Attach Eye Frames Attempt Part 2: Gettin’ Creepy With It

Face Mold Man is…displeased.

When I wasn’t totally happy with the cheap plastic mask I was using, I thought, “Hey, I’ve got more of this Worbla stuff for molding things. I can make a mask/face shell thing myself.”

Now, the first plan was to heat up the material for pliability–’cause that’s how you do with Worbla–and then lay it on the face of the Spidey head model I use. But that thing funky shaped, not at all smooth.

Then I thought, “Well, I can just use my own face. I should probably cover it with fabric or something to be safe…”

But I only have a hair dryer for heating the Worbla (okay, it’s actually my GF’s hair dryer), and it gives a relatively brief “window of pliability.” So in the heat of the moment, as it were, I ended up just laying the warmed up Worbla on my face.

NOTE: I was not injured (it wasn’t *that* hot), and if there are any slow acting chemical effects, I guess I won’t know for a while. But…DON’T DO THAT! I mean, I’m fine, but I can’t in good conscience recommend it.

Anyway, it turned out not too bad. I will be making some adjustments to it later with trimming and judicious re-heating/re-molding in spots, but it needed a bit more up front work for testing as a mask/face-shell.

Yeah…it can get creepier looking, as it turns out.

 

The Mythbusters are totally right about Duct Tape.

A small serrated knife to cut out the eyes (and I only almost cut myself a couple of times, so s’all good), and some slits and elastic/Duct Tape combo on the sides to make it a wearable mask.

Then a little test with it under the Spidey mask.

Look! It’s Spider-Bird!

 

It’s not perfect, but I think if I spot-reheat and turn down/trim some edges, I can make it much less visible and improve the profile.

And then a little manual test of the eye frames/lenses:

This is how fancy people hold Spider-Man eye frames: pinky extended.

 

“Now cover your left eye and read as many lines as you can.”

So…I think we have some potential here. I will want to–as I said before–make adjustments to reduce the visibility of those pesky mask-shell lines. Then, I will need to very carefully figure out where to attach the magnets, both on the frames and the mask/shell, so that they are oriented properly both to match one another and cover the mildly out of control eye holes I cut in the Spidey mask.

That’s all for now. Might not be much more until the weekend. The next couple of evenings after work will involve watching the latest episodes of the Flash, Agent Carter, Supernatural, and Arrow. There is way too much good, geek-friendly TV available these days. Really cutting into my other geek activities.

 

EARLY Spidey Costume Guides Part 4: The Boots

Okay. We’ve covered  the gloves, the shirt, and the leggings. But we can’t have Spidey running around barefoot, so let’s see about those boots.

A Little History and Disclosure on My Spidey Boot Pattern

We’re going to use a boot pattern that I actually came up with myself. But you should know a few things:

1) My current fabric printings and costumes in progress use the boot pattern that is separated out from the bodysuit template I originally bought from Gun Head Designs.

I feel that I cannot share that pattern, both because it is not mine to share and because I don’t have a a method for telling you how to create it from scratch based on your measurements since I did not myself create it.

2) The boot-socks I have sewn from my pattern are 95% okay, but I will be adding a minor tweak that I have–honestly–partially tested in “real life.” So I strongly suggest trying this out with some test spandex first. And markers (see previous post).

So…yeah, this is kind of a guinea pig situation. You’ve been warned.

The Measurements

1) First, decide how tall you want your boots to be. If you pay attention to different iterations of Spidey, comic and movie versions, you may notice that his boots sometimes reach to just the base of his calf, and other times to mid-calf or a smidge higher.

Tall boots. Source: [https://liveforfilms.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/spider-man-av.jpg]

Short boots. Source [http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/amazing-spider-man/506-1.jpg]

I am kind of partial to something in between those two. Like maybe lower calf. Regardless, decide what you like and then that is where your top measurement, the “calf” measurement will fall.

UPDATE/NOTE/EDIT: You’ll see later on that I decide to change up late in the game and go with a taller boot measurement. This is a result of a shorter test boot not staying up very well. Just FYI.

