This is going to be a long post but I hope it will help someone else in working out this costume.
First things first - this is going to seem a bit sad - but I had a bit of a slow, wet weekend, so, being stuck indoors, I decided I would identify every frame of the movie which featured Scarlet Witch's Leipzig Airport Battle costume. In total there were 1,428 frames which was precisely 59.5 seconds at a rate of 24 frames per second. That is all that you ever see of this costume in Captain America Civil War - less than a minute of on-screen time. However, it is still an amazing costume and I am hoping to help my partner in cosplay crime to put it together for the 2017 Convention Season.
I always start off with a lot of research and thinking about how the costume will go together given the materials that it is made of. Particularly when working with leather it is important to get it right the first time as once it is sewn it isn't going to be able to be unpicked.
As I said, I started by checking the movie version frame by frame. Below is a table of the frames in which the costume appears.
EDIT: When I originally inserted the text below it was a TAB delineated table type thingy. Upon posting it just runs it all together, so if you want to use it you might have to copy and paste it into a word processor.
Start time Frame Finish time Frame Total frame(s) Features
01:31:49 02 01:35:51 11 58 Skirts
01:32:05 11 01:32:08 06 68 Upper jacket, upper corset
01:32:10 23 01:32:12 08 34 Shoulders
01:32:22 15 01:32:23 05 15 Distance shot of front
01:32:26 23 01:32:28 04 32 Bottom of rear skirt
01:32:30 11 01:32:31 05 19 Suede side panel; front of jacket
01:32:31 06 01:32:32 15 34 Upper back of jacket from waist
01:32:32 16 01:32:33 04 13 Under sleeve; right hand rings; texture
01:34:09 19 01:34:13 02 80 Complete costume front and side
01:34:14 12 01:34:18 17 102 Complete costume (obscured)
01:34:18 18 01:34:20 10 41 Complete costume from side (distant)
01:34:21 23 01:34:23 17 43 Skirts
01:34:26 17 01:34:28 14 45 Long partly obscured view
01:34:30 16 01:34:33 07 64 Rear oblique view
01:34:33 08 01:34:35 19 60 Complete costume from front (distant)
01:34:51 20 01:34:54 12 65 Top of jacket; obscured
01:35:02 07 01:35:03 21 39 Skirts; distant shot
01:35:12 16 01:35:14 05 38 Skirts; distant shot
01:35:27 18 01:35:28 16 23 Three quarter front view
01:35:48 06 01:35:48 22 17 Back of jacket; back of sleeve cap
01:35:52 01 01:35:54 02 50 Close up of entire jacket front
01:36:10 21 01:36:11 12 16 Close up of top of jacket; top of corset
01:36:11 13 01:36:12 16 33 Under right sleeve; back of jacket (best view of “Waistband”)
01:41:10 21 01:41:12 08 36 Top half jacket
01:41:12 09 01:41:13 23 49 Back shoulders; sleeves
01:41:42 06 01:41:43 16 35 Top of corset
01:41:46 10 01:41:47 11 26 Back of costume (distant)
01:41:48 16 01:41:49 09 18 Sleeve under forearm slash (best); corset; gloves
01:41:49 10 01:41:50 08 23 Sleeve cap; glove;
01:43:56 17 01:43:59 24 80 Distance shot
01:44:00 01 01:44:01 06 30 Collar; shoulder; texture (closest)
01:44:02 07 01:44:05 24 90 Collar; shoulder; texture (closest)
01:44:28 18 01:44:30 21 52 Upper jacket; upper corset
1,428
(59.5 seconds)
Pretty sad way to spend half a day but it is a great resource. I have used it many times already.
THE JACKET
I believe the jacket is made of all leather (no surprises there I suppose). There is clearly an embossed or printed leather, a suede and a plain leather.
