Hey guys! This thread is about my accurate CW Flash Replica Suit build which is currently a work in progress. First off, a little backstory. Last May I completed my first Flash suit. I used one of the standard suits from aliexpress and the cowl was made by TheRocketeer. It wasn't bad for a first try, but there were many changes I wanted to make. Here are some pics of my original suit
The sleeves were way too baggy, the suit was extremely hot, the boots sucked, there were no stretch vents in the knees, etc. So over the summer I made some upgrades. I bought knew pants from eBay that had stretch vents. I also got new boots. I re-did my chest emblem with magnets so I had the option of choosing between a red and white background. I also took in the seams in the arms so that they weren't so baggy and removed the two layers of lining that were in the jacket to help with the heat. This was the end result.
While this was a massive upgrade that I was very proud of, I still wasn't satisfied. I realized I wasn't going to achieve the accuracy I wanted to with what I had to work with. UD Replicas released their Flash suit which is REALLY awesome, but I wanted a cosplay suit, not a motorcycle suit. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and create a brand new suit from scratch.
The first thing I tackled was the pattern. There were many things about the pattern on my suit that I wasn't happy with. But I'm not good at pattern making so I did some research and found a video on Youtube by Tested where Adam Savage extracted the pattern of a production made Martian suit with blue tape, craft paper, and poster board. I used this method making changes to the pattern as I saw fit.
There were many parts of the pattern that had to be completely re-vamped and made from scratch like the collar, belt, thump loops, etc. But this gave me something I could easily work with and use the original for reverence.
Next was the fabric. If you look closely on the screen used Flash suit, there are lightning bolts printed onto parts of the suit. Again, going back to YouTube, I saw a video by Ismahawk where they did a live action battle between Flash and Quicksilver and the Flash suit that was created for that video had the accurate lightning bolts. After watching the BTS video I found the company that made their suits which is In Disguise Designs. It turns out they make their own custom screen printed fabric and one of the options they had was for the CW Flash fabric which is the same stuff they used in the live action battle video. After contacting them on Facebook, they sold me five 40" by 40" tiles. The end product was absolutely stellar and I highly recommend these guys!
So after I had the custom screen printed fabric in hand, I then sourced the vinyl from OnlineFabricStore.net The vinyl only costed about $8 a yard so it was very cost effective lol. I then got to work sewing.
(My apologies if the pics come out sideways. These are from my phone and I don't know why therpf does this.)
I added headliner foam to the chest to give it that puffed out look like it has on the show.
I am shocked by how well everything had come out thus far. Especially considering I had no prior experience sewing something of this caliber and no experience sewing gold piping.
I then proceeded to work on the collar which, as I stated before, had to be pattern from scratch
The only things that are officially done that I don't have pics for are the belt and the belt buckle but I don't have pics of those yet cuz I'm too lazy lol. The things that I am currently working on are the gloves and the boots. I tried making the gloves but I wasn't happy with the pattern. Here is a pic
Again, I had never sewn gloves before so this was a new experience and I had no idea I could sew something like this. Especially with the finger gussets.
Next are the boots. I sourced the accurate shoes used in the boots of the screen used suit for season 1. I actually found them used in my exact size on eBay for only $10. Talk about a steal lol. I made my own pattern from scratch with grocery bags, clear film, duct tape, and a sharpie. It took a couple tries but I eventually made a pattern that I was satisfied with.. The picture shown below is my first try at pattern making the boots. So if the boot seems too short, you'll know why.
Here is a boot that had started the gluing process. I ripped the boot cover off the shoe because it didn't glue right, but I minus well show the pic because I think it looks pretty cool.
My new cowl is currently being made by Jamie Arnold over at Iconic-fx. I sent him a vinyl fabric sample of my suit which he will use to color match my cowl. Here is a pic from him.
And that's my Flash suit so far! I still gotta work on the gloves, boots, and pants. I should receive the cowl next week. I want to give a huge shout out to SMP Designs for his tread on his CW Flash suit as that helped guide and motivate me a lot on this project. I don't know if I will be able to update this thread regularly so if you want to keep up to date on my progress be sure to follow me on instagram: @Equinox_cosplay where I post regularly on my page and in my stories on the progress of the suit. I hope you guys enjoyed this first part of my thread and got to pick at my brain a little bit. I've been giving it some thought and I hope to open up commissions for this suit sometime soon so be out on the lookout for that if you're interested. Not making any promises, but I would love to do that in the future. Anyways, thanks for reading
Keep on' creating,
Thomas
The sleeves were way too baggy, the suit was extremely hot, the boots sucked, there were no stretch vents in the knees, etc. So over the summer I made some upgrades. I bought knew pants from eBay that had stretch vents. I also got new boots. I re-did my chest emblem with magnets so I had the option of choosing between a red and white background. I also took in the seams in the arms so that they weren't so baggy and removed the two layers of lining that were in the jacket to help with the heat. This was the end result.
