I had an entire reply typed up on Thursday but apparently I never hit post!
First, TzviaAriella, for three days I thought you meant coffee dye and then realized no, you did not. XD I did end up settling on a different combo of dyes just because my dye tests with the safari grey were picking up a lot of purple tones, unless you mean that there's a safari grey in the acid dyes? It was a lovely color but not the one you had. I was testing with Dharma Fiber Reactive Safari Grey dye and silk crepe de chine. I did a dumb and ordered the non-stonewashed, but by the time I'm done with them they'll look about the same.
Second, RPFKOV, your splice idea for the bracer worked perfectly. I had a lighter weight veg tan leather and a heavier garment leather that would have been too thick together, but I spliced it just as you did and it's wonderful.
Now, lots of updates since apparently the last ones were eaten!
This was the first time I'd made a big project since I got sick three months ago. While I love my costume right now, that time off certainly shows.
Things I need to upgrade after PAX:
I tried to do a low immersion dye on her pants (my specialty, and you can see a bit of a low immersion effect), and I tried to dye it in a way that doesn't set the dye properly so a lot of it washes out. I apparently did it so wrong I did it right. I've NEVER had a dye set so well, and so it's way darker than it should have been. It'll work for now, and I'll go home and lift the dye and do it right with diluted amounts, since this apparently won't work for me.
I got Dharma's hemp/cotton jersey because I liked the color, but after making the shirt I've decided it's just too heavy. It looks great and I do love it, but the Henley placket doesn't look quite right and the pintucks and seaming could be better in a lighter fabric. Also, I saw a high res photo where there is some kind of lacy-style open weave between the pintucks on the left sleeve. It's clearly some kind of manipulation where they stretched the fabric and then got it stuck that way, but I'm having a hard time finding a way to get my fabric to stay open. I only had about an hour to play with different treatments, though (I'll post the photo later, I'm on a train and the wifi won't open photos that big and I don't know which of 20-some reference links it's in).
My boots were made entirely from scratch with materials costing only about $55.00 (brown basketweave wool for the outer, brushed wool twill in cream for the inner (it was softer than the felted wool), and cork leather details with wool felt interlining and EVA foam soles, both of those were materials I had on hand). I am very happy with the look of the boots except that the silhouette is more Ugg than PoZu. I have enough to try again so I'm going to go home and make a few felt mockups. I think I know where to adjust my shaping, and making the first test pair out of the real fabrics helped me figure out a few of the tricksier seaming parts.
Lastly of things to update, I made a really dumb. I bought an extra wide belt blank because none of our hides (my dad and I are leatherworkers) had enough length in them for a belt but on the other hand we REALLY do not need another hide. I carefully patterned out my belt in paper, got the fit right, traced and cut the leather. Backwards. I forgot to flip the pattern upside down. XD It looks really great other than that, so it'll work for now and then I'll fix it when I have money for a new hide or wide blank. Once I get one that fits the right way, I'm going to tool some Rey and Star Wars inspired designs in this one for a SW-inspired daily wear belt.
Things I really like:
The crepe de chine is perfect for the pants. Except for my dyeing mishap, the texture is right where I want it. Once I get the the dye removed and redone I can go ahead to the really aggressive weathering which will take away the bit of remaining sheen. Don't let anyone lie to you. Silk is tough. This fabric's been through hell already and I've still got so far to go before the surface fibers start breaking enough to give it the perfect patina. Also, <3 the fit of them. They will be daily wear pants, I think.
I used lightweight plainweave rayon, which is sometimes called viscose. I dyed it in an ecru and safari grey dyebath (separate, it shared the grey with the jersey for the shirt) that was purposefully overcrowded which led to a streaky dye that gave the fabric the illusion of being crinkled even when it was flat. After that, I did a broomstick pleat, set it for three hour-long runs in the dryer and then let it finish drying flat in the sun, because by then it was still wet and I was worried about mold. It is perfect. my pleats are a bit too crisp, so I'm going to see if they relax while I'm wearing it at PAX and if not I'm going to throw it in the dryer with a damp washcloth.
I also made my bracer with the splice method (as mentioned above to RPFKOV) and it was really easy to get the seam to be hidden, which helped to keep the thickness down. I highly recommend this method.
I think that's it, but even if it's not I've already gone on for far too long. I'll post photos as soon as I have them!
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