Pretty no? Here’s the breakdown of how the scales came to exist:

First I measured the pattern to see what size the leg sections of scales are and drew it out on a section of PVC foamboard. This one is an offcut from some blazblue boards we thrifted from expo a couple of years ago.

Using a knife I carve lines into it. At this point you could just stop, cut out all the little parallelograms, paint them and be on your way. But I hate myself and like spending money so I decided to cast them.

Get a bigger bit of foamboard and some strips. This is your mould base and the wall.

Hot glue your sheet of diamonds to the base then build it a house. Make sure it’s water tight. I test for watertightness by… pouring water in the mould. Then I pour the water into a measuring cup and it tells me the volume of silicone I’ll need to make the mould. GENIUS.

Make sure to dry your mould off thoroughly before continuing..

I’m using the tomps value condensation cure for this. Because silicone comes in ‘cheaper’ brands. Which is the equivalent of tesco value caviar.

Follow the damn instructions and pour your silicone in. Wear gloves, this mess be sticky. Pour in a thin line into a single place then spread it with your mixing stick. Shake the hell out of the mould once you’re done to pop the air bubbles.

Wait 24 hours then demould. You now have squares!

My commissioner asked for rigid squares but liquid latex would also work in this type of mould and give you more flexibility.

I’m using easy flo 120 resin for this.

I cut a bit of lining fabric the size of the mould:

All ready to go. Make sure your workstation is clear because you don’t want to tip things over by accident.

Mix in some black pigment and to the correct ratio. I did 20g:18g. Check out this action shot of my hand.

Arrrg so messy I hate resin. I use the wooden spatula to smooth it out. At this point I decide the diamonds on the edge can go to hell.

I smush the bit of fabric into the mould. This is to give the glue something textured to stick onto later.

About an hour later I pull this grey thing from the mould. Because I’ve lost the edges of the cast due to the fabric I then make a second one.

This is the two casts trimmed, dry brushed with silver and sprayed with a sealant. I then begin making the mould for the mirror images on the other leg.

To get the right flexibility I decide to cut all the squares up down the lines and glue them down to fabric. The best glue I found for the job is E600, and american glue you can get on ebay. It’s chemically horrible so wear a respirator, but it’s clear and flexible.

Here’s the final bits for the legs including a little bit for the tunic.

Next up, sewing the things into the trousers.

So, this is how you make something beautiful like this. During this project I would sew/add zip tops until my hands hurt too much then go off and sculpt armour until my hands hurt too much in a different way, then swap back. This is a costume to be paced- it’s physically impossible to last minute this!

First, some delicious chain mail. Turns out this is made of sharp square satan and is a nightmare to work with. These pieces were all spray painted black and dry brushed gold. Then I cut black cotton to the right size then using spray glue attached the chainmail on both sides. Then cut the chainmail some more so bits flew everywhere. Bits which stick to the glue on my hands. To make them more secure for sewing I squeezed some zip stop tops on the ends.

Then let the hand sewing begin! I used a mix of pliers, a leather awl, thimble work and just plain old finger strength. I’ve got a big reel of upholstery thread that I use for this, I recommend not even trying with other threads. Upholstery thread is a) strong and b) rarely tangles. You have to figure out how to wiggle the needle through the holes in 2 layers of chain mail. I used an adjusted version of backstitch which on one side looks like unbroken stitches and on the other side looks a bit like this:

=  =  =  =

When you’re finished flip dat flap up.

The green is larger than the leather to allow for error. Now you need to go sew more!

Here’s a panel pinned to my ironing board. I used blind hem tape and a very hot iron to secure the green to the leather. Then it was all trimed down and I began the THE CRIMPING

Hundred of little zip top stops. I found I got best results with plain old pliers, but it helped to put them on a hammering mat first. Application techniques included putting them on the fabric first and crimping down, picking them up with the pliers and applying that way and/or praying to my impotent god.

Then approximately 2 days later you will make 4 more of them. Each panel worked out around 2.5 hours, getting quicker as I went along.

Click me!

Also found a great PDF if you want ideas for how to finish off the bottom of skirts that isn’t just roll hemming:

http://www.farbenmix.de/freebooks/7019-perfect_hem.pdf

Joy.