While this was a massive upgrade that I was very proud of, I still wasn't satisfied. I realized I wasn't going to achieve the accuracy I wanted to with what I had to work with. UD Replicas released their Flash suit which is REALLY awesome, but I wanted a cosplay suit, not a motorcycle suit. So I decided to take matters into my own hands and create a brand new suit from scratch.
The first thing I tackled was the pattern. There were many things about the pattern on my suit that I wasn't happy with. But I'm not good at pattern making so I did some research and found a video on Youtube by Tested where Adam Savage extracted the pattern of a production made Martian suit with blue tape, craft paper, and poster board. I used this method making changes to the pattern as I saw fit.
There were many parts of the pattern that had to be completely re-vamped and made from scratch like the collar, belt, thump loops, etc. But this gave me something I could easily work with and use the original for reverence.
Next was the fabric. If you look closely on the screen used Flash suit, there are lightning bolts printed onto parts of the suit. Again, going back to YouTube, I saw a video by Ismahawk where they did a live action battle between Flash and Quicksilver and the Flash suit that was created for that video had the accurate lightning bolts. After watching the BTS video I found the company that made their suits which is In Disguise Designs. It turns out they make their own custom screen printed fabric and one of the options they had was for the CW Flash fabric which is the same stuff they used in the live action battle video. After contacting them on Facebook, they sold me five 40" by 40" tiles. The end product was absolutely stellar and I highly recommend these guys!
So after I had the custom screen printed fabric in hand, I then sourced the vinyl from OnlineFabricStore.net The vinyl only costed about $8 a yard so it was very cost effective lol. I then got to work sewing.
(My apologies if the pics come out sideways. These are from my phone and I don't know why therpf does this.)
I added headliner foam to the chest to give it that puffed out look like it has on the show.
I am shocked by how well everything had come out thus far. Especially considering I had no prior experience sewing something of this caliber and no experience sewing gold piping.
I then proceeded to work on the collar which, as I stated before, had to be pattern from scratch
The only things that are officially done that I don't have pics for are the belt and the belt buckle but I don't have pics of those yet cuz I'm too lazy lol. The things that I am currently working on are the gloves and the boots. I tried making the gloves but I wasn't happy with the pattern. Here is a pic
Again, I had never sewn gloves before so this was a new experience and I had no idea I could sew something like this. Especially with the finger gussets.
Next are the boots. I sourced the accurate shoes used in the boots of the screen used suit for season 1. I actually found them used in my exact size on eBay for only $10. Talk about a steal lol. I made my own pattern from scratch with grocery bags, clear film, duct tape, and a sharpie. It took a couple tries but I eventually made a pattern that I was satisfied with.. The picture shown below is my first try at pattern making the boots. So if the boot seems too short, you'll know why.
Here is a boot that had started the gluing process. I ripped the boot cover off the shoe because it didn't glue right, but I minus well show the pic because I think it looks pretty cool.
My new cowl is currently being made by Jamie Arnold over at Iconic-fx. I sent him a vinyl fabric sample of my suit which he will use to color match my cowl. Here is a pic from him.
And that's my Flash suit so far! I still gotta work on the gloves, boots, and pants. I should receive the cowl next week. I want to give a huge shout out to SMP Designs for his tread on his CW Flash suit as that helped guide and motivate me a lot on this project. I don't know if I will be able to update this thread regularly so if you want to keep up to date on my progress be sure to follow me on instagram: @Equinox_cosplay where I post regularly on my page and in my stories on the progress of the suit. I hope you guys enjoyed this first part of my thread and got to pick at my brain a little bit. I've been giving it some thought and I hope to open up commissions for this suit sometime soon so be out on the lookout for that if you're interested. Not making any promises, but I would love to do that in the future. Anyways, thanks for reading
Keep on' creating,
Thomas
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