The scary stuff commences...
Super Secret Stuff - Geoff, don't look!
Black gilet vest thing originally looked like... a pretty normal blokes black leather gilet thingy. Now I've removed the collar and the zip, it looks like THIS. And my reference photos say the next step is, realistically, to start massacring the body. A LOT of the black needs replacing with red so I really need to unpick the rest of the seams, put the lining to one side and start cutting (after drawing out an appropriate pattern - if nothing else so both sides will MATCH).
And incidentally, Moto leatherwear is REALLY well made. I am impressed with the contrustion and the amount of double seams in this thing, even if it does make it a pain in the ass to unpick. Also, this would never in a million years have occured to me but all the non-visible seams wher the leather is folded over, the fold is stuck with 5mm wide double sided sticky tape before stitching (presumably to stop movement whilst stitching). You couldn't do this with anything means to go through a washing machine but of course leather is specialist clean only. Its a really rather clever idea.
So an awful lot of seam unpicking commenced. A stitch ripper is, incidentally, your friend if you try something like this. The idea being that you rip the stitches NOT the leather. I concede that logically, using a standard waistcoat / gilet pattern and modifying it slighty may have made more sense BUT I find it significantly easier doing it this way. I can see how everything goes together.
Then I copied the outline of the bits onto paper, and marked out where I wanted red pieces. Then traced that, cut the various bits out in red and black leather, crossed my fingers and hoped. It's important to allow overlap between the red and black if you try this as you're going to have to join bits together than were one bit in the original design.
I am aware I've completely ignore than a very small section of the sides, under the arms, is in fact an entirely fitterent non-leather fabric. Sometimes compromises are best made, this is one of em :o)
So after much cutting and mapping and hoping, I finally get all the individual pieces I need. They look like this (they're the same colour, camera throwing a hissy fit is all) :
Before I start putting them back together, I need to consider the decorative stitching - specificially horizontal stitch lines around the collar, sunburst stitch lines on the back red piece and vertical to slightly curved lines on the front red pieces. It won't be possible with MY sewing machine to add these in as well as I'd be happy with afterwards, so adding them now seems like a stunningly good plan. Seems kinda weird that I've done SO much on it yet this is the first time I've touched my sewing machine. I mark on the stitch lines with a soft pencil and (mostly) a ruler. Then I mark them CORRECTLY with a sharpie. Then stitch straight along them all. - this is the centre back panel before stitching. I'm messy, I know.
Now its time to put each individual part back together - so I have an entire back piece and two entire front pieces, adding the piping where appropriate as I go - and there's a lot of piping. I'll also need to add the webbing strips to the front part as I do this as where the red meets the black vertically down the front, the ends ot the webbing really need to be caught in the piping strip. This is where it's going to get a little complicated I think, but just doing things in the correct order should mean it works.
So... the whole putting it back together thing. It needed to be done in a fairly specific order to get the edging and webbing correct. The first thing I discovered was that I did NOT want piping. I wanted bias binding. So that rectified, I was able to start. I put the back together first, binding the edges as I went, and attached the shoulders last. Then started on the front which needed binding and the webbing inserting across the front as I went. Then it was a simple matter of binding and attaching the front of the two shoulder panels (which were already attached to the back) It still needs a collar, the sides attaching to each other, and the bottom hem, as well as the original lining reinserting. At the time of writing, it looks like this:
During all that I'd also started on some other bits (mainly because the other bits could be done either a) while I was waiting for stuff to arrive in the mail and b) some of it could be done in a room other than my office / craft room). I mentioned I'd bought a pulse pistol from scifi-models.com which arrived and needed painting. At the time of writing it looks like this, with a double coat of grey primer. I have metallic charcoal car touch-up paint for the final colour job, and will go over that with a clear acrylic spray for protection. Scifi-models are really good, the guy who runs it is called Jason and it super nice to deal with.
I also picked up some fab boots for MY costume at a bargain price from a friend who was selling off some stuff. They came with 4 inch platforms which is completely wrong for the outfit and also not something I can walk in. I need to cut them properly in the craft room where I have a bolted down clamp to hold them but did some test cutting with a jogsaw in the other room just to see if it would work. Given that I balanced them on a little step ladder while I massacred with my saw that's a definite don't try this at home, kids activity. But it did confirm it would work.
Original boot -
My jigsaw >:)
The test result (yes it's wonky, that happens when you don't clamp things in place ^_^ it's also only cut at about half the amount I want taking off so it's all fine.
The gun holster is also semi made which was partially from earlier mentioned holster pattern, with some modifications. Because I'm using leatherette, I bonded all the structural pieces to pelmet lining which is really stiff, then painted the lining black (pelmet lining is usually white to begin with and mine was no exception. It needs a combination of sticking and stitching but I am pretty confident. It's also a pretty perfect fit for the gun which I thought was immensely cool, given that I started it BEFORE the gun arrived. The picture is missing a couple of the smaller bits but you get the idea.
Finally, I started on my OWN vest/waistcoat thingy which is being made from scratch. Still a lot to do but it's starting to take shape. I may have taken some slight artistic liberties around the cleavage area ^_^ - I'm far less concerned with accuracy for my one. As soon as I have any pics worth posting of it, I'll upload em!
