Hello all! Brand new project getting underway and I'm really excited about this one as it will also include the amazing cowl being made by GraphicJordan.
So, here we go...
Suits like this seem to be a big trend now - an 'armored' chest and torso section, with an undershirt that contains the sleeves and pants with a belt that covers the join at the waist. It's very similar to the patterns I made for the recent Captain America Age of Ultron suit. So, naturally, I decided to create a new block pattern based on that project to use for other costumes that are similar.
I began with the block and created a mock up of the torso 'vest' and the undershirt in white and started sketching out the seams based on my reference library for the suit.
I'd like to take a moment here to address something that I've gotten questions about in the past. Looking closely at the front picture above, it's clear that, the way the new seams will work, there would be a dart right in the middle of the chest inset.
Obviously, I don't want a dart running through the middle of this inset, but I still want the contour in the chest piece that it creates. So, I need to move this dart. Here's how:
When the pieces are cut and laid flat, I get the the diagram below (not to scale). In the diagram, the dart is shown in the middle of the stripe in blue and is a 3/4" dart. What I then do is take that 3/4", move it to the top of the stripe, mark it and draw a line to the pivot point. This top section is then cut away.
This serves two key purposes:
With that edit made, the new pieces will look like this.
This method does elongate the dart a bit but it's negligible and will not impact the shape enough to be a problem.
With the pattern altered, I was able to begin construction on the chest. I first stitched the two chest pieces together with the insets. Next, I cut the 'armor' pad for the black inset from 2mm craft foam (less the seam allowance) and spray mounted it in place.
Each piece was then completely backed with a headliner foam pad and the topstitching around the inset was completed. Lastly, the center piece that attaches the two sides was sewn in.
With the shell of the chest assembled, I moved on to the abs. There are a lot of small angles and edges to this section. I cut apart the mock up piece by piece and made my paper patterns. Then I cut the cordura and worked from the bottom up.
The center bottom and center top insets are backed with headliner foam so that they will have the padded look, but still have good flexibility and not be too restrictive. The front tabs for the buckles also needed to be incorporated at this point.
The hardware will be added next to the torso and then the middle center and two side inset sections will be 'armor' padded with craft foam and all the backing and lining will be added to both the chest and abs.
Here's what the two sections look like together at this point.
More to come, stay tuned!
So, here we go...
Suits like this seem to be a big trend now - an 'armored' chest and torso section, with an undershirt that contains the sleeves and pants with a belt that covers the join at the waist. It's very similar to the patterns I made for the recent Captain America Age of Ultron suit. So, naturally, I decided to create a new block pattern based on that project to use for other costumes that are similar.
I began with the block and created a mock up of the torso 'vest' and the undershirt in white and started sketching out the seams based on my reference library for the suit.
I'd like to take a moment here to address something that I've gotten questions about in the past. Looking closely at the front picture above, it's clear that, the way the new seams will work, there would be a dart right in the middle of the chest inset.
Obviously, I don't want a dart running through the middle of this inset, but I still want the contour in the chest piece that it creates. So, I need to move this dart. Here's how:
When the pieces are cut and laid flat, I get the the diagram below (not to scale). In the diagram, the dart is shown in the middle of the stripe in blue and is a 3/4" dart. What I then do is take that 3/4", move it to the top of the stripe, mark it and draw a line to the pivot point. This top section is then cut away.
This serves two key purposes:
- It moves the dart out of the middle of the piece and places it on a seam line where it belongs
- It make the stripe a uniform width throughout, so it will look correct when 'armor' padded and finished (again, the diagram is not to scale).
With that edit made, the new pieces will look like this.
This method does elongate the dart a bit but it's negligible and will not impact the shape enough to be a problem.
With the pattern altered, I was able to begin construction on the chest. I first stitched the two chest pieces together with the insets. Next, I cut the 'armor' pad for the black inset from 2mm craft foam (less the seam allowance) and spray mounted it in place.
Each piece was then completely backed with a headliner foam pad and the topstitching around the inset was completed. Lastly, the center piece that attaches the two sides was sewn in.
With the shell of the chest assembled, I moved on to the abs. There are a lot of small angles and edges to this section. I cut apart the mock up piece by piece and made my paper patterns. Then I cut the cordura and worked from the bottom up.
The center bottom and center top insets are backed with headliner foam so that they will have the padded look, but still have good flexibility and not be too restrictive. The front tabs for the buckles also needed to be incorporated at this point.
The hardware will be added next to the torso and then the middle center and two side inset sections will be 'armor' padded with craft foam and all the backing and lining will be added to both the chest and abs.
Here's what the two sections look like together at this point.
More to come, stay tuned!
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