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

[brutuswayne]

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt complete! Next: Overshirt)

This is totally amazing. I get basic sewing, but this is like black magic to me. Kudos!

Thanks man! And tbh this my second Cap suit and this stuff is still mind-boggling to me. I draw a straight line on a mockup, cut it apart, and suddenly its curved?! Sorcery. Pure sorcery.

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt complete! Next: Overshirt)

Short update just to keep the posting schedule regular. I started working on constructing the overshirt and was able to get the chest sections assembled in a few days. I started with the pleather base for the starbursts and the cordura sections attached to it. The top cordura piece was attached to the pleather first while the chest insert was attached to the bottom section. Before I stitched it together, I topstitched in a couple pieces of headliner foam to give it stability and flatten out the seams. Then I attached the bottom sections to the starburst and topstitched that in as well.



The next part was attached the jumbo spandex base for the star to connect the chest sections. The stitching was simple, just doing one edge at a time and then topstitching. I also added a dart in the middle of the section to help it retain the same curvature from my patterning, but limiting it to a space that would be covered by the star. The little flap sections that are part of the connection between the stomach stripes and chest were added right after and only took a couple minutes.

I ran into an issue though when attaching the triangular cordura section below the jumbo spandex. Apparently I made the dart a little too wide cause it caused the bottom of the spandex section to pop out awkwardly. I ended up having to angle it in a little lower which made the bottom corner of the star about 1/8" higher. As you can see in the pictures, that solved it well enough and I don't think the difference will cause a significant issue. But I'm going to print a test copy of my chest star to doublecheck that it still sits properly. Worst comes to worst, I redraft that one triangular section so that the seams lay flat against the jumbo spandex

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt complete! Next: Overshirt)

Almost done with the lower section of the overshirt so I thought it was time for another update!

So, if you've seen my AoU thread, you'd see I did the stomach stripes and embossing using red and white ponte de roma and craft foam (with SMP Designs being the one to introduce me to that technique). But, for the Civil War suit, I wanted to see if I could manage to do all that embossing with cordura to keep the texture of the suit consistent. Seeing the White Sheep Leather all-cordura suits inspired me to think it was actually possible, just more difficult. What made this even toughter is that the only burgundy and white cordura I could find was 1000D. But, I think it ended up coming out good. First thing I did was just sew together the middle red stripe to the u-shaped white section that wraps around it. I then attached the two next red stripes so that I could do a test of the embossing before fully committing to doing it entirely this way. While there was a bit of puckering, it looked like this would at least be doable



For the embossing I used the same technique as I would with ponte, but with just a little extra security. The craft foam sections were cut out and affixed to the back of the stripes using spray-adhesive (on the foam, not the fabric). Then for the white sections, I folded the seam allowance on top of the craft foam as the white stripes sit slightly on top of the red. And then I took a scrap of white cordura and put in top of all that to sandwich everything in place. Before sewing, I carefully put pins right against the edges of the craft foam to help mark where they were as I began sewing.I had to be careful to remove the pins before I got near them though so that the fabric could lay flat before the presser foot reached it. If it wasn't flat to the machine, the the stitch could end up pulling the scrap fabric around the craft foam, instead of it pulling the stripes around the foam and creating the proper indent. Anyway, that ended up working out pretty well! I did each piece of foam individually, trimming the scrap as close to the stitches as I could to minimize bulk and keep some mobility to the stripes.



After that it was just rinse and repeat of adding stripes and embossing. The red sections were much easier because the embossing looks as if it continues underneath the white stripes, meaning you only have to sew the top and bottom, aside from the stripes that the bar tabs sit on. You can see where I left a bit of a blank space for those to sit once I have them.



Really the thing to note is that there is a specific order to this. After the second set of white stripes are added, you need to add the red section and blue sections to be able to do any embossing. And if you look at the suit from set photos/displays, the white section sits on top of the red, and the blue sits on top of both the red and white. To make sure I could do that with topstitching, I just made sure the seam allowance was tucked underneath the white fabric before pinning the blue in place.

Once all those pieces were connected, I added the white embossing the same way as the central white section The only difference was the one stripe that runs across the white, blue, and a tiny corner of the red. I split that bar into three pieces that are tucked against the connecting seams, giving the illusion of one consistent piece. After that, I just had to topstitch the long stripe offshoots and the blue cordura.

 

[SMP Designs]

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt complete! Next: Overshirt)

Looking really awesome! So far, I've managed to avoid this suit.