2) Take the following measurements. See the following illustration for clarity:

• Horizontal: Calf circumference
  • Vertical: Distance from calf to ankle (right about the mid-point of the bony parts of your ankle)
• Horizontal: Ankle circumference (again, around the middle of those bony things)
  • Vertical: Distance from ankle to mid-foot (roughly the highest point of the slight rise on top of your foot)
• Horizontal: Circumference around your mid-foot
  • Vertical: Distance from mid-foot to the tip of your longest toe
• Horizontal: Circumference around your toes. As a group, not individually. 🙂

3) Now, do your 90-95% calculation on the horizontal measurements. You are, of course, recording all of this on a spreadsheet that you can set up to do the calculations for you (I didn’t, but you’re smarter than I am.)

Add up the vertical measurements to get a good idea of the total length and record that as well.

This Boot Pattern’s Got No Sole

This next step will involve taking off some clothes. But just your shoes and socks. On one foot, at least.

1) Get a piece of white paper and a pencil, set the paper on a smooth, firm surface, and trace one of your bare feet. Doesn’t matter which one. I traced my left because I am right-handed. Maybe you’re ambidextrous and have more of a choice. Doesn’t have to be especially exact or fancy.

2) Get out the ruler and draw a straight line on the tracing from the toes to the heel, roughly in the middle, and mark how long it is. At the halfway point vertically, draw a horizontal line and mark how wide it is there. I also did other measurements, but that was really completely unnecessary. (I knowingly overdo things sometimes because I’m neurotic, but not in a particularly useful kind of way.)

Now you should have something like this:

Now you have no excuse for not ordering me some custom-fitted shoes for Christmas.

4) Take a smartphone pic or scan (I always say scanning is ideal, even though I usually take a smartphone pic). Put the pic into an image editor and do a trace layer to come up with a cleaner version (and let me reiterate that really the total height and midway width are the only truly useful measurements):

Digitizing the Pattern

1) Photoshop File: min. 72 dpi, 58″ wide, 36″ tall, tiff format. You might very well be adding this to one of your existing Spider-Costume Files.

2) You know the drill. Use the line tool to make a line matching the total vertical length. Then add the horizontal half-circumference lines down one side of that vertical line.

3) Get rid of any guidelines you used, and connect the horizontals:

4) Now, there’s a half-foot in here somewhere, so let’s do some curves to find it:

After getting the curves on there, clean up the lines to flow together and we end up with a good half-foot dimensions layer.

5) Now, we copy and paste, flip and move. Then use our 5/8″ ruler lines to add a Seam Allowance border: (You can wait on adding the Seam Allowance Border. I’m retroactively working in some further tweaking I did without re-doing all the screenshots.)

6) This would work, but let’s do some refining for a better fit, and to guide us in adding the design.

We’re going to “place” the clean foot-trace we made earlier into our Photoshop boot file. After you place it, reduce the size by 90-95% to match the overall measurements.

This is a good time to examine the anatomy of the foot pattern for the purposes of understanding what falls where when it’s all put together.

Below you can see I’ve added the foot trace to the boot pattern. I have decided that this is the boot for the right foot (until we add the foot trace and web pattern, there is no difference between right and left). This being the right foot, that means the left half of the pattern represents the back of the calf and bottom of the foot, and the right half represents the front of the calf and top of the foot.

So, the bottom left half of the pattern represents the sole of the boot. Let’s stick the foot-trace there, and orient it as in the image below. That looks backward at first glance, but note that it will flip when the fabric is sewn, as my messy arrows do their best to indicate.

 

Let me be clear here: we are NOT going for exact sole shape and position here. The foot-trace is a very general orientation tool.

(A) Let’s adjust and add curves to “hug” the outside of the foot a bit better.

So, the outside curve turned out to match the foot close enough that it’s fine. But we lack inner curves, so let’s take care of that.

Use an ellipse to form the curve…

 

…then rasterize and clean up. Copy, mirror, paste, and move. Adjust the Seam Allowance border… (Again, you can wait on the Seam Allowance as there will be more adjustments coming in a sec.)

 

Now for the inner curve of the foot:

 

 

Note that we’re not putting those inner foot lines right up against the heel, but leaving a bit of room. In my test boot, it felt a smidge tight at the heel/ankle bend.

And now we can fix up those Seam Allowance Borders.

 

Adding the Color

Does this really need it’s own whole section anymore?

Add your color, and the pattern overlay if you’re using one.

