Superman & Wonder Woman for Halloween 2014

Every Halloween my wife and I throw a themed party with costumes etc. This past year it was "Cops & Criminals", the year before it was "Pirates", 2011 it was "undead"...etc.

However Halloween around our house next year will be an extra special event in that Oct. 31st 2014 will be our 10th wedding anniversary as well. The theme for the party will be "Comic Book Characters" and because of the nature of the occasion I thought that for this year it would be nice for us to take a step beyond the "Party City" level of costuming and to go ahead and assemble outfits of better quality which would be a bit more memorable.

I let me wife choose the characters we would go as and she picked Wonder Woman & Superman.

Wonder Woman

We spent a few hours looking at various cosplay Wonder Woman costumes and decided to create a base outfit which could be adapted to either a modern look or to have a more "classic" appearance by subbing out a a few pieces. So far we have found many items on line which look like they will work to assemble most of the main parts of the costume (red pleather corset, dark blue metallic leggings, and "Wonder Woman" boots from Funtasia) leaving it to me to construct the details and accessories.

So over the next few months I will be working on custom tiara(s), belts, "WW/Eagle" chest symbol and perhaps a small buckler style shield. Due to my business, I have a bit of sculpting experience and the materials already on-hand to fabricate these parts in my workshop so I am reasonably confident about being able to get these pieces done over the next few months. However I will definitely be looking at pictures of every cosplay costume and printed/drawn image of Wonder Woman that I can find to draw inspiration from as well as accepting any comments or advice which may be offered by all of you as I want this costume to be something that my wife will be very happy with.

Superman

Unlike my wife's costume which I generally have a plan for, the Superman costume for myself is where I am still a bit in the dark.

First off is the decision as to which version of Superman to look at assembling. Right now I think the choices are narrowed down to either the theatrical Man of Steel version or a Kingdom Come style outfit. I like the look of both and that is making the decision more difficult. Also, I have very little sewing experience which means that I will probably have to either purchase a pre-made suit from somewhere or take the materials to someone locally to be sewn up and tailored to fit.

Add into this the fact that while I am not too badly out of shape I will definitely need to put some work into losing about 15# and adding more muscle definition to my frame before any suit of spandex is going to look good which means that as it stands, except from my height and shoe size I do not even have an accurate set of measurements to work from.

So for the moment, (aside from starting a new exercise program) most of my work on this suit will be all research. So far I have spent a few hours reading through the various "Superman" threads on this forum and have learned quite a bit however I do have a ~lot~ more to learn and many questions..

1. I have seen that there are a number of places to purchase costumes on the web in the $180-$300 price range like "Costumebase" and "Cosplaysky" from Asia and from reading here and in a few other places it seems that the products these companies produce are generally a notch above the costumes and accessories found at Party City and Spirit stores but still suffer from some significant shortcomings. Is that an accurate assessment? Has anyone here had any experience purchasing a "Man of Steel" suit from one of these places?

2. From reading through the threads here I have seen that there are options for having a custom costume pattern printed out from places like "Fabric on Demand" and then tailoring those pieces into the costume. This seems like the better option over purchasing a pre-sewn suit from one of the companies I listed in the question above however I am nearly clueless as to where to begin to shop for the print design to use or what fabric(s) and inks that I should be asking them to print the suit with. Is there an estimate as to how much going this route would run (for just the print design and fabric)? What is the general turn around time from placing an order for fabric and having the order arrive at your door?

3. Since I am certain that there are probably many other questions and potential problems that I haven't thought of I would like to ask...

"What advice would you give to someone like myself who is just starting out on projects like these"?
 
Well, I picked up the basic muscle pattern from Neo Designs and decided to see about starting a Kingdom Come Superman Pattern.

KC-sample_zps01ba854d.jpg


I am really trying to get the particular shade of blue setup so that it will have the appropriate look. I am also experimenting with trying to give the emblem a slightly raised look to help set it off just a bit better over a completely flat appearing print.

I may also look at adding a very fine mesh texture layer over the blue just to see it that helps it pop.
 

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Really cool:)
I was about to say that i personally would go for the kingdom come look beca se its more original, and definitely brings something new to the table as opposed to the many man of steel outfits out there.. Thats just the hipster in me i guess haha. Well i definitely would choose the printed custom option because that makes for a better fit and look, since pre sewn suits are very general in their sizing, but they are more costly so thats something to think about
 
I have always felt that the simple but darker look of the Kingdom Come variant was an excellent design on Alex Ross' part. Ultimately I might like to have one of each of the main versions of the costume but for right now I think that the KC suit is a fairly good one to learn and develop my design skill with.

I prefer the idea of a printed and custom tailored suit over something pre-sewn as well. I just need to find someone here in Houston that I can work with for the assembly/sewing of the pieces once they are printed.

Here is a closer look at the emblem and the "raised" effect that I am experimenting with for it.

KC-sample2_zpsf06eed77.jpg
 
my two cents, is make sure you get samples from fabric on demand if youn choose them. the colour you see on your screen will not be the final colour you get printed. i hear their lycra is much better now but it only costs a few bucks to get a sample made. if i had to do it again i would get their swatch files. they sell a set of swatch files for each fabric so you can pick the exact colour and the rgb values for it and make sure your colours are bang on each time.
they also tend to have a pretty quick turn around time especially if you are in the u.s. and they have great customer service and answer any and all questions.

i sewed my own suit and its not all that complicated if you want to tackle it yourself. with regard the pattern, i would make sure of a few things. first off the sleeves. a lot of these files are based on spider-man patterns with gloves and the patterns generally get modified by simply chopping the gloves off the pattern but this can result in the sleeves being too short due to the fact that the gloves keep the tension in pulling the sleeve down the arm, remove the glove and remove the tension and you end up with sleeves too short because the fabric isn't long enough to sit at wrist level. so make sure you measure your sleeves and account for this if it hasn;t been already. better to have too much and simply hem it than not enough and ruin the look of the suit.
for the symbol, play around with "bevel" and "emboss" effects in photoshop and add in some shadow to help really sell it. i did this to my man of steel symbol and while the effect is subtle i think it adds to it.

also i would maybe consider the zipper straight up the back instead of a u style normally associated with these dye sub suits, the cape will conceal it and it is easier sewn.

just my two cents. good luck with the suit, i would love to see a kingdom come suit really well done.
 
Also i should say adding some pattern as a texture gives the suit a really nice look as opposed to a flat color. Although i really have no idea how to make or apply it to your file
 
look for a tutorial on youtube for defining a pattern in photoshop. its easy to do. i used it to great effect for my star trek 09 shirt
 
Well I took your advice and started messing around with embossing the emblem, adding patterns and even playing around with the lighting effects in PS. As an experiment for a texture I decided to mess around with a modified "Man of Steel" chain mail pattern for the cloth and a solid rubber/acrylic look for the shield. While this is not the look that I am "sold" on yet it definitely adds some more visual interest to the suit design.

KC-sample3_zpsa4289156.jpg


KC-sample3a_zps72eb67ae.jpg
 
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