Redheaded Nerdgirl Seeking To Emulate Same

[halafax]

Honestly it looks like three pieces. There is a waist cincher, or under bust corset, a piece to cover your midriff, and then a bra. If you want this not to chaff you might consider either stitching some kind of lining on the piece or wearing something under it. I make a lot of leather underbust corsets and waist cinchers. Everyone who wears them always puts them over something.

If you look around you can find a bikini pattern by macalls or whomever and use that for the top. The patters are made to be sewn true, but you can use the pattern to get the shape you want. Generally when making a bra pattern like that you want to make a triangle, and when you wet form it to your dress form you will get the rounded shape to it. Wet forming is not hard, just takes practice and a bit of elbow grease. If your dress dummy is similar in shape you to, remember that leather shrinks when you get it wet and let it dry. Its not a lot, but when dealing with items that cover unmentionables you want to make sure that nothing is too small. I know you are prolly going to want to go for accuracy but remember this, there is the five foot rule when costuming and it can save you a lot of head ache. If it were me, Id stitch a bra to the leather bra cups so that you dont have to worry about chafing, and remake the rest of the bra in the green leather.

Now if you are going to do the underbust corset piece as one piece, that is going to be a bit harder than it sounds. You are essentially making a huge waist belt. I typically make my cinchers in three pieces, just for ease of making them, and for comfort, but when is costuming comfortable? But if I was you and you were going to make the belt as one piece, Id lay out the pattern on leather, cut out the whole thing. Then get the pattern that you want to wet form into it, and press it. Though I think you could tool the leather to get the pattern, it would be faster than trying to wet form it. Also I think you ought to go with a lighter leather, maybe 3-4 oz leather, no more than 5. If you go heavier I think you are actually going to 1) make this harder on yourself, 2) lost some of the accuracy with the piece, 3) run into issues with attaching things. 4) make the piece heaver than it needs to.

The issues with heavy leather is you are limited in what you are going to be able to attach pieces together with. Other than tubular rivets, and copper post rivets, there are no long shanked rivets I know of. anything above a 6oz leather really makes it hard to attach things. Her armor honestly looks more like a fashion accessory than real armor. A lot of my friends in SCA who make their own armor use copper post rivets, and they use really heavy leather. Id go with a lighter leather to save yourself logistical issues with things after you get it cut out. You can tool lighter leathers, wet form it, or whatever. Just when it comes to ease of making the item it would be simpler to use no more than 5-6 oz leather. Thats typically what I use. I made the mistake of trying to use heavier leather for a cincher, I had to get longer grommets in order to finish the piece. The pattern in the piece makes it easier to hide the stitching, and you can use embroidery thread instead of sinew to sew with.

The hood seems pretty easy, just have to get some sueded leather, us e the bigger hole punch and get some of the leather cord that tandy sells and use that to sew it, check out your costume patterns for hooded cloaks and stuff. A basic hood is nothing more than a square with two sides sewn together, and then attached to the collar of a cloak.

Leather might be a natural material, but it does hold heat. Its going to be really hot this year, yes you are going to be wearing very little, but that waist piece and everything else is going to bake you pretty good.

Im sorry Im a bit all over the place, but Im just thinking as I go here.

If I was you, Id get cut out three separate pieces, the underbust corset, the part that covers the midriff, then the bra. I would then do your dying, and decide if you are going to tool, stamp, or whatever with the pattern on the piece, IF you are going to stamp or tool, then you are going to have to wet form and tool at the same time, or else you will lose the pattern cause the leather will get wet. You have to bind the leather to the dress dummy once you get to the point of wet forming it to fit your shape.

Here are a few examples of my work:

cincher 1

cincher 2

if you need any help drop me a line

either here or on gmail: halafax@gmail.com

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

I always find it interesting that it is usually the guys who end up discussing the construction of corsets, etc..

