Re: Captain American Civil War Build (Undershirt complete! Next: Overshirt)
The patterning is finished! At least I think so. It's all cut out into posterboard though so, no turning back now!
First step was getting the star sized and placed precisely. The tracing I originally made was in the right position for the top point, but the star itself was a bit too undersized. I figured out a good proportion by opening a good, hi-res shot of the torso of the suit from straight on and measured the length of the torso in mm on my screen. Then I measured the mm length of my torso vest. Divide the screen measurement by the torso measurement, and that gives you the key to scaling up parts of the suit (at least lengthwise). From there I measured the stars vertical length on my screen, multipled that by the number I got from my earlier division, and that gave me the proportionate length of the star for my suit! I also did quick measurements to determine the length between the tip of the star to the neckline and from the bottom 'corner' of the star to the beginning of the stomach stripes.
Then I printed out a quick, low-res version of the star on my printer, placed the tip at the line I had marked for top point, and traced out the shape. This gave me the proper starting point for the rest of the pattern. I also did the same measurement to figure out the width of the dark blue border around the star, and quickly drew that as well as the angle going up to the collar. The starburst piece was easy to draw right after that as it's basically straight lines that follow the shape of the star border. The line it up properly, I matched it to the seam connecting the cordura and spandex at the shoulder, and the seam where the cordura insert panel connects to the main panel.
Next I drew out the designs for the rest of the chest. Looking at the design it seemed like the insert panels top and side edges were equidistant from the starburst and star border. After finagling the distances a bit I got it to float somewhere around two inches and used a ruler to mark off several equidistant points. Then I just played connect the dots to finish the line. To figure out the bottom line of the inser, I actually started at the starborder as the seam connecting the chest to that triangle stomach piece is a straight line. From there I just measured the width point of the chest insert at the armhole and use my measuring tape to make a straight line to intersected with the first line.
As you can see in the top-half of the first picture, that line while straight when drawn, droops a bit on the actual pattern. This is because the mockup was still a little loose around that seam. This is good though because it gives me a chance to create a dart that tightens the fit around the chest and maybe add some curvature to it. I pinned a dart in along the line I drew, not enough to pull the material up, but enough to tighten up the fit. Once I was happy with the shape, I traced out those lines on the back, repinned it the other way and sewed the darts shut. The line now looks a lot cleaner and the chest has a chest better fit. I also quickly drew out the flap section that runs under the chest and armpit, as well as the rest of the triangle piece.
The rest of the patterning is pretty much just straight-forward free-handing. I did use my measuring trick to figure out some more of the proportionate distances down the middle, but I also fudged it a bit to what looked the most aesthetically pleasing on a shirt sized for me. The first picture also has a red line I traced on my phone to distinguish the final seam lines I decided on for that area (things got a bit messy due to indecisiveness). First thing I drew from there is the white section that surrounds the red middle stripe. This I sketched with a red pen first to get the right general shape, and then finalized it with a sharpie. That also gave me the shape for the red middle section. Then I traced the shapes of the foam inserts for the white section and used that as a guide for the inserts in the middle.
After that, I traced out the shape of the red section that travels all the way along the armpit. I only drew it up to the side seam for now as I wanted to finish off the sides and back after I finished the front. That also gave me the outline of the outer white stripe, so from there I just had to sketch the outer seam, keeping in mind the shape of the red panel on the sides.After I was happy with the shape of the sections, I traced them in sharpie, did the foam insert markings (and the markings for the bar-tab greebles that sit on top of the inserts), and finished extended the red and white stripes under the armpit and around to the back. Last step was just to sketch the seam connecting the red panel to the blue panel that wraps around from the back, and finish drawing the foam insert that runs all the way around. The back I left un-patterned as I'm gonna do his back panel, yike, and 2nd collar as a separate piece.
Last thing to do, cut it all apart, transfer it to posterboard (neurotically testfitting the pieces against eachother as I go), and then cutting all those out in preparation of starting to actual fabric build. The one thing I'm unhappy with is that because of the shape of my waist/the way I patterned the side seam, I had to split the blue back/side panel a bit to accomodate the seam that runs through it as it wouldn't lay flat as is. Seeing as it's not too visible a spot it isn't the biggest deal, but I'll probably still toy with it when I cut out the fabric to see if maybe I can move that seam elsewhere.
