Help with making a catsuit/unitard?

[Egon]

Good News Everyone! My girlfriend wants to go to a upcoming con as Black Widow.

The problem is finding a suitable body suit to work off of...I have searched for a few hours and havent come up with much.

I was wondering if any of you could lend a hand in possibly providing a sewing pattern for a similar suit? it would be very appreciated!

 

[tetsuyacasshern]

there are plenty. What fabric you thinking of.

 

[Knowone251]

You can get a catsuit from hong kong or Taiwan on ebay for just a bit more than what you would pay for the material and they will usually make it to measurements if you send them in the pay pal comment box. My wife has done this for Returns catwoman, comic style catwoman, and black cat. Saves a lot of time and money, and you can concentrate on the detail pieces, which are what really makes a costume

 

[xenor]

This site has a good method to make a custom catsuit.

http://www.stretchy.org/catsuit/

 

[mdb]

Stetchy rocks! I don't use them but I really love the website and the explanation of stretch and how to account for it

I am a big fan of MJ Trends for their super shiny four way stretch pvc. It is of very good quality and is super shiny. Good for the AH style Love me some Hughes, though I'm a huge fan of his Hepburn inspired Selina... anwyay..

You will find it tricky to work with as the stretch is quite solid. meaning that while it will stretch quite far it takes a lot of effort to do so and thus seams can dig in in places you do not want them to dig in. You also may need to add some darts or extra seams to get it to fit smoothly. It's funny stuff, when a catsuit is too big it looks too small as the folds and creases look like those of a suit too small. When it fits just right it works like a whole body corset and feels a little tight but is still easy to walk in.

Forget commercial patterns! They are not designed for any movement and generally require as much effort to adapt as it does to use the stretchy site to draft from scratch.

Mockups are vital but make sure to use a fabric with the same stretch factor. I use a mechanical strech twill as it happens to be ideal. It is a woven fabric as opposed to knitted so it unravels when cut but the lycra in it gives it stretch in all directions. regular nylon spandex will generally be much more stretchy than what you will wind up needing and your pattern will be a size or two too small.

 

[Darth Mule]

I agree with mdb (again), except for this:

Kwik-Sew makes the best of the commercial stretch patterns in my experience. Use them for dancewear bases all of the time. They're available at most fabric stores too, so they aren't one of those hard to find items.

I would also recommend doing a trial run on cheaper stretch to make sure you get the fit right. Stretch is pretty forgiving though.

 

[Robot Monster]

The costume came out great btw. You two make a great costumed couple.