Captain American Civil War Build (Suit complete-ish! Pictures to come)

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Planning/Reference Gathering)

kiyominai said:

This build is looking great so far...I'm sure you won't need this since you're using cordura but here's an up close photo of the fabric texture

http://i.imgur.com/N1HqxFT.jpg

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Man if aything it's still gorgeous to look at! And it actually helped me confirm one thing I hadn't sussed out yet, the star's different! Looks like they changed the lines that are cut into it. Might need to make a quick mold and cast of my AoU star that I can modify unless someone else makes one in the next few months haha Where'd you get that picture btw?

Edit: I just realized, you created the Avengers fabric texture thread and mentioned in there you were part of the team who printed the suit's texture! So let me just take a moment to say well done, you all created some gorgeous work that I'm sure will be driving me mad for weeks as I try to match it with non-printed fabrics

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Planning/Reference Gathering)

Alright so, yet another fabric choice to agonize over. First off, thanks to SMP Designs for mentioning the Spandex World Ponte. Their burgundy was actually lighter than the cordura I found off ebay, but their wine color was just about the right color, although I'll be checking to see if they've got something inbetween the two before I make my final purchase. BUT, I also got swatches of off-white ponte and ivory ponte from them and am having trouble deciding between the two. This time I made sure to take the pictures while there was still sunlight on my desk, the left has the off-white and the right has the ivory. The off-white works, especially if I'm going to weather, but I also like that the ivory has a more visible weave and the fact that it already looks a bit aged. But at the same time, the ivory might look a bit too yellow depending on the light (even in this picture, it's noticeably more yellow than in real life I guess due to the camera on my phone). So, help me out, do I choose one of these, or look for a different option



And here's a shot of them spliced side by side in case you have trouble seeing the difference.

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Planning/Reference Gathering)

kiyominai said:

This build is looking great so far...I'm sure you won't need this since you're using cordura but here's an up close photo of the fabric texture

http://i.imgur.com/N1HqxFT.jpg

Click to expand...

So I take it the blue and the red are the parts you screened, and parts like that white are actual fabric texture? Is that right or are my eyes deceiving me?

brutuswayne said:

And here's a shot of them spliced side by side in case you have trouble seeing the difference.

View attachment 614055

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Tough call because I like the texture I can see on the off-white better, but in that light, you're right it looks a bit too yellow. If there was a fabric that combined the best of each of them it would be perfect.

-Nick

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Planning/Reference Gathering)

You could do the off white and use a white fabric paint


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Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Planning/Reference Gathering)

starlordquill said:

You could do the off white and use a white fabric paint


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Hm possibly, especially since there's not much which on the suit so it wouldn't be too labor intensive. Although I should probably just suck it up and spend a day in the NYC fabric district looking for a white ponte with the right texture haha

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Planning/Reference Gathering)

brutuswayne said:

Man if aything it's still gorgeous to look at! And it actually helped me confirm one thing I hadn't sussed out yet, the star's different! Looks like they changed the lines that are cut into it. Might need to make a quick mold and cast of my AoU star that I can modify unless someone else makes one in the next few months haha Where'd you get that picture btw?

Edit: I just realized, you created the Avengers fabric texture thread and mentioned in there you were part of the team who printed the suit's texture! So let me just take a moment to say well done, you all created some gorgeous work that I'm sure will be driving me mad for weeks as I try to match it with non-printed fabrics

Click to expand...

Thank you. The photo was sent to me by a friend.

Haha I'm actually more impressed by your build and the fabrics you found. I look forward to your build's completion

TheNickFox said:

So I take it the blue and the red are the parts you screened, and parts like that white are actual fabric texture? Is that right or are my eyes deceiving me?



Tough call because I like the texture I can see on the off-white better, but in that light, you're right it looks a bit too yellow. If there was a fabric that combined the best of each of them it would be perfect.

-Nick

Click to expand...

That's a good question, I don't recall receiving any white fabric around the time we printed them.

