I meant to start this thread in January....you can see how that turned out
So the early part of my year has been spent making upgrades to my husbands armor, which I will get around to posting up at some point, but I've also been plugging away at a new set for myself, the weather has been a little icky, meaning I've been restricted to working on soft goods. However, with today being the first sunny nice day I've had off in a while, I got outside and did some dishing. On to the updates!
First off, Made myself a new flack vest! Pattern is 100% drafted from scratch by myself, and sadly I didn't get any pics of the muslin test run before it was destroyed, so I can only show you the finished product. Features metal boning, double princess seams, and lots and LOTS of piping....please ignore the pins, I was marking where my plates are supposed to go.....I'll get into that a little further down on the boob tutorial.
Front and back:
Three quarters front and back so you can get a look at the tailoring/laces:
And a close up of the edging:
I also made a flight suit, but I'm undecided if I will remake it...there were a couple of things I'm not quite happy with. If I decide to keep it, I'll post it up, otherwise, look to be seeing a WIP here in the near future.
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I was testing out a new way of making chest-plates (the bane of every female on these boards) and was surprised/pleased by how easy this was, so I decided to take pictures and post up a tutorial for you all.
BOOB TUTORIAL
This works fantastically for anyone who wants to have fitted chest-plates without doing angled plates or "boob cups", for those of you that are well endowed enough to not be ABLE to dish a solid sheet into chest-plates, or if you have a hard time getting them symmetrical. It is a combination of darting (cutting out a "V") and dishing metal that should work pretty well for almost any experience level. Here we go!
Required tools:
- ballpeen hammer
- tin snips
- pliers
- dremil
- bowling ball
- gloves
- 1 tube plumbers epoxy
- bondo scratch filler
- some good beats to beat your metal to
(1) First step....it is very important to have your flack vest on when you are making templates for your armor....it is the only way to make sure it will lie smoothly when you are wearing it, and the ONLY way to get the spacing consistent on your plates. If you have to wait to start on your plates until your vest is finished, I promise you it is worth the wait for the results.
I know your first instinct is going to be to start with the chest-plates, because they are the hardest plates to make. Don't. For this tutorial, you will want to go ahead and make you collar and stomach plates. Go ahead an make them, and shape them the way that you want. Hold them up against your flack vest, and mark where the edges are. I used pins, you can use pins, chalk, ect, anything that will not permanently mark your vest.
(2) now you are going to wrap paper around your boob/boobs (I usually only do 1 side, and just flip it so its symmetrical....line the edge of the paper up with the center of your chest). Fold it as necessary, to make it fit smoothly over your chest. try to do it in as few folds as possible, tape them down. Make sure to draw lines on the top and bottom of the paper to mark where the bottom edge of your collar and top edge of your stomach plate are. This is a good time to trace where you want the outer edge of your plate to be. Remove paper template.
(3) draw a line down from the top outer corner to the point of the breast (NOT on your darts). It should be on a part of the pattern that is fairly flat, with no folds, because having the seam on a non-angled surface will make it harder to spot when your plates are painted. Cut along the line, this should give you a template that will lie mostly flat. Decide what you want the spacing between your plates to be....at this time, regs say it can be up to 1", I like to space mine about 3/4". Trim off the spacing (all the stuff I colored with bold red sharpie). This is your template.
Yay!
(4) Trace on to metal, and cut out. when you do, make sure you leave alternating "teeth" on the open V. These will enable the edges of the plate dart to lock together and make a smooth seam. Make sure you use the dremil to LIGHTLY score along the base of the tabs, it will make them bend clean. Should look something like this:
(this is the point I thought it would be a good idea to make a tutorial, so sorry I already dished part of it)
(5) Dishing part 1! So that I'm not covering the basics, please watch the dishing tutorials that we already have op on the site, if you haven't already. I have the order that you should be doing this in labeled 1-3 and sharpied all over it so you would have a better idea of what I was doing.
*(1) you will be hammering a curve into the plate across the widest part of your chest. Don't worry too much about shaping at this point, you can tweak it later. This just lays the groundwork for where you will definitely have some curve.
*(2) Draw a line from the point of the chest to the bottom of the plate. It should be a little bit of a < shape, because it will force the metal to curve around your chest. Aim all of you hammer strokes towards the bottom of the plate, instead of spinning it in circles as you go.
*(3) Now for the spinning! as usual, aim all of your strokes towards the edge of the plate, but rotate as you go. It will create a bit of a dome to go over the top of your boobs.
You will notice the "V" in the plate is already starting to close. it will continue to do this in later steps, this is a good thing. It'll make you seam smooth.
(6) Flip plate, and planish what you have already dished.
(7) Dishing part 2!
*(4) Aim all of your strokes towards the outer edge, and work in rows back and forth until the triangle is covered. You will notice the "V" in to plate is almost closed....take this opportunity to line up your tabs so that they are all on the back side of the plate.
*(5) add a little extra dishing to the area where the points of the darts on on your paper pattern fall. this will get the plate out into the rounded shape it needs to be to fit around your chest.
(8 ) Hammer tabs
(9) Flip plate, and hammer with the FLAT side of your hammer in the drawn triangle. it will tweak the shape of the plate and make your teeth lock closer together.
(10) Repeat steps 8 and 9 until your seam is tight. It may help to push the seam in a "v" shape with your thumbs from the outside, to get the seam closer together.
(11) Gently tweak the edges of the plate with your fingers until the shape fits your chest perfectly.
(12) Repeat steps 4-11 for your second plate.....Presto! Perfect, symmetrical plates!
(13) Reinforcing time.....pull out your 2 part plumbers epoxy (you can get this at home depot or lowes for $4-7, and it sets in about 5 minutes), and your Bondo glazing and spot putty (same bat-time, same bat-place, same bat-price).
Cut off appx 3/4-1" of the stick of putty and knead it together until it is a uniform gray color. Apply it to the inside of your plate along the seam. You shouldn't need to make it very thick....the teeth of the plate hold the seam together pretty well on its own, the putty will just re-enforce it, keep the seam from wiggling, and fill the small gaps between the teeth. although it has a fast dry time, you might want to clamp it down on the corner while the putty dries, to keep your seam as small and flat as possible (I used clamp on the handle of my pliers to keep it tight, because I didn't want to sit there holding it for 5 minutes)
When your done, should look about like this:
(14) Sweet! Time to break out your glazing and spot putty....apply to the front along the seam, and sand. I usually do this 2-3 times, beforeI am satisfied with the smoothness level.
Finally, cut out the shape of your chest diamond, and your done!
Start to finish, the dishing process shouldn't take more than 30-60 minutes per plate, and they come out with a better fit, more symmetry, and better spacing than anything I've tried so far. Hope this is helpful for you, let me know if you have any questions!
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Thats enough tutorial for now! Here's where I'm at on my new set so far:
[edit 3/25/16:updated the last couple steps with pictures and descriptions]