UPDATE/EDIT: You might notice that I decided to add some length/height to the boot, due to issues with with my test boot not wanting to stay up. 

Adding the Webbing Pattern

So, now that we’ve got the layout set up pretty well, and the color laid down, let’s get a general idea how the webbing pattern will fit in here.

This illustration of Spidey’s boot shows the basic layout of the web lines as well as how the seam of our boot will fall (roughly). I’ve also shown the boot without webs, but with seam, and the basic fabric shape folded for sewing. This should give us a rough idea of how to start working in the web pattern.

Take a look at the pics of my boot test sewing in the previous post to see how this sort of translates in “real life.”

We see that the webs come down pretty straight on the calf/ankle portion, continue straight down the heel in the back, but fan out across the top and sides of the foot.

Start playing with your straight web lines on the boot pattern, but don’t commit to anything right away. Lay down some lines, think about how it plays into the final shape, erase and re-draw, move and shift, trial and error.

You’ll note that we’re drawing the web lines to converge at the bottom, at the middle of the sole. If you’re thinking that most of this won’t show in the end, you’re right. But since it’s hard to judge exactly where the sole will be when wearing the boots, the best strategy is to over-cover the territory so that we don’t guess wrong and end up with gaps. Plus, you’ll eventually be adding some kind of external sole to the boots, which will cover the bottoms of the sock-boots anyway.

Once you get the vertical lines how you like them, add the horizontal web lines layer and start playing around with those lines.

Keep messing around and cleaning up until you like them.

And then clean up a bit. Trim the color around the Seam Allowance (optional). Hide any layers that shouldn’t show (like thos bright yellow rulers and the sole trace).

 

Reiterations and Tips:

• The takeaway here is not the way I have done the webs, but to get an understanding of how it will all lay out. Yours will turn out different from mine, both in measurements and style.
• Play with the lines, see how it looks, think about how it will translate to the finished product. Don’t be afraid to erase part of it or all of it and start over if you don’t like it!
• Please do get some spandex from the local fabric store and do what I did: Make a version of this that you draw on with permanent marker to test the layout of the web lines. You could get a handful of “test” boots out of a yard of fabric. Once you get a feel for the web lines, you can digitize them and order the final printing.

Sewing the boot

This is…well, pretty simple. If you’ve gotten the pattern right, and the design laid out on the pattern right, then you’ve done the hard part. Now you just have to sew one seam.

Fold the fabric along the center line with the backside (non-colored) side showing, matching up the toes and sides. Use chalk to mark the 5/8 inch seam allowance. Sew. Turn right side out. And there’s a sock-boot.

Unless I missed something, we have one piece of the actual costume left: the Mask.

That will be a bit tricky, in more ways than one, but we’ll get to that next time.

Boot Testing & Unexpected Leggings

A costume. Well, most of a costume. That needs some detail work.

Well, all of a sudden, I am one glove and some finishing work away from a finished multi-piece costume. How about that?

I got the printed fabric for the leggings really fast, and so threw those together this morning. (That is such a fast pattern to sew!) I decided to go ahead and put together what I have, minus the mask.

I need to sew the other glove, hem the gloves, fix and hem the tops of the boots (I just cut these off of the ill-fated bodysuit I sewed a while back), finish the eyes for the mask, hem the top of the collar, finish off the hem of the shirt, and add Velcro to secure the shirt to pants and boots to pants (I think I can do without Velcro for the glove<–>sleeve connection). So–practically done, right? (Oh, I forgot I need soles for the sock-boots too…)

Speaking of sock-boots, don’t think that I have forgotten the tutorial! I was doing some tweaking and testing of my boot pattern today. I just wasn’t feeling to confident about my instructions, partly because I have never sewn from them in their exact form (again, the boots above are from the bodysuit pattern, while the ones in the tutorial are my own pattern).

To test what I’m working on, I used some spare fabric from the leggings printing to rough out a sock-boot from my newly modified pattern. I did this the old-fashioned way, making a paper pattern, tracing onto the fabric, and then using permanent marker for the test web lines. The pattern under the boots below is an old version, so ignore that!

The pattern itself works fairly well, except that I need to make it longer/taller to give it a better chance of staying up on its own. The best knowledge from this mock-up came from drawing the lines and seeing where they fell. Now I think I am closer to having a good idea of how to do the lines for the digital pattern to get it to come out right in the final printing.

