Joining things together...

For the legs, and corset, and probably other bits, I'm going to need to make the armor details and attach them to the fabric. A quick glance over previous bat-people shows it to generally be black matte rubber of some sort, looks like a challenge =)

Craft foam seems quite popular for building armor, there's even a few tutorials on it online, so I ordered a few sheets off ebay to use for tests. Comes in a variety of colors, including black ;-).

It's flat, smooth, a little spongy, apparenty you can heat form it, but I decided against trying that this time =) looks like it might sew ok, although if the stitches get too dense, it might perforate it.. needs thought.

I decided to see how to join this stuff to the lycra the leggings will be made from, I started by figuring I could glue it, and went looking for glues =) Poor blokey at staples must have thought me a bit odd, purchasing 8 small tubes of different types of glue.. just to be sure, I asked around at work, and then ordered another 5 or so types from ebay.

I ended up with this lot.. which I should probably state up front, may or may not be suitable for what I planned.. but I figured there's more fun in experimenting than reading guidelines ;-)

• Pritt-stick
• Generic 'Super Glue'
• PVA Glue
• Generic Liquid clear glue in a tube
• A different brand of PVA glue
• Copydex
• Guttermans HT-2
• 3M Spray Mount
• 3M Permanent Spray Adhesive
• Pronty glue
• Sew Quick
• A tube of Bostick
• Generic Fabric Glue

Ok, to test all these, I clearly needed to stretch a bit of lycra and then glue some craft foam to it, then once dry, see if the stuff would stay stuck when the lycra is unstretched. This way I figure the lycra won't end up all wrinkly like it would if I just glued it unstretched, then tried to stretch it afterward. Even if I only get it to glue for a while, I have the option of sewing it on while glued.

So, stretching lycra.. I'd need something like my legs, right? something exactly like my legs, since the amount of stretch should be what it shall be when worn.

Now I could use my legs.. but then, how to explain to the A&E department that the reason I have craft foam & lycra glued to my legs, with lots of different glue types, which I have no idea of the solvents for.. is that I was experimenting for a halloween costume?

Cue building a duplicate set of legs, 1 Primark cheap (very cheap this time, seems even Primark reduce things that don't sell, and these nasty brown leggings certainly wouldnt sell) pair of leggings, 1 reel of duct tape, and a big pile of spare t-shirts.. equals that.. yes, I've even doodled the armor bits onto it..

If you plan to make your very own set of duplicate legs, I don't know, to say, leave sticking out from under vehicles, or hanging in view of windows.. then this tip may be useful: If you have hairy legs, either wrap them in clingfilm before putting on the leggings to tape.. or shave them.. seems the hairs can happily go thru the lycra, and end up glued to the tape.. also, you may want to plan on having a helper around if only to cut you free once you're done wrapping.

So, the results! what worked?

Not much.

Pritt-stick didnt stand a chance, it never managed to 'grab' either the cloth, or the craft foam, best stick to using this stuff on paper. Generic 'Super Glue', PVA Glue, Generic Liquid Glue, Pronty Glue, Sew Quick, Bostick, and Generic Fabric Glue, all suffered the same fate. They were unable to dry out enough to form a bond, reading up online seems to say lycra is non absorbent, and so is my craft foam. 3M managed to make a rather good attempt, but couldnt withstand being unstretched, it would peel away as soon as the tension was let off... Which leaves, Guttermans HT-2 and the Copydex; the HT-2 was good, but at the price it cost I'd either need to be designing a costume for Barbie, or owning a small island somewhere to pay for it. The Copydex on the other hand was awesome, cheap, stank of fish, and worked a treat.. reading up on this, it seems Copydex is a latex rubber based adhesive, and it's working well here because its going into and through the weave of the lycra before drying as a pad which is stuck to the foam.

Problem solved then.. Copydex it is? except it dries white, and Bat-thing isnt well known for the white splotches where the armor is glued on.

Still.. latex based.. I wonder what ebay has.. black latex paint? I feel more experiments are called for!

I've got a crush on me

My trusty trained assistant delivered my corset today.. she attended a course on corset making a while back, and has proven that she's more than remembered enough to create items of awesomeness.

So we took a basic underbust corset pattern, messed around the the lengths a little here & there, to make it a little more comfortable for my frame, and agreed on materials. In this case, it's built from coutil panels, with lycra on top to give it the same look as the rest of the bat outfit. (Bat-thing requires coordination!)

Didnt need the stretch from the lycra for this part, so the lycra was just glued to the coutil using 3M spray glue, to allow the cutting & sewing to go ahead as if there were only the 1 material to work with. The boning is a mix of spiral boned, flat steel boned, and some plastic boning.. all edged with satin binding tape stuff.. At least I hope I got all that right, since I didn't make this bit, I can't say for certain.

Anyway, it looks awesome, so now I just need to ruin it, and attach my armor panels ;-) (all of which have had a dip coat of paint since last photographed, to minimise brush strokes, wood grain effect ;-) etc. They did all look a bit odd hanging from the airer, but I think they look nicer for it.)

I end up grabbing an old duvet rolling it up, and bagging it in a pile of those "super free never quite sure if its really a charity" bags that helpful people keep putting through my letter box. Then I put the corset over that lot & laced it down as tight as I could get.

My reasoning here is that I need to attach all the panels while the corset is under tension, otherwise they'll just pop right off when it's laced back up.

Not that many interesting photos here of the process, that involved much duct tape, careful painting, drying, painting, drying, and then finally, unmasking, more painting, and then the comedy bit where I had to maintain pressure between the armor & the corset while the painty-glue set. Cue comedy use of a few old pairs of tights.. pretty awesome since they can be made to stretch wide as they passed over the armor, and yet stretched & pulled tight & knotted to provide the pressure. This all had to be repeated 4 times, once for each quarter worth of armor to attach.

A week or so later, here's what I'd ended up with =)

It can't actually sit flat anymore, as the armor panels are holding it to it's curved shape!

And the legs? well, I recut the pattern using something less evil than lilac lycra, the black stuff seems nicer to work with. And I'd made up these panels to attach them...

But once I'd painted them up.. they looked a bit more like this..

Which just didnt have the look I was trying for, the splotchy paint effect wasnt even enough. I could improve it massively if I could dip them, but the parts are so large, I wouldnt have enough paint unless I bought insane amounts..  so I thought I'd change plan, and try using just the same cloth effect Im using for the gauntlets & shoulders..

More duct tape masking, careful painting, and I ended up with this..

Sadly, the paint did bleed out quite substantially under the duct tape this time.. so the edges aren't as neat as I'd like

And the placement of the panels isn't 100% identical, but then given they are mounted on stretch fabric, they'll be moving about a bit anyways.

I definitely prefer this effect to the overshiny panels though.

The waist on the leggings is made deliberately high, and the legs deliberately long, that way the waist should be held up by the corset, and the legs long enough to use as a stirrup type ending to stop the legs drifting too far up/down.


Next up all the other sewy bits I've done, but failed to mention so far!

Party time.. excellent.. Party Time..

Woot.. party done.. the blog is now open.. if you've read this far & are a regular reader of other blogs, you'll likely wonder why this one seems to run backwards.. the answer is, this blog was private until the party, and there's no easy way to explain to most people they need to navigate to the end & scroll up to read in order ;-)

Anyways.. Im sure you are all waiting for these ;)