As to air dried clay molds. You would need to seal them as once they get wet, they will start to get gooey again. The other problem is that greenware is also very brittle. Sealed plaster would e inexpensive, and easy to use. Just cast a block , then shape to fit. It carves really easy with basic tools.

Check out the Smooth On website. They make a line of products that would work for a project like this.

Good luck.

[amuckart]

It also seems like everyone's opinion is split as to whether the bodice (let's call it that, anyway) is either three pieces in front or one. It DOES look like a single piece to me as well, but as a few people have pointed out, that would be pretty damn uncomfortable. Three pieces (and possibly two in the back, depending on how I want to get IN to this thing) seem more manageable to me. Probably more visually interesting as well.

Having had firsthand experience of both armour and corsets, I'd put fastenings on both sides. That way you can join the front and back by the shoulder straps and pull it on over your head. If the dagger harness is held onto the front of the armour with snaps, that could well be a good part of what holds it closed. Given the lack of obvious side fastenings on the costume one way you could approach it would be to treat it like a bulletproof vest and just have velcro on the inside.

Sideview, with a better view of the fastener used on the top pieces (I think this may be more to hold her daggers on her back than to hold the garment together)

Back, with... well, cloak (really just a hood) and daggers

I agree on the side straps being for the daggers. You can see them go round in the back view. That makes me wonder if what I originally took to be rivets in the side view are actually snaps. I can't see any obvious closure to the sides at all.

Underarm, for a view of the spaulders and how they're attached (just a couple of straps under the arms)

I'd bet they're also attached at the top by a single flexible strap onto the shoulder straps of the body armour otherwise they'd slide down. If you look in the hood shot you can see that the straps are loose around her upper arm, they're just there to make sure the spaders move with her arms.

There's also a shot of the hood in use, but that's not very informative about the bodice.

Those huge lacing holes do tell us that it never rains in the DragonAge universe though

I did also notice that it appears the bodice is sewn together along the sides. I don't know how I want to achieve that, though I've seen some good suggestions here. Maybe just go old school and lace those bits together? If I DO go with three sections for the front part of the bodice, how would I attach them to one another in a nice, seamless way?

If I were going to do this in parts I'd suspend the layers off of internal straps. That's the normal technique for layered armour you want to be able to collapse slightly. Have a look at this picture to see what I mean Having said that the side views make this look a lot less like three pieces.

Something I came across while searching google for that picture is this ebay auction which I have to share because maybe if I inflict the horror on someone else it'll get out of my head

Those pictures are actually worth looking at because as near as I can tell the red parts of the breastplate are all one piece and so are a good example of what you can mould if you've got the right leather.

[Cavatica]

Hey kids! Just wanted to give a quick update on where I'm kind of planning to go with this, and ask a few more questions.

The other day, one of my friends helped me make a duct tape dressform of my body. Well, let me amend that; I already HAVE a pretty good, standard dressform, but it wasn't EXACTLY to my dimensions, and it's a little wobbly and unsupported on its own. So we wrapped me up in duct tape, cut it off, and then put it over the existing dressform to make the whole thing more stable. I stuffed bits and pieces of it with batting to fill it out where appropriate. It's not perfect, but it's more solid than either duct tape or the dressform would have been on their own.

My PLAN is to build a mold on top of this -- probably with air-drying clay (because I'm going to want to be able to build up like a half-inch-thick base and then carve down into it) -- and then cover that with those nifty plaster strips I keep reading about.

After that, I'm not sure what I should do. If the plaster strips dry hard enough, can I mold my leather right over that, still on the form? I suppose the problem with that would be that it'd be a bit thicker than my natural dimensions are. Would it be better to pop the plaster strips off once they're dry, use them as a negative mold that I would fill up with the liquid stuff (or, I dunno, maybe expanding foam?), and THEN mold the leather on top of THAT?

Edited July 31, 2011 by Cavatica

[halafax]

Remember that leather shrinks a bit when you wet form it, so if its a bit bigger its not going to hurt your piece long run.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

A couple of things.