Living vicariously through your build is as close as I want to get to it. Haha

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt complete! Next: Overshirt)

Looking really awesome! So far, I've managed to avoid this suit.

Living vicariously through your build is as close as I want to get to it. Haha

Man I don't blame you this suit is deceptive in it's labor demands! Overall the design seamed simpler to me than the AoU (less stomach detailing, pants detail, and color variance) but in reality it's more complex when you factor in the sleeves and whatnot! Also when you're like me and decide you wanna forgo ponte for the embossing ahaha

 

[justanuthercap]

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt complete! Next: Overshirt)

Magic, just plain magic. Excellent work once again. And thanks for showing me I REALLY need to take 50 or 60 sewing classes.

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt complete! Next: Overshirt)

Magic, just plain magic. Excellent work once again. And thanks for showing me I REALLY need to take 50 or 60 sewing classes.

Either that or just religiously read SMP's blog (like I did before my AoU suit) and dive in head first! I've found it's the quickest way to get your sea legs with Cap suits haha

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt complete! Next: Overshirt)

Starting to near the finish line of the overshirt despite losing a weekend of sewing to errands and family gatherings! So after I finished the lower section, I needed to attach it to the chest section. I actually removed the triangular piece and two flaps and attached them to the stomach instead. I realize that there were more seams and angles at the top of the lower section than at the bottom of the upper section, and that sewing it the other way around would be a nightmare. After getting all that connected, I did the embossing for those connective pieces like I did the stomach. The one addition is that I put some headliner foam in as well before slipping in the cordura scraps to anchor the embossing. This was just because I wanted the blue sections of the suit on the chest to be more structured than the stomach as it would create a more firm looking piece. It did create a couple ripples in the triangular pieces from the foam and fabric being tugged by the seams, so Ill probably rip open the original seams to loosen it up as the topstitching will hold it in place fine. After the embossing was done, I did the additional topstitching to secure and flatten all the seams.



With all of that connected, the back of the overshirt needed to be constructed. This went by pretty quick as it was just two sections of jumbo spandex. Then I made a collar and sewed one side into the neck hole, leaving the other side free to be attached to the liner. The hidden zipper took a bit longer and isn't my cleanest work, but it works and it'll be covered up by the separate back piece anyway. All that's left is to attach the snaps that'll hold the back piece, make the liner, and close up the collar, hem, and armholes. (also, have a bonus picture showing the details of just the stomach better.

 

[starkindler89]

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt complete! Next: Overshirt)

Amazing work, as always! Thanks for your neurotic attention to detail in these posts.. it helps the rest of us with neurotic attention to detail!
I think I'm going to star working on my build again.. you've given me the inspiration!

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt complete! Next: Overshirt)

Amazing work, as always! Thanks for your neurotic attention to detail in these posts.. it helps the rest of us with neurotic attention to detail!
I think I'm going to star working on my build again.. you've given me the inspiration!

Always happy to be an enabler! And yeah man go for it! If you already had a start, may as well finish

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt complete! Next: Overshirt)

Finally back with the last update for the overshirt! All that was left was the back/shoulder armor so I figured I'd just wait until that was done for one long post rather than split it.

Patterning this thing presented more challenges than I thought it would. At first I tried using the remaining half of my mockup that I used for the overvest. While I was able to draw the pattern on there, once I cut it out I realized it didn't lay flat because of the princess seams, this made patterning the back as two, flat pieces impossible. I wasn't actually sure how to adjust the pattern so I went for the quick and dirty route. I cut out a big piece of muslin, traced the neckhole onto in, and then just pinned it onto the vest as flat as I could. This ended up working out pretty well as you can see since I was able to draw out the basic shape which could then be laid flat and transferred to cardstock. The holes you see marked and punched were to mark where snaps would be attached to connect everything to the overvest.



After I had my patterns, I made the liners for the back pieces first. I cut out the cordura first, then punched the holes and attached the snaps to make sure they'd lay flat on the back and shoulders still. After checking the fit, I cut out some headliner foam, folded the edges over and topstitching it in place. The foam both added some structure to the pieces, as well as providing a buffer between the snap heads and the shell of the pieces so that they wouldn't eventually impress against the shell.