I decided I wanted to sew all the seams, which did look awesome and I don’t regret doing, but I sure as hell hated myself while I was doing it.

Image heavy tutorial under the cut!

First I took the base of a pair of pixie boots (oh ebay, you saucy beast you). The commissioner was local so we tried them on and marked where her ankle sat and where the little black bits went.

Then I cut it down, leaving a flap at the middle. Due to the style of boots I’ve had to make the fastening at the front, in retrospect it would have been better to hand stitch the front closed and put an invisible zip up the back.

Stuff the boot and pin some scrap lyra around the boot to make a pattern.

Draw and mark then neaten up.

Sew with a plain stitch around the edge. Make any adjustments needed.

Draw on ALL THE LINES.

Divide the lines horizontally. The split is where these shoes overlapped with velcro, if you make them do it simpler.

Cut out from real fabric! The only cream lycra I could find was this horrible sheer stuff that rolled like a sausage down a hill. Two layers of awkwardly shifting stretch fabric? Sounds like Christmas.

Sewed dem pieces. This is the toe and …next toe? You name it something. I guess it’s the lower foot?

Then the lower foot and toe get sewn together.

Round in a circle like a sock.

Which makes a bigger toe!

Check that it fits before continuing.

Then look at the upper part and cry. I chose to use a velcro fastening so these had to overlap.

Carefully sorting bits ready to sew.

One side done.

Two sides done using itself as a lining. Velcro applied inside. Use sticky back velcro for stretch fabric- it holds it in place while you sew it down so it doesn’t wrinkle.

Then start figuring out how to sew the vertical lines. Retrospectively I should have made the entire boot cover THEN added these. Don’t be like me.

I started out all noble like ‘I must use pins to mark the lines because it’s white fabric and chalk will show up’ but then I got stabbed a lot and pins fell out.

Sew your verticals, making sure it catches both layers of fabrics.

Attach your top to your bottom and check for fit.

Then I kept adding more and more lines until it was beautiful. Next step was to add the black circles, cut the sole off with a 1cm allowance to glue it to the bottom of the boot using impact adhesive, then gluing some black eva foam to the bottom for soles.  Then I hand sewed the top on neatly and had a very complex but sleek pair of boots.

And now I sleep.

Wig (original seller has shut up shop, here’s a close match though)

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Premium-Futura-Straight-Lace-front-Wig-Heat-Resistant-Available-In-13-Colors-/161011464287?pt=UK_Women_s_Wigs&var=&hash=item257d07f85f

Black leather: http://www.leprevo.co.uk/ ( 017 cowhide brazillian leather)

Patterned leather: http://www.pittardsleather.co.uk/ (Big thanks to Liz for letting me know about this place. Call up and ask for a sample sent to you. They emboss lamb leather so you’ll need about 5 hides) My sample looked like this: 

Green fabric: I dyed noile silk in my washing machine with dylon dyes, all from fabric land. It looks like this http://www.fabricland.co.uk/NOILE.jpg

Metal edging: cheapest place I could find was on ebay here http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Zipper-stopers-Top-Stops-30-per-pack-/350410295147?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&var=&hash=item519614c76b Mine were size 10 in the brass. They come in packs of 30, I ordered 65 packs.

Metal chainmail fabric: Tricky one, on close inspection the costume looks like it’s got this stuff on it:

You can order samples and buy from this american company here: http://www.whitinganddavis.com/pages/cfMeshFabrics.cfm

Or you can buy 2 of these on ebay and repaint them like I did:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WOMENS-LADIES-CHAINMAIL-STUD-TIE-BACK-SEXY-PARTY-EVENING-CLUBWEAR-DRESS-TOP-6-12-/230811764430?pt=UK_Women_s_Tops_Shirts&var=530063751936&hash=item35bd7406ce

For armour I’m using silicone moulds and easy flo 120, which I buy here:

http://www.mouldlife.net/easyflo-120-1090-p.asp

Black poppers for boot covers

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181063569040?var=480211904904&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

Boots: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=140832642298&var=440075012505

(bit pricey but they have the perfect toes. Had to be cut down at the front to avoid the trousers bulging)

And that’s about it! If there’s any bits I’ve missed please let me know and I’ll try to track down how I sourced it.

More minami shenanigans! Christian and I practised for weeks to create the beauty you see in this video.

