Batgirl of Burnside (Pic Heavy)

[SMP Designs]

One of my great friends and long-time collaborators, Jordan of Jordan's Ironic Armory, wanted to create a Batgirl for his wife for Halloween 2018. So, naturally, challenge accepted. Here's the reference sheet he sent me for the design.

Like many of our projects, we collaborated and split up the pieces between us. I took on all the soft pieces - the jacket, pants, cape and gloves - and he took on all the 'gold bits' - the accessories and emblem.

The first step was to get a pattern for the jacket and establish scale for the emblem and accessories. I put together a very basic fitted jacket pattern, drew on the lines for the new seams and mocked up the scale for the emblem. I then sent this to Jordan for a fitting.

He marked up the muslin with notes and alterations and sent it back to me. The scale for the emblem was good, so he kept the paper version, scanned it and created a 3d model.

Originally, he thought he'd have a 'leather' texture on the emblem but, after consideration, decided that the gold treatment would look better with a smooth emblem. So, the texture was removed and the emblem pieces were test-printed.

In the meantime, I was working on the jacket. Because Jordan's family is vegan, we couldn't use any real leather products in the build. We found a nice purple faux leather for the main fabric and I decided to use a metallic stretch that I like for the accents. The stripes on the sides of the pants were black jumbo spandex.

I began the jacket with the front. We wanted to have a 'recessed' area for the final emblem to fit into (in a similar fashion to the MCU Cap suits that have the recessed areas that surround the stars). To accomplish this effect, I finalized the pattern based on Jordan's notes, traced the front of the pattern onto the back of the faux leather and then created a 'border' for the emblem out of 2mm craft foam.

The border was glued to the back of the faux leather with Super 77 and then the fabric was trimmed away. A muslin copy of the front was cut and the purple faux leather was applied to cover the emblem space.

I then turned the seam allowance under around the border, laid the shell over the muslin backing and stitched around the border.

 

[SMP Designs]

Part 2:

The other side was assembled the same way and the rest of the jacket was completed. The jacket was lined in gold taffeta and featured polished brass zippers and snaps.

While the jacket was being built, Jordan was hard at work on the emblem and accessories. He created a mold box for the emblem and was able to 3d print the whole thing together. He then created the mold and cast the emblem pieces in rubber with metallic gold powder.

The next steps were to build out the belt and pouches. Jordan took on these pieces and used the concept art to work up the patterns. I sent him some of the metallic gold fabric so that everything would match. He built the belt and all the pouches using faux leather as a base and the gold fabric as the shell.

While Jordan was working on the pouches, I made the gloves using the same gold stretch fabric and brass snaps.

The next piece to complete was the cape. The cape was made of a medium weight black cotton twill and lined with the gold metallic fabric. The lining was fused to the black shell and then the entire edge was finished with a thin black faux leather.

The cape was designed with a yoke that went over the shoulders and snapped to the jacket. The back of the cape was drafted as a half circle and attached to the yoke. This kept the shoulders nice a clean but still allowed for movement and fullness in the cape.

Once all the pieces were assembled, I sent them off to Jordan to put the whole outfit together. I didn't get pictures of the pants, but they were made of the same faux leather with black jumbo spandex stripes down the sides.

And, finally, the whole costume comes together for some Halloween fun.

 

[13doctorwho]

Excellent work. It looks great as always.

 

[SMP Designs]

Excellent work. It looks great as always.

Thanks man! Jordan and I had a fun time on this project and were really happy with how it turned out.

 

[George]

Thanks for sharing yet another successful project!
I especially love the Kobalt Blue colour from post #1

 

[SMP Designs]

Thanks for sharing yet another successful project!
I especially love the Kobalt Blue colour from post #1

Thanks! That faux leather is really a kind of grape-y purple, but depending on the light and the camera it comes off as very blue. It's weird - it always looks a little different.

 

[batmann539]

That’s awesome work. The best one I’ve seen.

Sean

 

[BROTHERFOSTER]

Never ceases to amaze me! INCREDIBLE

 

[SMP Designs]

That’s awesome work. The best one I’ve seen.

Sean

Never ceases to amaze me! INCREDIBLE

Thanks guys! This was a fun project and I always love working with Jordan.

 

[Graphic Jordan]

This was a super fun project, thanks again for your help Sean, as always, I love our collabs! I Need to get some pro shots of this!

 

[BingoMaru]

What gold metallic powder was used for that emblem????

 

[williamsboy]

Awesome work!!

 

[Graphic Jordan]

What gold metallic powder was used for that emblem????

This right here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009OFJDW8/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Any of the Jacquard Pearl Ex Pigments are great! They won't rub off at all. Do not mix it into your rubber, simply brush the molds surface prior to pouring, it's worth noting that this stuff doesn't have 100% cover, so it's best to tint the rubber in a color that compliments it, in this case I tinted it a deeper yellow, whereas if I were casting something silver, I'd tint the rubber either black or gray.

Hope this helps!

 

[AceInSpace]

Would you be willing to share the pattern you used to make the jacket? I've looked EVERYWHERE and it looks like my only options are to design the pattern myself (which I'm ABHORRENT at) or sacrifice details.

 

[Karasuryn]

This is fantastic! Great job!