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Planning/Reference Gathering)

kiyominai said:

Thank you. The photo was sent to me by a friend.

Haha I'm actually more impressed by your build and the fabrics you found. I look forward to your build's completion

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Well thanks very much! Although I've gotta hand a good amount of credit to SMP Designs, he was the one who first introduced me to the idea of using cordura, ponte de roma, and pleather (in the case of the AoU suit rubber details). But hearing you say that definitely does make me feel more confident in my fabric choices for this build

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Planning/Reference Gathering)

Ref photos (including Winter Soldier): http://hollywoodmoviecostumesandprops.blogspot.com/2016/04/captain-america-civil-war-movie.html

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Planning/Reference Gathering)

*wipes dust off of thread* Well, it certainly took much longer to sort out my fabrics than I thought it would! I knew I wouldn't be able to get officially started on this until May anyway, but I severely underestimated how long two weeks feels! But, I'm finally gonna get to do the duct tape wrap to start the base of my pattern sometime this or next week and then I can go in full force on this project. For now, I at least have my blue, red, and white fabrics picked out.

Disclaimer: The lighting in this photo is honestly atrocious as my office lights yellow the hell out of everything. It's been cloudy and gloomy in NYC the past few days so getting a shot in good, natural light is pretty much impossible. But, mainly I wanted to show how the textures interact with eachother as the colors I was able to check for a color match in the 5 minutes of good sunlight I had yesterday. I ended up deciding on a white double knit ponte as opposed to the off-white I was considering before as I can darken it with weathering, and I found a burgundy ponte that is only slightly darker than the 1000D burgundy cordura in real life. It's a small enough difference that the color difference between the arm/leg detailing and the stomach sections won't be apparent in photos (or at least not photos in terrible, uneven lighting)



Blue - 500 Denier Navy Blue from rockywoods.com
Burgundy/Wine Left - 1000D cordura from ebay
White - Doubleknit ponte de roma from fabric.com
Burgundy/Wine Right - Rough-woven ponte de roma from Fabrics World USA

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Planning/Reference Gathering)

And we are officially started! After finishing up school stuff, my friend was able to come over and duct tape wrap me to get started. I probably could've had someone else do it, but she's one of my few friends that knows how to actually place correct seamlines so it's worth it to go to her for this. We did it the same way as for the AoU suit, full torso, one arm wrapped, one arm exposed, split em down the middle for the bases of the undershirt and overshirt. First up in the drafting was the shoulder ring which for me is one of the hardest pieces to pattern, but also helps me a lot with setting the position and size of the rest of the arm pieces



It's not too much to look at, but one of my biggest irks about my AoU suit was how short the shoulder piece was and how wide the band itself was. I'm MUCH happier with the size and shape this time around! And just so there's a little bit more to look at in this post, I took some scraps of the cordura and ponte fabrics I chose and quickly stitched them together to see how the textures would look together. Putting the crap lighting aside, I think I've got a nice variety chosen

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Officially started, Patterning!)

Late night update! I'm about maybe halfway done patterning the sleeve. It takes me a while as I constantly have to correct it and "erase" my previous lines using duct tape. However, I also made the mistake of only getting more grey tape instead of white, which makes my lines harder to see in photos. Anyway, I've actually drawn the upper arm and shoulder sections twice over now. The first time I did it, I got to the bottom of the bicep section and realized that everything I had drawn so far needed to be moved up by about 3/4", including the shoulder ring. So here you see what I initially had.



Decent enough, but not quite where it should all sit. So I spent about an hour or moving each line up 3/4" and "erasing" the original lines. I also got a bit farther and managed to roughsketch the elbow pad, and part of the forearm guards top hem. The lines are actually VERY difficult to see properly in the photos, so I lined them with red to give a slightly better idea of how everything's been proportioned and shaped so far. Note: the red lines are from me tracing over my sharpie lines using my phone's stylus to make them more easily visible.