Then began the meat of the work for these pieces. The embossing was actually relatively simple and not too difficult to follow, but because of some of the smaller angles I had to be very careful about following the design. Nothing too new here, same technique as I did for the sleeves and stomach. Snaps were added to the shell of the lower back to connect the two pieces together, and to the shell of the upperback/shoulder section for holding the harness in place once it's made. After the shells were embossed, I folded the edges over, lined it up with the liners, and topstitched it together to finish them off. The upper back section had some extra work since it has a collar. That was just a simple matter of measuring the collar length, drawing it out, and attaching it before I closed it up with the liner. I also inserted some headliner foam in it as well for structure.



And lastly, some pictures I took this morning of the full assembly sitting proudly on my mannequin! The star, bar tabs on the stomach, rubber starburst and shoulder rings still need to be added eventually. Those will come later though since once they're printed/cast/painted/etc it won't take long to attach them. Next up should be the pants, but it might be a bit before I get another update up as I'm getting my wisdom teeth removed tomorrow and might be out of commission for a few days (although that depends on whether or not I can still pattern properly while taking painkillers).

 

[jamesalton1]

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

this is probably the absolute best version of this I've seen from any build so far!

 

[jamesalton1]

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt complete! Next: Overshirt)

do you take commission requests for anything like this?

 

[AgentOfShield]

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt complete! Next: Overshirt)

do you take commission requests for anything like this?

I don't believe he does commissions at the moment unfortunately :/

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt complete! Next: Overshirt)

do you take commission requests for anything like this?

I don't believe he does commissions at the moment unfortunately :/

Thanks for the compliment earlier james! But unfortunately Agent is correct. I work a 9-5 during the week and so I only have enough time to sew personal projects after work and on the weekends for the comic/anime conventions I go to throughout the year.

 

[Diogenis]

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt complete! Next: Overshirt)

Beautiful build, I'm working on a suit myself and have nowhere near the talent you do (cosplaysky base lol) sooo I'd love to see this in person at nycc. I wanted to ask if you figured out how youre going to weather it? What I hate about my suit is how white the white stripes are, when watching the movie you can see from the very first scene that his white is a dirty almost gray at best. Any ideas?

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt complete! Next: Overshirt)

Beautiful build, I'm working on a suit myself and have nowhere near the talent you do (cosplaysky base lol) sooo I'd love to see this in person at nycc. I wanted to ask if you figured out how youre going to weather it? What I hate about my suit is how white the white stripes are, when watching the movie you can see from the very first scene that his white is a dirty almost gray at best. Any ideas?

Well I'll be around NYCC on saturday in the suit so def say hi if you spot me! And I'm actually still working on that. I've got a couple possible options I'm looking into, with the two best so far being a kind of wax/polish that leaves a grey residue on the suit (someone else found this in the Build A Better Cap facebook group) and the other is basically a synthetic dirt powder that's usually used for makeup purposes. Once I have the suit done I'll probably get a both and maybe a few others and test it out on scraps, possible a combination of the two (the dirt for the look, the wax to help hold it). Whatever I do, I'll be sure to post anything good I come across!

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Overshirt Complete, Next: Pants

Alright so I'm still working on the pants pattern, which is stressful because figuring out how to make that domed, triangular kneepad is evil. But, in the meantime I thought I'd post pics of some of the detail pieces I modeled and printed myself for the overshirt. Both are pretty simple, but I'm really happy with them.

First was the bar tabs that go on the stomach section. I had bought a set of bar tabs from someone else that already cast and molded them, but while they were the right size for the belt and harness they were MUCH too small for the suit. I sized them up to 12 mm x 36mm base plates and the modeled the top details separately before laying it on top. I'll be smoothing the prints with some sanding and XTC-3D so that I can do a one off mold and coldcast for myself. Tabs are taped on in the 2nd pic to check fit/alignment.



The other thing I modeled was something I was certain I wouldn't be able to do on my own, the chest starbursts. I gave it a shot by splitting the paper pattern into different boxes, measuring those dimensions, and basically creating a bunch of separate rectangles that I angled and combined where necessary. Final prints were surprisingly accurate in the fit! They prongs are very very slightly off angle, but I'll be casting these in rubber anyway so that'll let me adjust it a bit as I go.


Anyway, back to pants patterning!

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Overshirt Complete, Next: Pants

Spent the past few days blasting through the pants pattern as quick as I could!