Black gilet vest thing originally looked like... a pretty normal blokes black leather gilet thingy. Now I've removed the collar and the zip, it looks like THIS. And my reference photos say the next step is, realistically, to start massacring the body. A LOT of the black needs replacing with red so I really need to unpick the rest of the seams, put the lining to one side and start cutting (after drawing out an appropriate pattern - if nothing else so both sides will MATCH).
And incidentally, Moto leatherwear is REALLY well made. I am impressed with the contrustion and the amount of double seams in this thing, even if it does make it a pain in the ass to unpick. Also, this would never in a million years have occured to me but all the non-visible seams wher the leather is folded over, the fold is stuck with 5mm wide double sided sticky tape before stitching (presumably to stop movement whilst stitching). You couldn't do this with anything means to go through a washing machine but of course leather is specialist clean only. Its a really rather clever idea.
So an awful lot of seam unpicking commenced. A stitch ripper is, incidentally, your friend if you try something like this. The idea being that you rip the stitches NOT the leather. I concede that logically, using a standard waistcoat / gilet pattern and modifying it slighty may have made more sense BUT I find it significantly easier doing it this way. I can see how everything goes together.
Then I copied the outline of the bits onto paper, and marked out where I wanted red pieces. Then traced that, cut the various bits out in red and black leather, crossed my fingers and hoped. It's important to allow overlap between the red and black if you try this as you're going to have to join bits together than were one bit in the original design.
I am aware I've completely ignore than a very small section of the sides, under the arms, is in fact an entirely fitterent non-leather fabric. Sometimes compromises are best made, this is one of em :o)
So after much cutting and mapping and hoping, I finally get all the individual pieces I need. They look like this (they're the same colour, camera throwing a hissy fit is all) :
Before I start putting them back together, I need to consider the decorative stitching - specificially horizontal stitch lines around the collar, sunburst stitch lines on the back red piece and vertical to slightly curved lines on the front red pieces. It won't be possible with MY sewing machine to add these in as well as I'd be happy with afterwards, so adding them now seems like a stunningly good plan. Seems kinda weird that I've done SO much on it yet this is the first time I've touched my sewing machine. I mark on the stitch lines with a soft pencil and (mostly) a ruler. Then I mark them CORRECTLY with a sharpie. Then stitch straight along them all. - this is the centre back panel before stitching. I'm messy, I know.
Now its time to put each individual part back together - so I have an entire back piece and two entire front pieces, adding the piping where appropriate as I go - and there's a lot of piping. I'll also need to add the webbing strips to the front part as I do this as where the red meets the black vertically down the front, the ends ot the webbing really need to be caught in the piping strip. This is where it's going to get a little complicated I think, but just doing things in the correct order should mean it works.
So... the whole putting it back together thing. It needed to be done in a fairly specific order to get the edging and webbing correct. The first thing I discovered was that I did NOT want piping. I wanted bias binding. So that rectified, I was able to start. I put the back together first, binding the edges as I went, and attached the shoulders last. Then started on the front which needed binding and the webbing inserting across the front as I went. Then it was a simple matter of binding and attaching the front of the two shoulder panels (which were already attached to the back) It still needs a collar, the sides attaching to each other, and the bottom hem, as well as the original lining reinserting. At the time of writing, it looks like this:
During all that I'd also started on some other bits (mainly because the other bits could be done either a) while I was waiting for stuff to arrive in the mail and b) some of it could be done in a room other than my office / craft room). I mentioned I'd bought a pulse pistol from scifi-models.com which arrived and needed painting. At the time of writing it looks like this, with a double coat of grey primer. I have metallic charcoal car touch-up paint for the final colour job, and will go over that with a clear acrylic spray for protection. Scifi-models are really good, the guy who runs it is called Jason and it super nice to deal with.
I also picked up some fab boots for MY costume at a bargain price from a friend who was selling off some stuff. They came with 4 inch platforms which is completely wrong for the outfit and also not something I can walk in. I need to cut them properly in the craft room where I have a bolted down clamp to hold them but did some test cutting with a jogsaw in the other room just to see if it would work. Given that I balanced them on a little step ladder while I massacred with my saw that's a definite don't try this at home, kids activity. But it did confirm it would work.
Original boot -
My jigsaw >:)
The test result (yes it's wonky, that happens when you don't clamp things in place ^_^ it's also only cut at about half the amount I want taking off so it's all fine.
The gun holster is also semi made which was partially from earlier mentioned holster pattern, with some modifications. Because I'm using leatherette, I bonded all the structural pieces to pelmet lining which is really stiff, then painted the lining black (pelmet lining is usually white to begin with and mine was no exception. It needs a combination of sticking and stitching but I am pretty confident. It's also a pretty perfect fit for the gun which I thought was immensely cool, given that I started it BEFORE the gun arrived. The picture is missing a couple of the smaller bits but you get the idea.
Finally, I started on my OWN vest/waistcoat thingy which is being made from scratch. Still a lot to do but it's starting to take shape. I may have taken some slight artistic liberties around the cleavage area ^_^ - I'm far less concerned with accuracy for my one. As soon as I have any pics worth posting of it, I'll upload em!