Tank striping and visor, take two

I've got the tank striping done - I used Prostripe multistripes, since I couldn't find a plain 1/8 in stripe. I just cut off the smaller one and used the one I needed - worked like a charm! I'll seal it later, still figuring out with what.

Visor part two is coming together, made of a much thinner plastic (an old plastic frame insert) and Gila Super Limo Black Scratch Resistant Window Film. We'll see how that works :P

Cummerbund

I actually made two of these, but not because I wanted to.

I bought a heavy white cotton fabric, both times I made it, which worked well> But the second time I bought padding, both for the cummerbund itself and for the pockets, and it's made a world of difference to the way it looks.

I used the pattern available on the Studio Creations how-to site (http://www.studiocreations.com/howto/bikerscout/index.html) to start with. From there, I measured out how wide it would need to be to look right on me (since the measurements are for men, and were much longer than they needed to be, but maybe not quite as wide, since women - and especially me - have hips). I created a mock up, tried it on, and gave it the seal of approval. I used this method both times, with great success.

The first time, as I mentioned, I didn't use foam, and the foam makes all the difference as far as I'm concerned. Without it, the cummerbund looks flat and lifeless, is droopy and doesn't really look like a part of an 'armored' costume. The foam gives it a more canon look, not to mention giving some life to the damn thing. Bad enough that it already looks like a diaper!

The foam I used was approximately 1/2 inch thick. I could have gone down to 1/4, but I think the 1/2 in actually works out nicely. I made sure that my mock up, and the subsequent fabric cut allowed for enough room (but not too much) to slide the foam in tightly when the seam allowances were sewed up, and then amde the codpiece type deal as well, along with foam and seam allowances.

I sewed the belt part and the codpiece part in two separate pieces, and then attached them after both were done. The resulting piece looks more like the movie shots to me, and just generally looks better the way I see it.

I reused the original black elastic from my first attempted cumberbund (approximately 10 inches, with velcro on the inside of the cumberbund. I also closed up the back using velcro, soft side on the outside part that would be covered, and the hook on the inside part. I did an overlock stitch on the edges so I wouldn't lose any more length, and the resulting look I personally like. It may not be for everyone, even if it isn't very visable.

The back velcro I did vertically, although in hindsight (and I may even change it) I'd do it horizontally - at least as a woman. With hips, the whole cumberbund equation changes!

I need to take pictures of the new one, and then post pictures of both still. I'll do that this week.

Boots

I used a tutorial written by JeezyCreezy over on bikerscout.net:

(http://capricornarmor.com/Bootorial/bootorial.html)

I followed this near exactly. The tools and items I had and used were:

1 - pair of men's hiking boots, purchased at Target for $18.99. Tan soles.
1 - Riveter, with 5/8 in small rivets + washers
1 - Scotch brand adhesive (brand unknown, but I think I still have the tube)
1 - extremely shark knife (hobby, exacto, etc)
1 - pair of sissors
1 - yard of white vinyl, medium weight.

Also needed were sew-on velcro strips, numerous push-pins, white thread, my sewing machine, and a cutting mat.

I followed the tutorial exactly, except for the cutting out of the plastic on the heels detail he talks about at the end. I might do that at a later time. Even for my shoe size (9 ladies) I used the same dimensions with the boot cut outs, and it worked well for me. I suggest doing as he mentions however, and really making sure that you do the measuring with the paper first, else you'll end up starting over.

They came out pretty well, if I do say so:

Done is all a state of mind

I don't know that I'll ever be done, but I'm wearable :)

I didn't stop and blog a lot of what I did while I was doing it last weekend, but I'm going to break it out here and add information. I learned a lot doing the pieces I finished, and even so much in one case that I remade it.

I'm extremely pleased with it, and other than a slight bit of yellow in the plastic of the armor in some lightings (bah!) I couldn't be happier.

I ended up with a new sewing machine too in the middle of all this, and let me tell you - it made all the difference in the quality of the things that I was sewing (a Husqvarna Viking Platinum 730 for reference). I'll break eat thing out into a separate post.

Armor part - done!

Some lesson's learned:

-The belt box cutting is hell. A dremel works best, but be careful. Be thankful that most of the SA stuff comes pre-cut.
-Have a lighter handy to melt the end of the webbing, or else it becomes unmanagable.
-Don't mess up a rivet. Trust me. To remove a rivet that is not properly washered, or whathave you is like an hour long, profanity-ridden process.
-Have a full length mirrior handy while doing the belt part. It's really the only sure way to make sure the boxes are even.