Aaaand now that I'm sufficiently exhausted, it's time for bed! Hopefully next update will have completed sleeve patterns, or at least enough done to warrant showing it off haha.

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Officially started, Patterning!)

The undershirt pattern is done! The forearm took a while due to me having to do a bit of guess-work for the back of it, but I think I was able to hash it out well enough for photos of the side and inside of the forearm. Also, you get a better view of the elbow pad! The lines look a bit distorted in the photos due to the duct tape getting a bit squished but they should be properly straight or curved once everything's cut apart. Like before, I've traced over the sharpie lines using my phone's photo editor so that it's easier to see.



Once that was out of the way it didn't take long to add the seamlines for the shoulder top and body seams. I had to do a bit of guesswork to figure out the angle of the shouldertop pieces because of the way they line up with the over-shirt. But if I didn't get it perfect, it should be close enough to pass.



Tonight I'll be cutting the arm and body apart to make my paper pattern pieces. I'll be sure to take a few shots of all the pieces laid out of the cardstock I'm using to give an idea of how it all looks when flat patterned.

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Officially started, Patterning!)

Almost done making the paper pattern! I have all the sleeve pieces done, just gotta get the main body cut apart and transferred to paper and I'll be ready to get sewing. I decided that I'm going to pattern and construct the pieces of the costume in the sequence that the suit will be put on rather than pattern it all at once. I figure it might take more time, but also makes it easier for me to correct the patterns against the finished products as I go. So here's some shots of what I have so far.



From left to right: All sleeve pieces, forearm pieces, spandex sleeve from elbow to cuff, bicep and shoulder pieces. The letters are written on the edges to help me written what side connects to wear since this sleeve is pretty much a jigsaw puzzle haha

Edit: Did up the torso and shoulder-top pattern last night so just adding a shot of that quickly!

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Officially started, Patterning!)

Last update before I'm gone until next Monday or Tuesday. Going to ColossalCon tomorrow, so I wanted to leave a bigger progress post before I go!

I spent the long weekend hashing out the shoulder padding for the undershirt. I'm a pretty muscular guy, but my shoulders are a bit narrow compared to the rest of me. Unlike with the AoU suit, I made sure to wear the shoulder padding I'd be adding underneath my shirt when doing the duct tape pattern so that it'd already be factored into the form. But, I also needed to create some kind of base for it to attach to, as well as the headliner foam pieces that would add some more structure to the shell of the shoulders.



These are all the pieces of headliner for backing the shoulder sections. I split them up into the same amount of pieces as the shell so that they'd match the shape exactly. The pieces for the top of the shoulder that extends to the chest and back are sewn into one section, and the pieces for the actual shoulder cap are sewn into another. The excess seam allowance of the first section is cut away as itll be tucked under the cordura during the topstitching. The excess on the shoulder cap is left alone for now (I've got something in the works for the shoulder caps that I'm hoping will pay off in a big way).



Next up I made the same sections using jumbo spandex which serve as the base for anchoring the actual shoulder padding. They're cut from a pair of 1" jacket shoulder pads to add some more shape and size to my shoulders. To trim them I just pinned them to the spandex bases and trimmed away excess to match up with the lines that the foam reaches. Anchoring it took a couple quick stitches using my walking foot. Not very pretty to look at on their own, but here's how they look once the spandex base and headliner foam sections are pinned together.



MUCH better right? The headliner foam will actually be attached to the shell like I said, but once that's constructed I'll be sandwiching it all together before sewing the shirt torso sections and the rest of the sleeve on. The end result should have the same clean looking curve as you see in those pictures. No one will be able to tell how narrow my shoulders actually are!

See you all when I get back!

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt/sleeve construction!

Back with another hefty update! I spent the past week working on the elbow-down part of the sleeve. There's a bit of a hold on making the shoulders so I'm basically building the sleeves in reverse. It'll make sense when it's done.

