Emmabellish
Active Member
So I've been working on this project since September last year....and I'm only just now starting a thread for it. The past 6 months have been 99% pattern drafting and sample sewing, whereas all the cool progress happens in the last 2 weeks when I actually get to cut in to my good fabrics....
Here's a reference for those unfamiliar.
MassEffect3 2013-01-18 20-52-48-41 by emmabellish, on Flickr
This is a mostly sewing project, but I've definitely got to learn some new skills, mainly sculpting, and I got to try my hand at some very basic molding and casting for the hardware in her costume.
I started with her bustier/chest piece...thing. This was the biggest pain ever to draft, since it needed to provide support for my gals, but was lacking everything a typical bra would entail (Something to pull it together at the centre, and a visible strap around the back).
The cups were drafted with a masking tape "pattern" copied from an old bra, then transferred to muslin and adjusted as necessary.
Sample cup
First sample always comes from humble beginnings....
Meanwhile I started working on the hardware for the costume. Aria has a bunch of buckles that don't look exactly like anything I could find online, so I decided this would be an easy project to try my hand at casting & molding.
Obligatory animal helping with crafting photo
Hardware was made by layering pieces of styrene
I also made a functioning clasp
Getting ready for molding
Mold came out ok, except for one piece.
First go at pouring resin. Didn't quite mix it well enough! Oh well.
Mass production
2013-04-18 08.49.55 by emmabellish, on Flickr
Checking how it fits the elastic
Attaching hooks...
Painted up real quick; still need to do some weathering on them.
Back to the real chestpiece; I didn't seem to take many progress shots between the first sample and the finished piece, but rest assured there were about 4 more samples in weird coloured fabrics before I managed to get the fit right. The base fabric here is a carbon fiber upholstery vinyl, the grey bits are a "brushed aluminum" upholstery vinyl, and the white is just a strech PVC I had lying around from an old costume.
I had originally just tried gluing pieces of the white and grey fabrics on top of the carbonfiber, but it looked awful. Instead I decided to cut out piece of the carbon fiber and fill in the empty spaces with the other fabrics. It worked great on the sample I tried, but didn't look as great on the final piece. I may end up redoing this somehow, but right now it will do for the first go.
What the back looks like underneath the lining
Making the real bra cups this time...There are 4 layers of fabric in this: the carbon fiber face, a felt middle layer, a stiff interfacing underlayer, and the lower black lining. I tried making the initial cups with only the stiff interfacing, but it made me look like I had torpedo boobs. The felt sandwiched between the interfacing and the top layer made it look more rounded and even.
Finished cup
Finished chest piece
Weird little panels she has covering her chest.
Test sample of her jacket and collars
For the jacket I discovered while making the sample that I was going to need a walking foot for my sewing machine. I promptly discovered that they don't make walking feet for my particular machine, so after lugging my machine around to 2 different stores and driving clear to the other side of town, a kind lady at the store rented me a machine with walking foot for the next 2 weeks while I finish up this costume.
Contrast top stitching on PVC scares the crap out of me......
Showing all the layers in the collar....There's PVC, a stretch spacer fabric, and spandex with fusible interfacing to keep it from stretching. (using spandex for the lining of the jacket wasn't my ideal choice, but I needed the fabric to match the sleeves on my body suit, so it unfortunately had to be a stretch fabric)
The finished jacket! After getting 95% of the way through sewing this jacket, I realized that I had sewn it in the wrong order and wasn't going to be able to turn it right side out after finishing the arm holes.......So I had to tear it all apart and resew it again.
Annnnd...Progress so far of the costume (minus headpiece)
And if you stuck around through all that, thanks for reading!
Here's a reference for those unfamiliar.
MassEffect3 2013-01-18 20-52-48-41 by emmabellish, on Flickr
This is a mostly sewing project, but I've definitely got to learn some new skills, mainly sculpting, and I got to try my hand at some very basic molding and casting for the hardware in her costume.
I started with her bustier/chest piece...thing. This was the biggest pain ever to draft, since it needed to provide support for my gals, but was lacking everything a typical bra would entail (Something to pull it together at the centre, and a visible strap around the back).
The cups were drafted with a masking tape "pattern" copied from an old bra, then transferred to muslin and adjusted as necessary.
Sample cup
First sample always comes from humble beginnings....
Meanwhile I started working on the hardware for the costume. Aria has a bunch of buckles that don't look exactly like anything I could find online, so I decided this would be an easy project to try my hand at casting & molding.
Obligatory animal helping with crafting photo
Hardware was made by layering pieces of styrene
I also made a functioning clasp
Getting ready for molding
Mold came out ok, except for one piece.
First go at pouring resin. Didn't quite mix it well enough! Oh well.
Mass production
2013-04-18 08.49.55 by emmabellish, on Flickr
Checking how it fits the elastic
Attaching hooks...
Painted up real quick; still need to do some weathering on them.
Back to the real chestpiece; I didn't seem to take many progress shots between the first sample and the finished piece, but rest assured there were about 4 more samples in weird coloured fabrics before I managed to get the fit right. The base fabric here is a carbon fiber upholstery vinyl, the grey bits are a "brushed aluminum" upholstery vinyl, and the white is just a strech PVC I had lying around from an old costume.
I had originally just tried gluing pieces of the white and grey fabrics on top of the carbonfiber, but it looked awful. Instead I decided to cut out piece of the carbon fiber and fill in the empty spaces with the other fabrics. It worked great on the sample I tried, but didn't look as great on the final piece. I may end up redoing this somehow, but right now it will do for the first go.
What the back looks like underneath the lining
Making the real bra cups this time...There are 4 layers of fabric in this: the carbon fiber face, a felt middle layer, a stiff interfacing underlayer, and the lower black lining. I tried making the initial cups with only the stiff interfacing, but it made me look like I had torpedo boobs. The felt sandwiched between the interfacing and the top layer made it look more rounded and even.
Finished cup
Finished chest piece
Weird little panels she has covering her chest.
Test sample of her jacket and collars
For the jacket I discovered while making the sample that I was going to need a walking foot for my sewing machine. I promptly discovered that they don't make walking feet for my particular machine, so after lugging my machine around to 2 different stores and driving clear to the other side of town, a kind lady at the store rented me a machine with walking foot for the next 2 weeks while I finish up this costume.
Contrast top stitching on PVC scares the crap out of me......
Showing all the layers in the collar....There's PVC, a stretch spacer fabric, and spandex with fusible interfacing to keep it from stretching. (using spandex for the lining of the jacket wasn't my ideal choice, but I needed the fabric to match the sleeves on my body suit, so it unfortunately had to be a stretch fabric)
The finished jacket! After getting 95% of the way through sewing this jacket, I realized that I had sewn it in the wrong order and wasn't going to be able to turn it right side out after finishing the arm holes.......So I had to tear it all apart and resew it again.
Annnnd...Progress so far of the costume (minus headpiece)
And if you stuck around through all that, thanks for reading!
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