Age of Ultron Captain America Build (Build complete! pics on page 5)

[brutuswayne]

Hey everyone! So, I've been patterning my AoU Cap suit for the past 2 weeks or so and thought it'd be fun to document the whole process as I make it! I've been sewing and crafting for about 2 years now, but this is my first time building something as detailed and labor intensive as Cap's suit from AoU. This'll be my second MCU cosplay though as I did his Rescue Bucky outfit from TFA two years ago, actually lurked on here for a bit to figure out how to paint my shield. Anyway, I'll just be regularly posting pictures of my progress from pattern to completion, any tips or advice anyone might have is definitely welcome! I'm basing my build method off of the writeup that Sean at SMP Designs did (I think he might actually have an account here somewhere) whose been massively helpful is telling me which fabrics he used, appropriate yardage, and a few other bits of info. But there'll probably be some deviation as well as I go through the construction and find my own way. Also gonna be purchasing pretty much all the hardware (arm magnets, belt buckle, harness bracket, kneepads, etc) from casters that I've found through facebook and etsy since my casting skills are just above novice at best. Anyway, I'll stop blabbering and just get to the pictures, I just finished the pants and pocket pattern last night and I'm really proud of how they ended up coming out! There's a couple out of place lines and tracings all over them that are just from me figuring things out and making adjustment from initial drafts so I might retrace them one last time to have mistake free pattern pieces.

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Age of Ultron Captain America Build (newbie's first Cap suit)

Had two friends do a duct tape wrap on my body to make the pattern for the top of the cap suit and went shopping for my fabrics this weekend. Splitting the top into an undershirt with sleeves and an overshirt for all the chest, stomach and back pieces. Hopefully I'll be able to get all of that patterned by the end of the week so I can start sewing ASAP. Also thought I'd show you guys all the swatches I had gathered before buying my fabrics, in total there were about 35 different ones from I think 7 stores. Definitely worth the effort to get the color coordination/matching that I wanted though! Didn't make it to the store that had the brown pleather I chose before they closed though, gonna try and pick that up this weekend.

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Age of Ultron Captain America Build (newbie's first Cap suit)

Bit of a silly (but helpful) thing I did during my lunch break. I started roughing out the pattern for the 'overshirt' last night and used MSPaint to traceout a more cleaned up version of the pattern that to gauge where everything should be proportionally. Figured out that I placed the star too low, might actually raise it even higher than what I did in the tracing.

 

[SMP Designs]

Re: Age of Ultron Captain America Build (newbie's first Cap suit)

Hey man! Good to see the thread on here - looking great so far and I can't wait to see it progress. Cheers!

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Age of Ultron Captain America Build (newbie's first Cap suit)

Hey! I knew you had an account on here somewhere! haha. Thanks a lot man, really wouldn't have gotten off the ground without your help!

Also forgot I had more images to dump into here! Finished (well, kind of) overshirt pattern, and really rough first draft of the arm. Thinking of doing the shoulder and forearm parts as separate pieces that sit on top of the sleeves as opposed to being an actual part of it. Noticed in a lot of shots of the suit, the shoulders floats a little bit at the bottom edge and the forearm guard has a strap, so doing them separate would mean a bit more mobility and easier placement of all the parts in proportion to eachother.

 

[SMP Designs]

Re: Age of Ultron Captain America Build (newbie's first Cap suit)

Yeah, I know a lot of people are doing the suits with the shoulder separate. The mock ups are looking good!

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Age of Ultron Captain America Build (newbie's first Cap suit)

Thanks! Just a small update this time. Slice apart the arm and torso mockups to adjust the fit at the shoulder. I raised my arm too much during the wrapping so I needed to add some more tape so that the arm could hang down naturally. I also got the idea to get two 1" shoulder pads to make the shoulders a bit bigger, since my shoulders are disproportionally narrow compared to the rest of my arms. One went into the armhole, extended to the appropriate length. The other I put in the top of 'sleevecap' and cut it to match the curvature of the shoulders. Then I just taped it together to make sure it fit the way I want, and then cut it apart at my new seamline. Also added another layer of tape to the arm so that I could redraw everything on a clean pattern. And so I could mess around on snapchat. The red lines show roughly where the arm and armhole originally ended.

 

[SMP Designs]

Re: Age of Ultron Captain America Build (newbie's first Cap suit)

Nice job adjusting your sleeve! Once you true-up those curves in the armscye and the sleeve cap and straighten that shoulder seam, you're going to have an awesome pattern. Cheers!