Anyway, first up was the spandex base that goes from the cuff up to the top of the elbow. The reason for the oddly shaped seam and dart was that instead of just flattening the duct tape pattern, I cut it apart in a way that would allow it to retain the same curvature as my arm. This would allow it to fit comfortably, not squeeze my forearm tightly, and make it much easier to line up the cordura sections on top. The chalk lines drawn on the back side match the general shape of the cordura so that it'd be easier to place on the top side.



Next up was building the actual cordura section. This took a while as it's comprised of multiple pieces, some of them quite small or thin, and there's embossing that I had to do as I would build it. I could have sewn it all together and done the topstitching to flatten the seams before the embossing, but that would add extra bulk since I made the seam allowances long enough to hold the foam sections in place. The 2nd from the top section was the only one that required additional fabric for the topstitching which I did by simply cutting scraps for each shape, and trimming the excess down after each one.



I cut sections of headliner foam in the shape of the cordura sections, but with the same seam and dart as the spandex base so it would have the right curvature. That was spray-tacked onto the back of the cordura section. To attach it to the spandex, I placed pins along the lines on the wrong side to give me line up points for the cordura. The edges of the cordura were folded over the headliner foam, pinned in placed, and then the entire thing was pinned down to the spandex. I also quickly made the elbow pad piece in a similar way. There is a slight curve to it (hence the wrinkling and what not when it lays flat). More headliner foam behind it for thickness, and pinned and sewn down to the spandex in a similar manner.



And here's some pictures of the whole thing on my arm! Pinned together for now as the connecting seam will actually be sewn up last after this whole section is attached to the rest of the sleeve.



I realize I forgot to take pictures of some of the steps (cordura construction, headliner foam, pinning it all) so I'll snap some more pictures as I finish making the other forearm section.

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt/sleeve construction!

So here's some added steps I forgot to photograph from when I made the first forearm guard. This shows what the headliner foam back of it looks like, as well as how the cordura was pinned around it.



A lot of pins right? Here's even more! Since I had the shape of the forearm sections traced out on the inside of the jumbo spandex, I just used pins to note where they'd be on the top side. This gave me clear marks for where to align the cordura section. To pin it to spandex I just pulled out the pins in the cordura and repinned it on top of the spandex, one pin at a time. A few minutes of topstitching and they were done!



Now for some actual new work, I quickly made the bicep portion of the sleeves last night. These went by a lot quicker than I expected but it helps that the biceps are made of just 4 panels and don't have any embossing or anything on them. I cut out the cordura pieces, as well as matching headliner foam that would be stitched into the seams.



I stitched all the cordura panels together, except for the seam along the back inside seams (back right for left arm, back left for right arm). Then I pinned all the cordura pieces underneath the seam allowances so that when I topstitched the seams the headliner would get sewn in place.



Unfortunately I was working so quickly I forgot to take pictures of me sewing up and topstitching the last seam. But essentially all did was pin those last two edges together, sewed it up, and then turned it right side out for topstitching. The topstitching I was able to accomplish by going slowly and making sure none of the rest of the loop got caught under the needle. It ends up looking like you're scrunching it all together, but with "tube" as short as this one you should have at least an inch of flat space every time you adjust. After all of that, this is what they look like.



I managed to pattern them so that I have just enough room to comfortably flex and bend my arm at the elbow, so once the sleeve is assembled my upper arm won't feel constricted. Next update may take a bit longer to go up as I'm waiting of something special I have planned for the shoulders to be finished. Once I have that, I'll be able to speed through and complete the sleeves (and the undershirt body) in one long day of sewing. So, hopefully next time I update this thread it'll be with a completed undershirt!

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt/sleeve construction!

brutuswayne said:

So here's some added steps I forgot to photograph from when I made the first forearm guard. This shows what the headliner foam back of it looks like, as well as how the cordura was pinned around it.

