Blade Costume

[Jhonny Matiu]

so this is my journey up to now of a first ever attempt at costume building/prop making/using a sewing machine, all whilst trying to maintain patience with the learning process involved with everything it entails. Needless to say I've loved almost every minute of it (I can see how people become addicted to it lol), have hated it in parts (although nowehere near as much as the enjoyable parts), and learnt so much it only makes me want to try almost every other facet of costume building all at once.

suffice to say (and I saw this posted many times whilst researching costume making), maybe it would've helped to not go so big so fast (I mean really, the Blade vest when you can't sew, which of course means sewing leather - or in my case vinyl), but I'm the kind of guy that doesn't really have a great deal of patience and I'm absolutely terrible at planning. Like most Kiwis I just like to get in and give it a go so throughout the following photos you will spot a million mistakes (learning curves for me lol), some strange ways of going about things (or so I thought at the time), and a few small triumphs (monumental for me actually).

so these are all posted in an album on my FB page but I thought I'd throw a post up in here too considering RPF was where I found a guy who had done a Blade vest, and hence was my inspiration to give it a go - https://www.facebook.com/Icewolf.Cosplay/photos_albums

Hope this helps anyone in the same boat as me, or perhaps provides a laugh to those that have moved onto bigger things -

 

[Jhonny Matiu]

Re: Blade / Daywalker Costume.....so far

this is how I started. Cardboard template over a duct tape dummy to see how it looked and fit.

A lot of guess work and changing bits here and there but got it to a point where I was happy with it (although having it held in place all over with tape kinda detracted from the look, with a little imagination I could see where I needed to go lol)

 

[Jhonny Matiu]

Re: Blade / Daywalker Costume.....so far

editing...

 

[Jhonny Matiu]

Re: Blade / Daywalker Costume.....so far

so this is basically patterning out onto felt (because I didn't know about patterning paper lol) from the cardboard template. It's all held together by safety pins lol

I'd edged the final layout with chalk along the edges to define the look (more so my friends could see how it was looking as I was posting it on FB as I went along)

 

[Jhonny Matiu]

Re: Blade / Daywalker Costume.....so far

and this is the felt patterning onto vinyl. This is where you'll see my lack of sewing skill on a machine, but I'm learning, I'm happy with how it's going so yeah.

 

[Jhonny Matiu]

Re: Blade / Daywalker Costume.....so far

and here it's putting it all together (I actually did alot of this back to front you might say, which was neither easy, nor quick) but it all came together and it fit pretty well (not bad for a first time build so far lol)

 

[Jhonny Matiu]

Re: Blade / Daywalker Costume.....so far

this was the final version of the vest. Same design apart from the centre back piece but I tried to get the sewing right on this version as well as having to learn how to spray paint polypropylene webbing (for the shoulder strips and the front buckles), yet more lessons learnt there but as always, so cool when ya learn something new right

 

[Jhonny Matiu]

Re: Blade / Daywalker Costume.....so far

this was my second run at painting the red strip onto the webbing (because look as I might, I could not find any webbing with a red strip already on it - red writing yes, red strip no), after asking in a few local forums it was mentioned that perhaps a base coat of something might help because my previous attempt required 8 coats in total and the colour, whilst finally on the webbing, was by no means bright, nor consistent.

So I got a little pottle of white fabric paint which I put on as thin as I could, and then sprayed the red onto that which only required 2 coats, and the result was really nice I thought

 

[cborchardt82]

Re: Blade / Daywalker Costume.....so far

All I can say is there are no evident lack of sewing skills awesome!

 

[Jhonny Matiu]

Re: Blade / Daywalker Costume.....so far

so here it is, the final version (just have to get the domes on where the webbing goes into the vinyl).

at this point I moved into even more forbidden territory - Prop making

I still have to attach the chest plates as well obviously but I haven't finished the painting on those yet. I'll throw those pics up once they're done

 

[Jhonny Matiu]

Re: Blade / Daywalker Costume.....so far

so this is me having a go at the EDTA Darts.

even before finishing the vest I was worried about how I would go with this, I kinda knew I would have to start with test tubes of some sort, but wasn't really sure on the casing.

Luckily enough I happen to work where there is access to a couple 16mm test tubes so that was covered, had the opportunity to make mistakes and it not really cost anything which is a plus.

again I asked in a few forums, and some friends from work etc, and one of the things that I knew I could find, was PVC tubing

so what you see below is 16mm test tubes / clear 16mm PVC tubing / and 12mm wooden dowel (12mm because the wall of the tubing is 2mm either side, hence 12mm dowel - 16mm tubing)

one of the problems I found, is the PVC tubing has a bend that isn't easily taken out but today actually, I found out how to rememdy that problem (thanks to some suggestions from fellow cosplayers on FB)

I placed the test tubes inside the entire length of the tubing, then submerged them in hot water for 5 minutes or so, then once they'd softened up a fair bit, I placed them straight into the freezer for 10 minutes, and it virtually got rid of the bend, which I'll post further pics of soon

so this is where I'm up to for now

 

[Jhonny Matiu]

Re: Blade / Daywalker Costume.....so far

All I can say is there are no evident lack of sewing skills awesome!

cheers man

 

[FordPrefect]

Re: Blade / Daywalker Costume.....so far

welcome to Bros Who Sew !
Nice work - good job on taking time to pattern everything up and test they say check and double check (I sometimes forget that part hehe)

Look forward to seeing everything done and together I think you are going to carry this off well.

 

[Jhonny Matiu]

Re: Blade / Daywalker Costume.....so far

welcome to Bros Who Sew !
Nice work - good job on taking time to pattern everything up and test they say check and double check (I sometimes forget that part hehe)

Look forward to seeing everything done and together I think you are going to carry this off well.

haha Bros Who Sew, I like that and thank you

yeah it definitely helped to pattern it although more than a little luck was involved in the whole thing together too lol

will hopefully find some domes today, and get those chest plates done and on, so the vest is absolutely complete

thanks man, muchly appreciated

 

[Murdoch]

Re: Blade / Daywalker Costume.....so far

Nicely done so far...GM

 

[Jhonny Matiu]

Re: Blade / Daywalker Costume.....so far

Nicely done so far...GM

thanks man

 

[Jhonny Matiu]

Re: Blade / Daywalker Costume.....so far

finally got the chest plates on

forgive the lack of poses, I haven't finished any of the props so I figured it wouldn't be right lol

this is really just to show the overall look

 

[Jhonny Matiu]

Re: Blade / Daywalker Costume.....so far

here is the beginning of customising the Mac-10

I've traced out around the Mac-10, drew up the extension, refined it a little and checked against the actual gun, and then made it bold

this will more than likely be the template, just gotta work out how I go about building it from there

 

[GRMM REAPRR]

Re: Blade / Daywalker Costume.....so far

Awesome work.........Jhonny Matiu
Your Blade Vest looks pretty good, and your sewing skills are pretty impressive my friend. Just like you I'm a Blade fan and for several months i've been doing my own research in order to construct a close to possible movie accurate Blade ammo vest. Thanks to your tread I'll probably be utilizing your technique of the red stripe down the center of the webbing straps. On some of the sample webbing straps that I did. I just stitched red stitch down the center of the webbing and re-stitched the center several times over, but I think your method displays the red line very movie accurate.

 

[andveryginger]

Re: Blade / Daywalker Costume.....so far

Really nice job -- and great attitude in the pics, even with out all the props. =)