Starting out..

Ok, so clearly, having found a nice Bat image, I needed to know a little more.. turns out this one is just an illustration, which is handy, as I wont have to bother getting everything right ;-)

Given that multiple shades black & gray are not ideal to work with.. I started by throwing the image through an edge-detector, to get a better idea for the details.


This lets me see just the sort of bits the overall costume would need, and where they attach, and so on.

However it also lost a few bits, so I ended up tracing over it, creating this pencil based monstrosity.

Not bad, provided bat-thing doesnt look in the mirror, Im probably safe.

From this, I decided I could smash the costume up into bits that could be attempted one by one.

• Mask
• Cape & Attachment
• Gauntlets/Gloves
• Bodice
• Leg Armor
• Boots
• Chest

At a guess, I figured I could do something like this.. 

The gauntlets, shoulders, cape all get split off to be made up out of something that looks good..

Then I build an undershirt, and hang the rest over the front of that.

Leggings should work with a standard pair, with the armor bits attached as required.

Lots of tabs to help hold it all together.

I kinda figure some sorta skirt will be required as well, as kids will be present, and I dont want to mentally scar them for life.. again..

That leaves the bodice part, which I figure can work with something like this..

Take a basic underbust corset, add the details ontop..

Then start thinking about how to keep the whole lot together, here playing around with the idea of having hidden fasteners under the hip armor, which can attach to the leggings to prevent them slipping down.

Not clear at this stage yet how to resolve the skirt (wavy bit on middle right image here) cutting the armor panels with its waistline.

More thought needed yet!!

All shapes & sizes

Ok, so time to think more about the whole chest area.. It's going to need a little enhancement, and I need to get an idea for sizes, practicality and so on.

A little thought and I realised that theres plenty of info on how to make this stuff, providing you are starting with the correct figure. Of course, there's not that much help on what to do if you are not.

So I started by plotting out various measurements...

Some of which are a little unusual, as having to create the chest area requires a little more thought if they are not to look like two melons welded to my front.

After some careful thought & referring to 'standard' sizes for these things, I settled on a moderate size ;-).

I also started to think about those shoulders.. just how to make that shape from anything flat..

It doesnt feel easy, and my first approach seems to create one with too much of a ridge at the top..

 

I can get the slope to look ok, but not the top..

Suspecting I might have to introduce a flat top cap, but I really dont like that idea.. might end up looking a bit too much like a soldier from the nutcracker suite then.

Legs that go all the way up to eleven.

Given that I have to make this costume.. not just assemble it out of so many shop bought bits.. I figured it was time to work out the leggings..

Turns out theres a vast resource of this stuff out there, http://www.patternschool.com and http://www.stretchy.org are both amazing sites if you are starting out trying to figure out just how all the bits need to gotogether (for way more than just leggings).

So I decided that given that a straight leggings pattern looked so simple, I'd want to make it a bit more entertaining, and try to move the seam to the center rear leg.. after all, a Bat should try to look good, right?

So, I drew out a few backsides.. and the leggings front & back.. and then tried to see what options there were starting from a center back seam per leg.

Quite a few!

I settled on the last one (bottom right), bringing the seams round from the rear leg up to the side of the hips in a smoothish curve.

All I need to do now is figure out just what that did to my pattern. At this stage I realise I have issues comprehending the mapping of a flat surface over a shape with no obvious corners..




So I cheat.. yay for primark, where you can buy a pair of leggings for 3 pounds.. I'm sure theres an entire story to be written here at why I'm even bothering to make a pair, when I could just buy one from there, or how they manage to make them for less than the cost I could buy the material for, let alone that they can clearly already sew in a straight line ;-)

Insanely cheap leggings in hand, and some tailors chalk, mark the lines, cut the lines, cut through the crotch to seperate the legs, and then lay the resulting piece down & carefully trace out the outline, being really careful to keep the fabric all under the same amount of tension.. easy! (mutter mutter)


With that done, I present the worlds oddest leg pattern.


If you plan to make a pair, you'll need to:

• cut two of the right hand pattern as opposites..
• for each bit, sew into a tube by sewing the longest sides together 
• Yes, the curves do make this a bit of a pain
• Yes, sewing lycra isn't easy
• Top tip, cheat & use temporary spray glue, 505 makes sewing this stuff almost easy.
• Join the two tubes along the crotch seam... 

If you got all that right.. you end up with something a little like this.. Though I probably wouldnt recommend using lilac.

Especially not this lilac, which is the most evil cloth ever to try to sew. So lightweight the feed dogs kept trying to eat the cloth rather than feed it. So stretchy that the slightest tug means your seam ends up wonky.

Still.. the seams did end up where they were supposed to, score one for cutting up stuff from primark !