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[Catra Veshok]

Su'cuy! Here's my thread on the soft parts for my first build! I've been learning a lot and getting more confident with sewing. If you want to take a look at my concept thread, here's the link: https://mandalorianmercs.org/forum/index.php?topic=204700.0

Okay, so here are the patterns I'm using for the flight suit top and vest.

What I've learned with this turtleneck pattern is that I should've cut a little bigger size than called for because this pattern is meant for stretchy fabric -- and stretchy doesn't work for holding up armor. I'm using 100% cotton, since that's relatively cool and summers are pretty hot where I live. (During the winter, I can just wear thermals underneath and/or make a winter flight suit.) I've also had to add a back zipper and cover the top of it. This was the only pattern I could find, after a bunch of searching, that was a turtleneck and also not frilly.

Also, I'll be sure to make the top and pants look like one piece.



I discovered this vest pattern through another WIP thread. Turns out it's vintage. I ordered it online at Pattern-Walk.com. They left this little thank you note, which was a nice personal touch. It did take a little longer than expected in the mail, but hey, with times as they've been, it's not too much of a surprise. The thing to be aware with vintage/used patterns is they might already be cut. This can be convenient, or make the pattern too small. This pattern wasn't cut, so no worries there. It's in really good shape, in fact, so I'm happy with that!

I'm using a cotton twill for this piece.

[Catra Veshok]

Here's my flight suit top so far.

In progress. Again, I had to make some modifications because this pattern wasn't made for non-stretchy fabric.



Mostly done, front and back. I used an invisible zipper, but a flap at the top is still necessary to hide the tag. I also added strips of fabric in the back along the zipper because I had cut the pieces too small.





Closeups on where I reinforced the seams, which the pattern instructions didn't call for.





The sleeves ended up being too short and really uncomfortable at the elbow creases when I bent my arms. So I tried adding in a pleated strip of fabric at the elbows. It helped a little, but not much. And the pleats might have looked too Renaissance for this purpose.





So instead, I used strips of fabric from old stretchy jeggings that I'd turned into shorts. I KNEW that extra fabric would come in handy! It feels so much more comfortable. And I figure, even if it's a different color, it'll be okay (right?) because it's similar to what the vest color will be.

[Vercopaanir]

Nice work so far! 

[Catra Veshok]

Nice work so far! 

Thanks, ner vod!

[Catra Veshok]

Here's some progress on the flak vest, which is close-ish to being done.

Most patterns are too long for me. I've just accepted that fact, and a lot of things that have to do with my lack of height.    But this one required some extra shortening so the vest would be above the belt.



After sewing the pieces together, I realized it was kind of baggy for my purposes. So I cut some darts in the back.









I also realized this particular pattern (Cut D of Butterick B5683) just leaves the sleeve and collar edges raw. Well, it also instructs you to sew some of the pieces together wrong side to right side, instead of the usual right to right, leaving those edges raw. I did right to right instead, and then reinforced the seams like I did for the flight suit top. Anyway, so I improvised a collar facing piece (is that the right terminology?) so the collar wouldn't be raw.

To do that, I pinned the vest collar edge to the piece of uncut fabric, then cut along the vest collar edge and then cut out the rest of the facing strip.



Then I sewed that to the vest collar, right to right, cut some small darts (again, terminology?) to make it curve easier.





Then I turned the facing over and sewed it so it  would stay that way. I was kind of going by memories of stuff I'd sewn before that did have that kind of collar facing piece as part of the pattern. Hopefully this all makes sense, in case it's useful to anyone.



I got an invisible zipper. Should've brought a swatch of fabric along to match. But I figured it would be best to completely cover it anyway, with a flap of fabric.





But I decided to not use the zipper because I'm not sure how to work it so it's not joined at the bottom, and that makes it a pain to get the vest over my head and shoulders. Part of the nice thing about fasteners is to not have to do that. So I'll probably use snaps instead, on that flap of fabric.







For now I used temporary sticky velcro because I wanted to start on sizing the armor plate templates.



I still need to figure out the arm holes. Not sure a raw edge would be approved or really practical if I needed to rely on this to be sturdy and long-lasting. It looks kinda cool though.

I also need to figure out some kind shoulder padding, because I'm pretty sure I'll need that to help with the helmet/shoulder proportions. I don't really want to do the style of the pauldrons poking out horizontally, at least not this time around.



This way? ...



... or this way?




Also, as a side note, I wore what I had done of my helmet and soft parts to FanX a couple weeks ago. Since I didn't have any other armor done yet, I cut a poncho kind of thing out of a shirt I got from a thrift store that was a size or two big on me.  I wore that over the top of my flight suit, belt, and what I had done of the vest, so it would hopefully not be too obvious I didn't have much in the way of armor. I don't know if that actually worked.  I was kind of going for something similar to the idea of Bo-Katan and company going around in ponchos over their armor on Oba Diah. Anyway, here it is.





Hmmm. Now I wonder if the flight suit collar needs to be higher. My friend took this picture at a low angle, though, and I was looking up.
Also, the dark circles under my eyes in the previous pic are from staying up way too late working on my kit...




Here are some photos more or less at my eye level. Nothing showing there. (Most people will be seeing me from above my eyelevel.) (And yes, the helmet still needs work.  )

[Ashad Shrynn]

Really nice flak vest ! 

[Second Son]

That's good work vod. I think for a more polished look and long-term durability you'll want to finish the raw edges at the arm openings. For an 'optimized for scale' Mando, I think that having your shoulder plates sloping more downward will be more appropriate than sticking straight outward. To that end I think the shoulder pads should be angled downward but use the rounded outside edge.