So…stay tuned and stuff.

Advisory Interlude: Last Chance to Save Yourself

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).

http://www.therpcstudio.com/shop/

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:

• Cost is up front, all at once, whereas you can spread out the cost of making your own (especially in pieces)
• The default designs at RPC are very air-brushy and almost overworked (my opinion).
• You can get some customization, but there is likely an extra charge, and it is unclear whether you can send an entirely customized design
• Where’s the challenge? The learning? The valuable experience? The activity to fill up hours and hours of time you might otherwise have to spend cleaning or spending time with your loved ones?

Pros:

• It might save you money in the long run, especially if you are new to sewing/costume making. It depends on how many mistakes and do-overs are involved, whether or not you own a sewing machine, etc.
• It will probably save you time in the long run, especially if you are new to sewing/costume making.
• The accessories such as the eye frames/lenses, face shell, and shoe attachments are included (UPDATE: Maybe not. Looks like an extra $220), and they are very professional and finished looking. (But to be fair, you can order those separately for your own costume, if you want.)

Here is an image from their site showcasing some of their costumes:

http://www.therpcstudio.com/shop/

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! 🙂

Returning to the Quest with a Successful Failure

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.

Maybe Just a Little Sewing this Weekend…

I decided to go ahead and see what I could salvage from the traditional costume, and so set to work ripping some seams and removing zipppers, slicing and dicing…

Now I have a pair of high-waisted Spider-leggings:

I could probably take a little more off the top. If I do the shirt, it will have velcro along the bottom to attach to velcro along the line of the bottom of the red belt portion remaining on the impromptu leggings, to keep it snug and hide the leftover pattern of the former torso section.

I also now have a standalone mask, with a velcro-thingy to snug it in the back (the velcro area will mostly be hidden if I end up doing the shirt):

So, I feel like the work on this costume doesn’t have to be a total loss.

Anyway…happy Sunday everyone! Rest up for the week ahead!

 

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?)

Ditko Multi-Piece Design, 4th Grade Homework, Unicorn Blood, & Flu Vaccines

Costume Stuff

I have completed work on the multi-piece Ditko design! (Boots and mask are off-screen in the above image.)

I will probably order the shirt portion in a week or two, which–along with the mask and boots that are part of the order in process–will leave just the leggings and gloves. The only thing I am a bit sad about is that the leggings and gloves portion will not fit into a yard’s worth of fabric, despite my rotating and rearranging. That doubles the cost for that portion.

I might be able to make the leggings shorter at the base, considering that the boots will cover that part anyway.  I need to do some fresh measuring and maybe some experimenting with the black leggings I made way back when.

The Non-Costume Stuff: Fourth Grade Homework, Unicorn Blood, & Flu Vaccines

As I mentioned before,  most of my available time has been in the early morning, when the noise of sewing is unwelcome in my household. The daytime hours are all about going to work, of course, and the evenings have been about squeezing in my workouts, runs, and the jump in homework time that my daughter is experiencing as part of starting fourth grade!

I also got my annual physical exam yesterday, as “encouraged” by my health insurance. I get strangely interested in my blood work results nowadays. Probably a sign of old age. (The results are all good, in case you were wondering. My blood is kind of like unicorn blood: immensely pure and possessed of magical healing properties.)

The doctor, as usual, encouraged me to get the flu vaccine. I have never gotten the flu vaccine. But then, I’m not sure that I’ve ever gotten the flu either. If I ever contracted the flu, it had to have been back in high school. I don’t see much reason to get the flu vaccine.

Here’s my logic:

A) Point: The flu virus evolves year to year
B) Point: Due to the evolution of the flu virus, the vaccine in a given year is a “best guess” vaccine based on last year’s flu strain.
C) Point: In any given year (to date), I will have not gotten the flu the previous year…
D) Therefore, my antibodies were sufficient to prevent the previous year’s flu strain.
E) Therefore, my body’s antibodies are at least as effective at preventing the flu as the current flu vaccine formulation.
F) Conclusion: There is no reason for me to get a flu vaccination.

