Star Trek Romulan Commander

Jessica

This is going to be my next project, which seems fairly easy. Has anybody made the outfit yet?

Chronos

Very cool. I'd love to see this done.

Would you try to find a close match to the material, or have something printed?

Angelus Lupus

I've always liked the TOS Romulan uniforms, such a unique style in terms of material and colour use. Shame then went all grey for TNG.

Jessica

I think I'm going to silkscreen the fabric myself.

rosstheboss

I'm fairly sure you could find something very close and jut have it dyed to match. I'm not sure if it would be easier than silkscreening though.
Good luck! It'll look relly great when it's done!

Kezler

You can find the black/gold ribbon fabric at ISW in Beverly Hills! It's the same exact fabric - you buy it in black and highlight it with gold paint like the originals.

Jessica

Kezler, I am not familiar with ISW in Beverly Hills. Is there a website? Also I thought the fabric was silver, not gold. The photo I posted looks like a weird magenta, but I re-watched the DVD and the red matches the red paint that you see on the Enterprise.

feek61

I always thought that the fabric was some weird crochet material, lol. Looking forward to seeing what you can do with this. It's a great costume . . . and VERY short! There is a scene (I think it's when she goes in to change into something more appropriate) that you can see the skirt does not cover her rear. Gene liked them short!

SgtFang

I "think" he's talking about "International Silks & Woolens"

http://www.internationalsilks.com/In...lens/Home.html

I know they supplied fabrics to the movies and TNG, so maybe they supplied some to TOS too?

Good Luck!

-Sarge

Jessica

I see...well, bring it on!!

phasersonthrill

Very daring indeed.






Here is the original sketch by William Ware Theiss.



It is a knitted design pattern, ISW did provide the original fabric, I do not know if it or a alternative is still available.

The following link shows what the fabric looks like, this item was Shatners imposter outfit so its not the color you want, but it does give you a very close look at the knit pattern.
http://startrekpropauthority.blogspo...-shatners.html


A thread that might help some.
http://startrekuniforms.yuku.com/topic/522


Good luck with your project!

Jessica

Wow that's just fabulous --the photos!! Very very helpful...Thank you. I'm going to look through my knitting books and see what I can come up with. I always thought it was a woven pattern, but you can pull the same look with knitting. If I get desperate and can't come up with a pattern then I'll just test a small patch with a bulky woven pattern and see how silkscreening looks on that.

I couldn't figure out the heart/dart shapes, but Kirk's outfit is the clearest I have seen.

CreedsGalBirdy

An acquaintance of mine did this costume for Dragon*Con a couple of years ago. I'll see if I can't find a pic this week.

I've seen a lot of similar fabrics at various shops, usually the places that have been around forever and still have stock leftover from their first year of business! Good luck in your hunt.

dani

lightning_st0rm

Oooh, I'm excited to see this one! The world needs more TOS Romulans. Good luck and can't wait to see the progress!

Jessica

This was the only yarn I had available at home, but I needed to get the pattern started so I went with it. The bottom portion was too big, so I made a smaller pattern. I am afraid to go smaller for the pattern, because it may end up looking like spots instead of triangles. It's really tough to knit with two colors since I am not really used to it, and the yarn kept tangling up on me. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon enough. I have a whole year to get this perfected so I'm not really worried. I took a photo of my hand for sizing purposes, and to make sure that the size of the triangles aren't overwhelming for me. If I get a thinner gauge yarn (I just measured the gauge, and it is DK weight based on this website: http://www.knittersreview.com/articl...e/050818_d.asp), the whole pattern will look smaller.



Here is a photograph of the pattern I drew up on a spreadsheet, so if anybody out there is interested in knitting their own, they can start.


Looking at the reference photos, I will go with red as the main color and do black triangles on there.

Kezler

Sorry, yes, I meant International Silks and Woolens. GREAT store with stuff you won't see anywhere else, but VERY pricey too.

The "red" is not a true red...it is more of a magenta like you initially thought. But it reads red on film stock.

I saw Mark Lenard's (sp?) original Romulan Commander uniform at WorldCon back in 2006. NICE!

Guri

You know, that looks more to me like a triangle pattern with holes showing black fabric underneath. I don't know anything about crocheting to tell you what it's called, but my son had a blanket with that pattern. (my late grandmother made it or else I could have asked her. )

Something like this:




Looked like the center rows between these blocks:

Jessica

You know what? I think you are right! I went to the fabric store today and found black fabric with a triangle pattern. If I put red on it, it would kinda simulate the red portion of the suit. I'll post photos of it soon.

Jessica

Here is the fabric I found today. The fabric to the right feels like a sweater already. It's very loosely woven and I will need to sew a lining under there.


I think the triangles are too small, but there is an evident pattern so I can easily snip out larger triangles. This is as close to the Romulan fabric as I can get.

darthgordon

Hmmm... this really shows this to be one piece to me

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_XNPD380IpB...5_innerleg.jpg

Have you looked at the season 3 Blueray? I'm sure HD would provide much better pictures.

Guri

Darthgordan, yeah, the darker fabric looks like one piece, but the magenta looks to have holes. Even if it doesn't, it is one way to get the texture if you can't find the pattern.

Jessica, That is really close! Are you going to try to color it, or use the red as the contrast under it?

Jessica

I bought a $4 red sweater from a thrift shop today. Thinking also of sewing in the triangles with a blunt needle and black yarn so it's one piece of fabric...but for the life of me can't remember what this technique is called!

Guri, I can't color the fabric because it's a polyester blend that won't take in dyes well. I guess I could always spray it with fabric paint though!! Hmm...that's a thought.

I'll see and do a test swatch and see which one looks closest to the Romulan fabric. This is so fun!!

Kezler

I have a fabric swatch card of this fabric. The black backing is a mesh netting fabric and the "red" or "blue" is knitted onto the black.
The fabric is then backed or lined with a black fabric. Otherwise the black netting would show everything! LOL

Jessica

Kezzler, can you please post a photo of this swatch? I would love to see it up close...the front and the back.

Kezler

I can take a pic of the card, but the swatch is embedded so I can't take a pic of the back of the fabric.