I would really like to use something very close to the embossed leather on the screen used version. Knowing full well that my chances of finding anything like it are pretty close to nil, I am thinking that I might try having a plate with a pattern of my own design 3D printed and I could press the pattern into the leather. I have come up with a pattern and would like to invite anyone to critique it and suggest improvements. It is the best I have been able to come up with given the resolution of the image I have.
I have put together some basic diagrams to help me understand the construction of the jacket.
SKIRTS
First there are the skirts. I know there has been a bit of discussion about this and so here is my take on it. The front panels seem easy enough, however, the back panels are very full, so therefore most likely pleated. I am thinking that the back skirts are probably in two parts with a spit up the middle at the back - at least that is what it looks like in the promo pictures and the movie stills. So I have come up with a basic construction idea which uses folds instead of sewn seams wherever possible. This should make the inside of the skirt as neat as it can be and hopefully should help to make it billow about when running. I am pretty sure there is a turn-back, an under pleat and another turn-back between the side and the rear back skirt panels on each side, but I am not sure if there is a turn-back and an under pleat at the very back skirt vent (I am not sure what the correct terminology is for these things as I am a completely self taught costume maker). I have put two construction diagrams below with both versions. I thought it would be great to do it as two pieces only with no seams but the pattern would not be square so I figure it has to be done as two pieces of leather with the pattern squared on each of the rear skirts. I hope this is making sense. If it isn't feel free to ask questions.
The bottom of the skirts pieces are not hemmed. That is OK because it is leather and doesn't need to be. The bottom of the skirt actually will look much sharper without a hem but those skirt pieces will require very careful cutting to make sure they look right.
Are the rear skirts lined? Maybe. I am going to line them in the same material the corset is made of. The lining however is not sewn to the bottom of the skirt panels. It will be hemmed and will just float from the waistband being tacked to the seams at the bottom just to hold it in place. If you have ever owned a long leather coat you will probably have noticed that the lining often doesn't attach at the bottom.
BODICE
The bodice is pretty straight forward except that there is a dart running vertically from the waistband which you may not have noticed. There is also a triangular panel which runs from the shoulder to the side seam which works a bit like a princess seam. That panel along with the dart makes room for the bust.
The front of the jacket is dead strait and vertical from the bottom of the front skirt to the waistband. I know this because there is no seam. There is simply a fold in the leather to form the edge of the opening and, as folds are usually straight the edge of the jacket must be. The folded leather then turns back to make a facing section before the lining starts. I have created a basic image to show the way the leather will be cut to create the outer shell of the bodice, skirt and waistband to make the turned back facing.
SLEEVES
The sleeves are a mess of different leathers sewn together. On the shoulder there is a panel of suede. At the back of this there is a panel of plain leather attached with four lines of top stitching running vertically down it. There is the ribbed elbow section but that doesn't go all the way around because on the inside of the sleeve is a section of suede which runs all the way from the wrist to the armpit. Something I have noticed about this section is that it is slashed into five strips. I reckon that these five strips are attached to a section of elastic so that Elizabeth Olsen can flap her arms about madly without bending the leather out of shape. Because of the elastic the arms always stay tight. Because of the need for mobility there is also a gusset sewn into the arm pit. Because of the fairly rigid nature of leather, if you lift your arm above your head the whole side of the jacket will lift up as well, but the gusset remedies that problem (see: 1:32:32, frames 22-24, and; 1:32:33, frames 1-4; for plenty of gusset action).
CORSET
I haven't really thought about the corset yet. That looks pretty straight forward. I will probably close it in the back with a zipper and a hook and eye. It doesn't look boned to me and, as has already been suggested here, I will probably make it out of silk and coutil. I agree that the cord is not leather and is not elastic, as I initially suggested above.
I have to stress that none of my illustrations are patterns. They are just really rough construction diagrams which allow me to work out how many elements there are, how they may be attached to each other, the order they may be assembled, where the top stitching goes, etc. The next step will be to make a mock-up based on the dimensions of the eventual wearer.
If anyone would like to discuss any of the stuff here I would be more than happy to be informed and corrected.