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?)
Spider-Man Mashup Cosplay Costume: 