This was also the debut of my Gilderoy Lockhart costume to match Christian’s Snape. I bought the suit from an ex-hire ebay store and the shirt and shoes I already had.

The teacher robes were made with 4m of tan crepe, lined with some fabric I bought a few years back. The cravat is just a tube of matching fabric. The waistcoat is also made by me, I’ve got some photos to put up a tutorial later! The wand was sculpted from plastic, balsa wood and milliput, a silicone mould was taken and the final cast in easy flo 120 resin.

Super comfortable costume, though if Snape wasn’t next to me people just thought I’d decided to come as Emperor Tab, the fancy pants.

Here’s how I make lycra gloves, with a helping hand from my friend- freezer paper!

Freezer paper is this stuff. You use it to wrap meat and put it in the freezer. But it has secret costume uses and is one of my greatest weapons in the fight with the dreaded evil of lycra.

First, draw around your hand on a square of freezer paper on the matt side. Then cut out another square the same size.

Look how smart you are!

Then iron the shiny side of the freezer paper onto the wrong side of your lycra fabric. I only had this super showbiz stuff knocking about, so the sparkly size will be not seen. Use a dry medium hot iron. This is where the magic of freezer paper occurs- it sticks to the fabric but doesn’t damage it and it will peel off afterwards. I’ve tested this on such pain fabrics as PVC and it still works fine.

Do the same for your plain square, then put the pieces together, right sides touching. Pin them in place. The freezer paper has turned your wobbly stretch fabric into a sturdy upright member of the sewing community, making it simple to work with.

You want to sew it with this stitch on your machine. This stitch goes back one for every two, meaning it keeps some stretch in the fabric.

Then sew all around it. The chain stitch takes a while to get used to so you might want to practice first.

You want your fingertips to look like this. Chain stitch doesn’t like curves very much, it’s better to have a slight centre point than it is to make it square.

When you’re done sewing you just rip the freezer paper right off! Get any little bits out with tweezers.

Give it a try on and resew any parts that have come unstitched or need to be tighter.

Trim the seams neatly, especially around the fingers.

Then turn it inside out and put it on your manly fist of might. IN YOUR FACE LYCRA

VICTORY

All the fiddly plug parts done! Every bit is made from plastazote foam, in white so I can draw on it. All the complex parts were patterned in paper/card first with a lot of trial and error before being cut in foam and stuck together. These will all be covered in foam in various ways and sewn into the costume. Working with the plugs first and building the suit around them will make it much sturdier. I don’t want plugs to pop off, so I’m going to try to make it impossible for them to leave!

Of course the most important bit is this:

This is a list of every armour bit I had to make, with notes added as I go. This gives  you an idea of what you have left and helps you keep track of what needs doing. Saves you a lot of time in the long run, trust me!

I’m currently making a plug suit for a client, which looks like this:

She lent me the model for reference which is wonderful, nothing better than a mini 3D version of what you want to make.

The client provided me with a duct tape dummy which is vital to making a costume like this. They made it using this guide. Using the dummy I drafted up a pattern in some scrap lycra I had knocking about. It’s a raglan sleeve to reduce restriction on the shoulder and uses a swimsuit line on the legs for the same reason.

It hangs on the back of my workroom door so I can scare myself when I forget it’s not there.

The commissioner lives locally to me so I invited her over to test the fit and draw on all the patterns and seams with a chalk marker.

Any parts that were too large were taken in on the spot with a stapler. I now have something I know fits, and it’s time to start work on the final project!

Here’s some pictures of it on my mannequin. My commissioner is a guy with a flatter chest than this, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like.

It’s made with white curtain lining which has a similar texture to leather. White also means that when it’s sent back to me it’s easy to draw all the lines of the interlocking pieces (like on the arms) and give them detailed labels. More labels= less confusing when you start sewing. All the seams are on the outside to make it easier to adjust if need be.

I’ve split the costume into 3 parts- trousers, tunic and coat. It’s technically a separate shirt and tunic, but to make it easier to get into I’m making them as one item with a zip up the back. The seam will be hidden by the coat and the hair and it helps keep the number of layers down. This looks like it will be a bit of a sweltering costume, so anything I can do to cool it down the better.

Next step is material tests and information on where I sourced all the supplies for this.