I can’t claim that this theory is based on any real medical or scientific evidence. But it makes perfect sense to me. Plus, stating things like this to my girlfriend is always a fun way to make her shake her head and roll her eyes at me.

 Happy Hump Day Everyone!

Mostly Digital Progress…

I have the new fabric printing on the way, with the easier glove templates for the traditional costume and the standalone mask and boots for the Ditko suit for testing and hopeful final inclusion in that version. But I haven’t had a good block of time for sewing more of the traditional costume. I mean, not a good block of time when the rest of the house is awake and would not resent me for running the sewing machine. So I have been focusing on the modified template for the Ditko suit with separate shirt, leggings, etc.

This started out as just slicing up the existing bodysuit pattern, but now that I am a good bit through my second sewing of said bodysuit pattern, I am finding more and more reason to replace entire portions of it with patterns I have used at home.

For example, the shirt. The bodysuit pattern has the back side of the shirt split vertically. And because of the mask being connected at the neck, trying to slice the pattern into separate shirt and mask required having these odd and lonely neck/shoulder side pieces.

But there was just no good reason to deal with all that in a standalone shirt pattern. So I digitally re-created the paper shirt pattern I came up with way back when and adapted the webbing and color pattern to fit.

Also, considering that I have fought with the leggings portion (specifically the crotch/inseam) of the existing template twice now, I will be re-creating the leggings portion in the template using the slightly modified leggings template from Sew So Easy that I have had such success with in the past.

While I’m at it, I am going to use the simpler form of the gloves pattern. Ultimately, the only parts of the original template I will be using will be the mask (modified for separation), and the boots (modified for separation).

There are a couple of other advantages to doing the version with separate pieces. For one: No Zippers! Zippers stress me out. And the separate-pieces costume will be easier to get in and out of. Plus, I can order the fabric printings in smaller chunks. I can spread out the costs, and reorder replacement pieces if needed without having to reorder the whole thing (and redo just those pieces rather than the whole dang thing!).

Next weekend, I’m hoping to have time to finish off everything but the gloves on the traditional costume. The fabric printing with the gloves should come soon after that. Theoretically, I can have the traditional costume done before I leave for Japan. But there is a lot to do for that trip, so we’ll see!

The Crotchening Part 2: Redemption

There’s always a lot of debate about sequels, and whether they are ever better than the originals. I think that–as with so many things–you have to judge such things on an individual basis. Sometimes the sequel is as good in a different way, but other times it’s an obvious cash-grabbing abomination. And sometimes it’s better. Spider-Man 2 (Raimi series), the Dark Knight, Captain America: Winter Soldier…and the Crotchening Part 2.

If you haven’t seen the original Crotchening, check it out. Or don’t. It’s not that exciting. Basically, it was my first attempt at spandex leggings, and I ended up with major bunching issues at the crotch seams. It’s a kind of tragic tale because in this original Crotchening story, the crotch in question could not be saved. But in this new story of the Crotchening, there is a much happier ending. There is triumph.

Now, I should have taken a “before” pic, but I was too concerned with the problem at hand, i.e the fact that there was a small but unable-to-unsee crease front and center on the seam of the crotch, coming up about a half inch from the seam. I tried and tried to rationalize it away, to say it’s “not that bad.” Even my girlfriend tried to convince me that it was not a big deal.

But, no, it was a big deal. It was unacceptable.

So last night, I tweaked, picked at the seams, tried minor hacks and fixes, but these were either minimally helpful or just made it worse.  Finally, this morning, I decided that it was a do or die situation, and got out the scissors. Maybe if I cut out just the least amount of fabric possible so that I could re-sew that section of the seam… If it didn’t work, then this costume build was over halfway through.

Unbelievably, it did work. The crotch has been saved.

Oh, and I got other stuff done before that too:

The Mask/shoulders:

The Feet/legs:

There are still some pretty big steps to complete, but at least with the salvation of the crotch, I feel like it’s worth continuing to those next steps. I know it sounds a bit melodramatic, but when you’re wearing a skin-tight spandex bodysuit, you really don’t want to draw any more attention to the crotch than necessary.

As for today: I will be happy if I can successfully sew the gloves together. They gave me fits last time and never did turn out exactly right. I’m hoping the guide numbers/letters I had printed on the fabric this time will make it more clear.

One step at a time.