahead of installation in the actual costume, so that will make me feel a lot more confident (or a lot more scared, depending).

And the Most Important Missing Ingredient…

Time. It always seem to run out so quickly. But with my plan to do things in chunks (oh yeah, that’s the other prep thing I need to do, my scheduling of costume production phases…), then theoretically I should just need to set aside a small amount of time each day to get at least a little something done. But every now and again I should probably spend time with my family and maybe do some housework or something.

Up Next: Lookin’ for Time in All the Wrong Places (I don’t know what that means either)

Spidey Shirt Take 2: New & Marginally Improved

May I start out by saying that after all the patterning, measuring, tracing, cursing, cutting, assembling, cursing, pinning, basting, seaming, cursing, seam-ripping, cursing, re-seaming–and cursing, did I mention cursing?– that goes into a garment like this, I am just happy that it is in the shape of a shirt at all!

But really, I feel overall pretty good about this, whether or not I feel like it is a “final product.” Here are a few glamour shots of me wearing it so we can look at the pros and cons:

Front View:

Not too bad from this angle. Some mild pinching at the corners of the black, but much better than last time. Some puckering near the armpits. I got the high collar I wanted (it actually has excess height to trim!).

I really need to clean that mirror.

Angled 1:

Mismatch between the front and back black at the waist. Same for the sleeve meeting the torso, but it actually forms kind of a cool point, almost.

Angled 2:

Much better match between the front and back at the waist. Still not so great at the sleeve/torso, but not horrible. There’s a particularly rough puckered spot at the chest, where the black takes a corner that should have been a curve.

Arm Mismatch: Don’t know what the heck happened there. Sheesh.

Back view:

So close with matching the black from the sleeve to the top of the back. But the seams across the top of the back and down the sleeve are pretty smooth, eh?

Lessons Learned & How to Apply Them

Lesson 1: Pattern Making, Marking, and Matching

In the course of this shirt remake, I think I discovered that a lot of my biggest sewing challenges have to do with the pattern I am starting with and translating it to the fabric. Part of that is getting more experienced at just planning and implementation, but even beyond that, making a good pattern, and then marking the important spots and measurements and transferring those markings and guides to the fabric pieces for better matching.

Lesson 2: Checklists for the Basics

I’ve read that one of the greatest and most important advances in medicine–surgery in particular, I believe–was the introduction of checklists. Many disciplines use checklists. Pilots, for example, have a pre-flight checklist. I worked in a residential treatment facility for teens where we used checklists for our important daily tasks.

Checklists are a simple form of genius. They allow us to package careful and deliberate thinking at an ideal time when we can focus on the big picture and the details. We organize and record those thoughts when we are not right in the middle of a situation, using the knowledge of others in addition to our own experience (and mistakes) as a guide. And then, when we are the midst of the situation or activity, if we have a good checklist, the only thing we really have to remember is to look at the checklist!

I am really good at making stupid mistakes. Over and over. I am the “don’t let this happen to you” motivational example for why one should use checklists.

I was making Spidey Shirt 2.o, and it came time to baste and sew the first sleeve onto the torso. I carefully laid it out, pinned and baste-stitched. I examined my work, pleased with how I had distributed the fabric of each piece smoothly along the curve. And then I proceeded to tensely stitch the seam on the machine, again careful of the curve. I really wanted that curve to turn out well! I pulled the shirt off the machine and took a look. What a beautiful seam!

It was really too bad that I had sewed the sleeve on wrong side out. (Insert cursing here.)

Luckily, I was able to rip out the seam (that beautiful seam…) and redo it. But something like that wrong side out sleeve, and things like the mismatched black portions on the shirt…those kinds of things could have been avoided if I had double checked some pretty simple issues, and a checklist is probably my best bet for doing that, especially while I am still learning. There are just so many details to worry about, and while you’re worrying about details A and B, detail C is escaping your attention!

Lesson 3: Slow Down

I know it’s a mite cliche, but like checklists, there is a simple genius in just taking your time. And–also like checklists–this is a lesson that I very much need to apply. I get very–I guess driven is the word. And sometimes frustrated. And when I am driven or frustrated, I just want to gloss over, i.e. skip, important steps. or I just rush through something because it’s not my favorite part and I want to get to the good part.

The longer I sew (I mean, I’ve been doing it for, like, weeks now), the more I make myself slow down, partly because I am tired of seeing things turn out like crap because I got into a rush. But I also find that if I push, I don’t enjoy the activity as much, and if the point of all this time and investment in my Costume Quest isn’t enjoyment, then I’m not sure what the point is.

A big part of slowing down is taking breaks. Sometimes it’s just setting down the sewing project to go eat, or work out, or watch TV, or do neglected housework. And sometimes it’s going for an overnight trip for my girlfriend’s birthday. Which is what we are going to do later this morning.

I could probably take the sewing machine, but somehow I think that would be a bad idea, relationship-wise.

Up Next: First, the Beach! Then, applying recent lessons and experience to making a mask.