View attachment 635627View attachment 635628

A lot of pins right? Here's even more! Since I had the shape of the forearm sections traced out on the inside of the jumbo spandex, I just used pins to note where they'd be on the top side. This gave me clear marks for where to align the cordura section. To pin it to spandex I just pulled out the pins in the cordura and repinned it on top of the spandex, one pin at a time. A few minutes of topstitching and they were done!

View attachment 635629View attachment 635630View attachment 635631

Now for some actual new work, I quickly made the bicep portion of the sleeves last night. These went by a lot quicker than I expected but it helps that the biceps are made of just 4 panels and don't have any embossing or anything on them. I cut out the cordura pieces, as well as matching headliner foam that would be stitched into the seams.

View attachment 635632

I stitched all the cordura panels together, except for the seam along the back inside seams (back right for left arm, back left for right arm). Then I pinned all the cordura pieces underneath the seam allowances so that when I topstitched the seams the headliner would get sewn in place.

View attachment 635634View attachment 635635

Unfortunately I was working so quickly I forgot to take pictures of me sewing up and topstitching the last seam. But essentially all did was pin those last two edges together, sewed it up, and then turned it right side out for topstitching. The topstitching I was able to accomplish by going slowly and making sure none of the rest of the loop got caught under the needle. It ends up looking like you're scrunching it all together, but with "tube" as short as this one you should have at least an inch of flat space every time you adjust. After all of that, this is what they look like.

View attachment 635636View attachment 635637

I managed to pattern them so that I have just enough room to comfortably flex and bend my arm at the elbow, so once the sleeve is assembled my upper arm won't feel constricted. Next update may take a bit longer to go up as I'm waiting of something special I have planned for the shoulders to be finished. Once I have that, I'll be able to speed through and complete the sleeves (and the undershirt body) in one long day of sewing. So, hopefully next time I update this thread it'll be with a completed undershirt!

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Beautiful work, brutuswayne. Topstitching + padding has always been my arch nemesis. That and long division with decimals.

I am looking forward to your next post. Keep up the beautiful work.

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt/sleeve construction!

kiyominai said:

Beautiful work, brutuswayne. Topstitching + padding has always been my arch nemesis. That and long division with decimals.

I am looking forward to your next post. Keep up the beautiful work.

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Thanks kiyo! Topstitching+padding used to give me trouble when I made the AoU suit but I've found that using a very narrow presser foot for embossing, or a walking foot for seams with no embossed pieces in the way, make it a ton easier. Also my machine has a tension setting for embroidery so that with a slightly longer stitch length makes it easier to get nice looking stitches! And my next post is probably gonna come sooner than I expected. Sadly, that's because my secret plan to make 3d-printer rubber shoulder rings to sew into the suit busted due to a faulty printer, so I'll be doing the shoulder rings out of pleather and craft foam instead. Upside, the sleeves and body of the undershirt will probably be done by Sunday!

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt/sleeve construction!

brutuswayne said:

Thanks kiyo! Topstitching+padding used to give me trouble when I made the AoU suit but I've found that using a very narrow presser foot for embossing, or a walking foot for seams with no embossed pieces in the way, make it a ton easier. Also my machine has a tension setting for embroidery so that with a slightly longer stitch length makes it easier to get nice looking stitches! And my next post is probably gonna come sooner than I expected. Sadly, that's because my secret plan to make 3d-printer rubber shoulder rings to sew into the suit busted due to a faulty printer, so I'll be doing the shoulder rings out of pleather and craft foam instead. Upside, the sleeves and body of the undershirt will probably be done by Sunday!

Click to expand...

Do you have the shoulder ring files already? [emoji6]


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Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt/sleeve construction!

starlordquill said:

Do you have the shoulder ring files already? [emoji6]


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Click to expand...

Well yes and no haha. My cousin had finished modelling them for me, but something went off with the scale that she had to correct. We needed to do a test print to see if she was able to correct it properly, but since mine conked out we ran out of local options. Why, interested in taking a crack at it?