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Age of Ultron Captain America Build (newbie's first Cap suit)

Thanks! And yeah I spent my whole weekend transferring all that to muslin, adjusting the armscye and sleeve cap curves and then transferring it all to pattern paper. Having a pad underneath the actual shoulder pad, and having that pad sit on top of the jumbo spandex sleeve/sleevecap definitely threw a bit of a kink into figuring out how to sew it all into the armscye, but I think I worked out a way to lock it all together! Unfortunately, was working so rapidly that I forgot to take pictures of all that, hopefully I'll have something to show in a day or two since I'm gonna start actually sewing the undershirt together tonight after work.

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Age of Ultron Captain America Build (newbie's first Cap suit)

Finally got to start sewing last night! Only got the shoulder covers for the undershirt done since I had to spend a lot of time fiddling with scraps to get a feel for the fabrics and get the tension right but it feels good to finally get behind the machine again! They've actually got a really nice curve to them because of the way the pieces were cut so that'll be nice to show once I assemble more of the undershirt tonight and can throw it on the mannequin for pics Also, the extended seam allowance on the edge is a little experiment I'm trying for attaching the shoulder armor and the sleeve. The 1" shoulder pads I was talking about before, I want to see if I can install those behind the shoulder armor, but on top of the spandex sleeve. The extra seam allowance will let me sew the 'armor' to the red vinyl, and then sew the spandex sleeve to the edge of the vinyl that's below the padding. It'll make a bit more sense one I sew it all together and can show what I mean.

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Age of Ultron Captain America Build (newbie's first Cap suit)

Made some good progress in the past 2 days, attached the shoulder panels to the side jumbo spandex panels, the back cordura piece and topstitched all the seams I've done so far. Also used some spandex to make "pockets" to hold the shoulder padding in place and to give something for the spandex sleeve cap to be sewn too. Now I don't have to do a convoluted system of sewing the shoulder cap and the sleeve to different parts of the red vinyl! Hoping I can get the front pieces and zipper attached by tomorrow night so I can start on the arms this weekend! Also, forgive the weird dust speckles in the picture. Had to use flash since my dining room lighting is awful.

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Age of Ultron Captain America Build (newbie's first Cap suit)

Got my shield blank from phebert and star and bracket/handle kit from Valor in the mail yesterday! Sadly won't be able to bring the shield with me to New York Comic-Con in October seeing as their weapons policy is a lot stricter now, but I'll get plenty of use out of the finished shield at a couple other cons I've got in the Fall!

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Age of Ultron Captain America Build (newbie's first Cap suit)

Finished the body of the undershirt last night, gonna get started on the sleeves tonight! Collar's too big but should be fine seeing as it's covered.

 

[SMP Designs]

Re: Age of Ultron Captain America Build (newbie's first Cap suit)

Looking good, man - keep it up!

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Age of Ultron Captain America Build (newbie's first Cap suit)

Thanks man! Couple more pics, got the shoulder pieces constructed/semi-attached to the undershirt. Added headliner foam to the pleather ring as well so that it'd be reinforced like cordura center. They're not as contoured as I thought they would be so I'm probably gonna end up attaching the bottom edge to the spandex sleevecap after all. Won't get the comfort of a floating piece, but it'll conform to an actual curve way better. Gonna try and get the sleeve cap and bicep sections done today so I can set all that plus the 'wings' of the sleeve cap into the armscye.

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Age of Ultron Captain America Build (newbie's first Cap suit)

It may not look like much, but this was about 4.5 hours of work in one go I wish I had taken more pictures of the internals before I sewed them shut though. Essentially, both the shoulder piece and the 'sleeve-cap' are two layers. The outer layer would be the pleather and cordura pieces, the inner layer is just jumbo spandex. Inbetween those is headliner foam and 1" shoulder pads that are cut to shape. The outer pieces are stitched together at the top seam, then the spandex sections are stitched together at the top, and then I stitched both layers together around the armscye to get it all as one section. Result is really solidly padded shoulders that added a bit more size and curvature!

 

[SMP Designs]

Re: Age of Ultron Captain America Build (newbie's first Cap suit)

Proportions look good, I like the addition of the padding. Great work so far!

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Age of Ultron Captain America Build (newbie's first Cap suit)

Thanks man! Yeah getting those proportions right is definitely tough, part of why I'm glad the stretch of the spandex and ponte give me some room for adjustments after I've cut the pieces

 

[Jeck13500]

Re: Age of Ultron Captain America Build (newbie's first Cap suit)

looks great ! Not newbie at all !

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Age of Ultron Captain America Build (newbie's first Cap suit)

Haha thanks! And well I guess newbie was a bit misleading of a word for me to use I've been sewing for a little under 2 years now, but this is the first time I've attempted something this complex. !