In other news, I picked up some medium vinyl for the boots, as well as the boots themselves (men's, from target, $18.99). I got fabric for the cumberbund, elastic, velcro, etc - All the ingredients. Also some semi-gloss spray paint for the blaster - which I started on last night, cleaning all the mold release off with acetone and scrubbing it, then letting it dry.

Tomorrow will most likely be sewing machine shopping, but hopefully I'll be able to get some work done.

adventures in riveting

I'd reached an impass with what I could do without a riveter, so we finally went out and got one. All told with rivets it cost us about $22, for the tool and approximately 100 rivets. We got the Arrow brand riveter ($17.99), and the Arrow brand rivets ($4.89) - 1/8th aluminum, short length. These were a perfect size to connect both the back tank, and the belt pieces together. The only other addition I would recommend - and really it's a must - are the washers for the back of the rivets. You only need these when riveting through cloth, but honestly without them you're going to ruin the straps as well as your evening.

I'll be going back to get the washers tonight so I can finish the belt. Thank goodness I had the blaster to work on as well else I would have gone nuts. :P

Progress made - 3/29/06

I'd done a lot of the velcro to date, but last night I finished up the sewing of it. A few things of note:

-Sew the velcro with the hook side down, not into the hook side. The thread kept getting caught and I'd have to start over.
-A good square with an X in the middle shape for sewing velcro seems to work best.

The pieces that went into the side of the chest and back were surprisingly difficult to get through the pre-cut holes, so you may want to extend those a touch if you get the SA kit. But I just shoved them through in the interest of not cutting any more than I had to out of the ABS.

All peices of the armor are now done, and I need to move on to blaster or boots or cumberbund. One of those will be started this weekend, is my hope. If not started tonight.

I've got almost everything purchased

Now just comes assembly.

I've got the armor in hand now, and I've started putting it together. Thankfully it came mostly finished, including the slots for the straps. I only need to get a riveter (or whatever you call them) to do most of the rest of the finishing, and finish the straps. I got distracted by my Jocasta Nu costume though, else it'd be mostly done.

So here's the status on all:

Helmet - Same, I still need to tear it down and rework all the pieces before I put it back together.
Gloves - I need to remove the lining and remake new lining, although I'm still thinking I might keep the gloves as is.
Flightsuit -Received! It's awesome. I need to get suade for the legs, and remove a pocket or two, and then that's set.
Armor - Assembly in progress!
Cumberbund - Nothing yet, I'll probably do that last.
Boots - Still figuring out how I'm going to do them, I have ideas.
Gun - Received from Polymer Armory - it's AWESOME.

arrivals

Both the Hemlet and the gloves have arrived, yay! :)

I've learned a lot about what I've got in store for me with the helmet thanks to bikerscout.net - a great messageboard for all things biker scout btw. Even though to me at first quick glance the helmet was -great-, there's a lot of minor, but important mods that need to be done to it to make it both wearable and accurate. Nothing I can't handle. I hope :) Either way it doesn't matter - for the price, you can't beat this helmet.

The gloves are perfect - pretty damn close to the movie too. I highly recommend.

Next will be the flight suit and the blaster - The flight suit I'm going to get from Ted's Military Surplus, and the blaster will be a resin replica from Polymer Armory that I'll need to do the finishing work on.

In the meantime (and inbetween work on my Jocasta Nu costume) I'll probably do some work on the Cumberbund, aka the Imperial Diaper as I've heard it called ;) There's a lot of vendors out there that do good work for low prices, but I'd like to make it, since I can sew. :P

That's it for now. The studiocreations site is a godsend for this project too.

beginnings

Alright, today was payday. I've been sick this week, and with that comes exaustion, and the desire to do nothing more than sit on the couch. My jedi costume sits, one sleeve to go with the mockup, downstairs calling me, but I have no energy.

So what's a girl to do? She starts on her second costme she wants to make this year so far - Scout trooper. :)

So far tonight I've bought a helmet from The Collectors Gallery, and gloves from JC Whitney. I'm trying to be good and only use my fun money to fund this project, and as such I was four dollars short from buying the jumpsuit tonight too. I'm using the walkthrough on the Studio Creations web site - it's really the best resource for this costume that I've found to date, but there's a slew of others out there that I'll be using, and I'll link out to them as I find them.