Started off by making half a pants mockup from a pattern I kept from last year. This was pinned to the undershirt's hem, with the overvest and my AoU belt placed on top of it so that the first few details could be drawn to match the corresponding vest sections. I also did it this way to mark where snaps attached to the undershirt would be as the pants will snap directly to the undershirt as opposed to having the undershirt AND overvest tucked into the pants. This way, when I moved around I'll have a bit more mobility at the waist since the vest/belt will be able to move independent from the pants.



After I got the beginnings drawn, I unpinned the pant leg so that I could flat-pattern the details. This ended up taking a lot longer than I thought it would since I kept having to redraw everything to correct proportions that I didn't realize were incorrect. No big secret or method to this, just freehanding and and corrections until I got something I was happy with. Once it was done I pinned it back onto the mannequin to check how it looked. Was close enough for me, so I took it down, cut it apart, and transferred the pattern to cardstock so I could finalize the pieces and add the outlines for the embossing details.



Now last part was also my least favorite part and the most strenuous part, patterning the knee-pad. These things are a nightmare for me because they're segmented, curved, and because I have very little experience with flat-patterning curved things I pretty much have to resort to trial and error. The jumbo spandex base for the kneepads had to be done the same way (that's that bit up there that looks like a pacman tadpole). I pretty much just split the original pattern in half and played around with adding curved lines until I got one that fit with the original flat pattern and had a nice curvature to it.

Anyway, I started it off by trimming a bit less than 1/4" from the edge of a flat tracing of the kneepad base. This became my sizing reference for my initial pattern. Unlike the kneebase which has a seam going down the middle, the actual pads would have two seams off the middle due to the segment in front. I drew that out flat, cut it out, and then sized it up to match the length and curve of the knee-base. After that, trial and error creating patterning the two sides until I got something that fit right. I forgot to take pictures up until this point because of how focused I was on getting the pattern right, but I'll tell you it took me about 4 hours or so to get to this point with the knees. Once I had a working full kneepad, I drew out the seams for the additional segments on the outer side of the knees, cut it all apart (including the gap between the top segments and the rest of the knee segments), made clean paper pattern versions and stenciled in the shapes for the foam-embossing.

 

[brutuswayne]

Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Overshirt Complete, Next: Pants

I ended up plowing through a ton of work the last 3-ish days (or at least I think I did), largely because I realized I'm behind schedule compared to last year when I built the AoU suit. I've basically got until the 21st to finish the pants to keep me on track for making the gloves, bootcovers, belt, harness, and casted pieces. All of which I can only afford to spend about a week on. Hoo boy. Anyway, here's what I've got done so far.

I decided to build the pants from the top down including embossing, pockets, and other details so that I wouldn't be trying to add small pieces to a big pant leg flopping around everywhere. I did the initial base of the pant legs all in one go, the outer pieces for the front and back of the pants, and the red sections. These were pretty straightforward stitching and topstitching, with the one except being that the dart in the back was shaped to match the outer edge of the embossed section. This let me disguise it as just an embossing seam instead of an obvious dart. After that I started building the pockets, one of the most tedious parts of making cap pants. Something I noticed in ref shots is that the pockets actually have a slight fold that's red on the inside when viewed from the back. So I split my pattern at the seam, inserted a red piece, added some extra seams to fix everything in place since you can't iron cordura, and boom, face of the pockets were done.



After the faces were done, I had to make the rest of the pocket and connect it to the pants. I forgot to take pics detailing how I made the other sides of the pocket as I was working quickly to get them done, but HERE is a picture from my old build showing the basic process. After the pocket was fully built, I just lined it up on the pants with the red sections and topstitched it into place. The pocket flaps went by a lot quicker as there's a lot less sections and are pretty straight forward. Emboss the detail pieces, sew the two pieces together, turn it inside out like a tube and use topstitching to flatten the sides, seal the bottom, and attach to the pants. Upside to the weird shape of the flap is that it holds the flap and the top of the pocket pretty close to the pant leg, so I might not even need velcro to keep it shut!



And here's the last thing I got to do last night before tapping, adding the "inner" panels for the back and front. These were really quick as the seams I did are pretty much just two angled straight seams a section. The front panel wasn't stitched all the way because I patterned the jumbo spandex base for the kneepad to have a long strip that goes up the leg between the two front panels. You can see in some pictures there's a slight separation, so I just exaggerated it a bit to make it more visible (it'll be about 1/4" wide). The back was fine to finish though, so up next is probably gonna be the panel for the back of the knees, and the lower leg so that I have a complete "ring" to set the kneepad base into.