What is this air dry clay that you mention? Is it regular pottery clay that is just air dried---greenware, or something else?

Plaster strips like a cast is made of? The ones that you cannot get wet? If you use them , you would have to seal them from moisture.

Why not use something firm like plaster instead of batting to fill the gaps between the duct tape, and dress form?

I would say that you want the form to be as close as possible to you. The leather cannot shrink any smaller than the solid form underneath it, as long as it remains on the form till dry.

[Cavatica]

I'm experimenting with self-hardening Stonex clay -- it was the only thing the local art store (the one worth a damn) carried that was even close to the right kind of clay.

Here's what I've got right now:

Now, let me say that I COMPLETELY realize a lot of the fine detail will be lost in casting -- or, if not in casting, in the leather molding itself. I exaggerated a lot of the design for that reason; I cannot conceive of how I'm going to get 6 oz (or, hell, even 4 oz) leather into all the finer gaps. I imagine I'll have to go back and tool them myself. However, if I can get even a few of those details to impress, then maybe I'll have a good guide to work with for tooling? This whole thing is just one insane experiment. If anyone has any suggestions at this point, please share! I've been sculpting and carving for six hours (maybe seven) and I am very, very tired. Time for bed!

[CueroCrazy]

I have a few ideas for you. I'm new to leatherwork myself, but I've also been studying mold making and in particular how to make plaster casts for making leather masks. I think you are headed in the right direction. What I would do at this point is make a plaster waste mold of the torso form. Here's the basic process: http://www.peterfors...cess_waste.html. You can get a big bag of plaster relatively cheap at Lowe's/Home Depot or maybe through a ceramics store. You might be able to put a thin layer of clay over your figure form and then sculpt the armor in clay on top of the form. Then you can apply the plaster to make the waste mold. Remove the waste mold once dry, and make a plaster cast of the torso form "wearing" the armor. Then stretch a lightweight wet veg tan leather over the armor portion (somehow tacking or fastening it so that it's very tight). Using tools you can force the leather into the shape of the armor beneath it. Keep working the leather until it dries and it will keep its shape. I got this method from a cool book about making masks (http://www.amazon.co...k/dp/1558701664) in leather. I lucked into a cheap used copy, but you might try to find it through your library if you don't want to buy it. This is an Italian mask making techique that uses a cow horn hammer (not available at Lowe's haha) and small wooden tool called a sticketta to force the leather to take the shape and detail of the plaster beneath. Here is a page where a person used this technique to make a mask, but I'm sure you can imagine how it could be used in your project: http://www.wastekeep...bumName=album35. I would imagine doing this process twice (for front and back of the armor) and any other shoulder pieces, etc., trimming up the leather pieces and then sewing or fastening them together.

A different technique that somebody already mentioned is using silicone based products to cast the armor from the form. It would probably be more expensive, but this is how Hollywood would do it (and maybe the people who created the costume you are replicating). Check out the Batgirl costume on this page: http://www.smooth-on...p?galleryid=416. They might have cast the armor in neoprene which has different formulations from rigid to semi-rigid to flexible. It is easily painted, lightweight, and very durable.

At any rate, good luck on your project! Keep us posted on your progress!

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

You can bone in some of the tight details. Look at some of the holsters that guys make on the forum, they have details that have been boned in. The bones used can be made of bone, plastic, wood, etc.

Don't know if it is just me, but I don't see the last picture you posted.

Another way to make a quick mold of your dress form would be to wrap it in Saran wrap, then spray it with expanding foam that you can get at the hardware store. That will give you a sturdy enough mold to pour your plaster/clay into.

[niftycurly]

A suggestion for comfort: Look up trapunto, aka italian stuffed quilting. Usually done with fabric but there are medieval and renaissance examples done in thin leathers.

You could avoid all the clay molding and wet work as well as have a very comfortable, albeit warm, costume if you use lambskin as the outer layer. Accent the depressed stitching lines with airbrush and I think you'd get very close to your pictures.