I think the front-close vest has some potential as far as putting on easier, but the attachment of plates that cross the midline might be a challenge. Magnets on the opening side and solid attachment on the other?

All in all, strong work re-purposing an earthy pattern and modifying it to suit (the essence of Swarzy).   

[Vercopaanir]

Coming along nicely!

I'm with Second Son on the arm openings.  You'll want to at the very least add some staystitching to the edge of the arm holes in the vest to prevent the vest from fraying to much and losing its integrity. 

Considering your bucket size and your own shoulder size I would probably go with a 'slightly sticking out but not truly' look, kinda like Jango has.  This will widen your silhouette and help make the bucket look better balanced for your size.  The apps team gave a rough guideline of 1/2 your shoulder width for the width of the bucket.  So I recommend you play around with it a bit to try and get it as close to that but still what you want for your costume.

Second Son also made a good point about attaching the armor to the vest in a way that you can get it on and off each time. 

I look forward to seeing this build continue.

[Tramp Graphics]

To add to what the others have stated regarding securing your armor, I too have a front closing vest, what I’m doing is linking my plates together with nylon webbing and wearing the plates over my vest rather than attaching them directly to it. The whole plate assembly forms a full cuirass that consists of my pectoral plates, ab plate, steel heart, collar plate, back plate, and shoulder plates, and it slips on over my head and will secure at my sides with straps and parachute buckles. This makes it easy to get into and out of the armor, as well as the vest, and allows me to wear the vest without the armor as well; something to consider.

[Cattriss Wren]

Su'cuy cat'ra, Your flak vest is really coming along nicely color of it is very nice

[Catra Veshok]

Thanks for all the advice and for the votes of confidence, vode! Yeah, I hadn't thought of a vest opening on the side instead of the front until I saw something on that a couple days ago. So I'll have to consider whether to redo some things, or keep it in the front and use the nylon webbing or something. I'll definitely look into that, Tramp Graphics.
Also, thanks for  the input on the shoulder pads. That helps a lot. And for those raw edges, I'm gong to try something similar to what I did with the collar, so we'll see how that goes.

Thanks everyone! 

[treisedova]

Really dig your color scheme--and as someone new to sewing, this thread is giving me some great tips! I, too, am vertically challenged, and I'm so glad you posted the pic of you trying the flak vest pattern "on" with the belt and shortening as needed; I hadn't thought of that. Your flak vest looks amazing, by the way. As someone else mentioned upthread, that color's beautiful.

[Catra Veshok]

Really dig your color scheme--and as someone new to sewing, this thread is giving me some great tips! I, too, am vertically challenged, and I'm so glad you posted the pic of you trying the flak vest pattern "on" with the belt and shortening as needed; I hadn't thought of that. Your flak vest looks amazing, by the way. As someone else mentioned upthread, that color's beautiful.

Thanks Treisedova! I'm glad this is helpful. I'm learning new things with this for sure. Also it's nice to know I'm not the only vertically challenged one out there!  Good luck with your kit!

[Catra Veshok]

Okay, here's an update with the armholes and shoulder pads. This has been interesting.

Well, first of all, I started sewing on snaps for the front. They might be temporary, depending on what I decide to do based on feedback from my last update. I think I would need stronger snaps than these anyway. They're vintage, though. I can't believe my mom still had them, as in, hadn't used them yet. But now I can use them. Thanks, mom.  <3



For some weird reason, I sewed a square when I first started. Then when I realized something was off, I did it the usual way.  Extra reinforcement I guess.




Then I worked on a pattern for the shoulder pads.
First attempt, using the shoulder pad insert and pauldron pattern:



Fabric empanada! I found the edge with chalk for when I'd cut it out.







I decided I didn't want the armor piece hanging over the edge that much. 
So, second attempt, leaving plenty of room for a seam allowance:





Similar length to my t-shirt sleeve. I took that as a good sign.



Sewing it together:



Turned it inside out.



Inserting the shoulder pads. I removed the velcro to use for something else.





Lots of experimenting with attaching shoulders to the vest:

Right side to right side



The spider does not approve.



The pumpkin is giving encouraging comments.



Seeing how the proportion looks with the helmet




I decided not to fold over the raw edges of the vest, because that would make it all tighter than I wanted. So I did an experiment and it mostly worked.  I don't have a lot of experience with sewing sleeveless tops, so this has been a challenge.  (Sleeves are enough of a challenge for me though...)

I took a sleeve pattern from one of the other cuts in the same pattern packet. I pinned the pattern to the arm hole to make sure it would fit before attempting this. Then I cut out that edge.



Then I traced the same edge about 2.5 inches down and parallel. I did have to modify it though, because it didn't end up being 2.5 inches all the way along the curve.



Pinning together and sewing:



Made sure the fabric strip would be wide enough to fold over.



Sewing



Folding over



Had to cut some darts to make it go with the curve at the top of the shoulder



Ta daa! Not the most professional job ever, but it holds together.




More experimenting with the shoulder pads placement:







Looks like my hair needs a trim. Either that or another method for pulling it back and out of sight. So far I've just been using a headband to keep it out of my face. Any ideas? Also, the flight suit top is a little bulgy between the vest and belt. I'm going to try to make the waist of the flight suit of the pants high enough to cover that, and then cover the separation between the two flight suit pieces with the girth belt and utility belt.

As for the shoulder pads, I think they could work like this, just a little more even with each other. But again, I kind of prefer they're not protruding so far out. I'll keep experimenting.

[Tramp Graphics]

I wouldn’t worry about your hair peeking out from your helmet, there’s nothing in the CRLs against it. However, if you want it hidden regardless, a balaclava is the optimal way to go.