17th July 2011: Catsuit In stage pics of the Catsuit progress. Since the fabric hood looked bumpy it was left out of the final costume and I opted to just wear the front mask part. I quite like the look with just the wig - it is tempting to cosplay like Selina just got back home and has removed the Cowl.
8th July 2011: claws finished Finished claws were then glued onto the gloves whilst wearing them to help position them exactly right, using Evostick Impact contact adhesive.
These are the finished gloves with claws attached.
8th July 2011: claws progress claws painted with acrylic silver paint.
8th July 2011: claws progress The claws were then glued onto a set of false nails with cyanoacrylate (superglue).
8th July 2011: claws I made my claws up today. Material is some thick perspex which I rescued out of a skip. First drew my pattern shapes in cardboard then put masking tape on the perspex and traced around the shapes. I cut the rough shapes out with hacksaw and then filed them down to the lines with metal working files. Once the profile shapes were cut I then filed them down into sharp pointy claws.
8th July 2011: mask Since the fabric cowl really wasnt working out I decided to just go with the face mask, along with the wig it actually looks close to the comic art somehow. I added some cat ears quickly. They are just cardboard cutouts glued on and covered with the same fabric. At least it definitely says Catwoman.
6th July 2011: cowl issues! No pics of this. Good, cuz it really isnt looking like I wanted. The solid front part looks nice and smooth, but the cloth hood part is just not sitting smooth over the wig underneath. And the wig is not bunching out from the back properly but seems more like a pony tail. Funny thing is it all looks better with just the front mask part on. Tempting to just wear it like this - if time runs out I may have to. Wondering if I should start a new cowl - one that covers the head...
10th August 2010: Catsuit construction 2 Having made the top part to fit closely I then grabbed more of the spare material and attched it on with tack stitching. I had the split seam at the back held together by the zipper temporarily tack stitched in place. So I started pulling the fabric tight and taking up all the slack with safety pins where the seams would be placed, eg down the side of the leg. I then marked along these pin lines with a pen to show where the seams would be, and then carefully cut the excess fabric off. Then I had to take some of the pins out to get the rough garment off. After a few more alterations to take in any more slack and to get the fabric to lie nicely in the curve of the back and across the bum the rough was nearly finished. (lots of taking it off, adjusting, pinning it back on etc). I finished the rough off by measuring and marking 1/2 inch from the pin lines for seam allowance, and trimmed the escess fabric down. This forms the finished rough pattern.
Now with all shapes and seams marked I diss-assembled the rough into its seperate parts. Then lay these pattern pieces onto the proper purple costume fabric, pinned and cut new streach lycra pieces out. Then I tack sewed sewed the new purple lycra pieces together and tried it on for a first fit. The costume still needed adjustments to get it crease free, and I found the lycra tricky to machine sew. It had the nasty habbit of puckering up underneath and I wasn't aware of it until the whole seam was finished - which meant unpicking it ALL the way back to the pucker and re-sewing it..Tedious! To overcome this - now I sew about every 6 inches (15cms) and stop! to have a peek underneath and check everything is still going ok ;)
10th August 2010: Catsuit construction 1 Here are some WIP pictures I took during construction of the catsuit.
This is how I made the catsuit (and also how I make a lot of my costumes)
I started off by making myself a pattern 'rough'. The rough is what it says, it is made out of any spare material lying around. Normally you should try to match fabric types eg use spare lycra if making a lycra costume etc.
So - to start I took some spare material (this yellow stuff) and started cutting the shapes to cover my dress form, just because it is easier to do it on a dress form (or a duct tape dummy) if you have that option. Basically getting the shapes down and lining up where seams need to be across the shoulders etc. The seams are pinned first and then the rough is taken off the dress form and lightly tack stitched by hand.
Pic shows the rough being 'tried on' the dress form again to make sure it still fits well.
The placement of my seamlines here was my attempt at trying to make the whole catsuit as seamless as possible yet still fit closely around the bust. (like the comic artwork). I wish the idea worked better on the finished catsuit - I might try another version with different seam placement...
6th July 2010: cowl progress Hood pattern 'rough' on wig stand ..shows it better.
3rd July 2010: cowl progress Started making a pattern for the hood part out of some spare material.
I figured the hood would probably have two seams running front to back from the face mask part, along the same lines where the cat ears will be placed later.
(Hood pattern is face down in the pic)
3rd July 2010: cowl progress Here is the view from the front.. Im really pleased how it is looking so far. :)
3rd July 2010: cowl progress Next I cut lots of slits around the eyeholes and round parts to enable the fabric to be streatched round and glued onto the inside of the mask. This worked really nicely and gave nice clean lines at all the turnovers.
I then trimmed off all the excess material. I have left an allowance around the outside of the mask. This will be used to sew the hood part onto.
Here is the view from the back so far..
3rd July 2010: cowl progress Next I started covering the mask with my costume fabric. The start point is crucial even though the fabric is streatchy ..I figured the start point had to be the bridge of the nose.
So I applied some Evostick Impact contact adhesive sparingly onto the mask and smeared it evenly using a lollipop stick so it was just a stickey surface. Then I streatched the lycra fabric over it and held in place until the glue dried. It worked without the glue seaping through to the good side of the fabric.
Moving outwrds from the centre I worked in small patches glueing the fabric onto the mask. Eventually the whole mask was covered, with no wrinkles.
3rd July 2010: Cowl progress Now working on the cowl..
I decided to make the mask part of my cowl firm so the eye shapes will not distort and so the mask will sit snug around my nose.
So I have made the front mask part by glueing two pieces of paper card which has been bent around the contours of my face and then stuck together with PVA glue. To get it to bend around my forehead I still had to cut some darts out because of the complex curves goin on.
The resulting surface after this was not smooth and round so I layered some filler/PVA mix on the forehead part. When it had dried I sanded it smooth and round.
23rd June 2010: Boot toppings Ta-Da! One nifty pair of fitted thigh high boots. ^_^
23rd June 2010: Boot toppings Step 3 - lay boot topping flat, mark along the tack stitching with chalk, pin the fabric either side so it cant move, then remove tack stitching and run through sewing machne along the marked seamline.
If you are handsewing only then dont unpick the tack stitching, just go over it more closely to make a good strong seam.
Trim excess from seam. Turn fabric back the right way round and slip shoes into the bottoms.
Finally streatch the fabric over the soles and glue in place with Evostick. Trim excess fabric off when dry.
23rd June 2010: Boot toppings Step 2 - using black streatch lycra, (turned inside out), pin up the back seam snugly fitted around leg and shoe. I like to use safety pins for this part. Then tack stitch it all.
23rd June 2010: Boot toppings I know this might be like telling granny how to suck eggs for some but it might be usefull to others who havent seen how to go about making boot toppings yet..
Here are wip pics how I made my thigh highs.
Step 1 - My donor shoes. Cheap off eBy. Colour doesnt matter cuz they are going to be completely covered.. So long as they are comfy and a good fit.