activation email

[Kandra Sabe]

Well, after months of thinking about my outfit and having purchased patterns for my flightsuit and flak vest, I am getting ready to commence work. Fabric has been ordered and I've found the sewing machine in the loft...and it still works, huzzah! Having obtained a four day pass for the London Celebration next April, I now have a deadline. I'll be posting my soft parts progress here in the next couple of weeks.

[Second Son]

Watching and cheering you on!

[Kandra Sabe]

Well, enough procrastinating, I have the fabric, interfacing, patterns and hidden zip, so now I can get started. I know some (maybe all of you) may say my choice of fabric is, to put it politely, madness, but if we were all sane and normal, the world would be a duller place. I'm using 2mm Scuba, also known as neoprene, for my flightsuit and flak vest. Before you reach for the reply button, I know its quite thick and has a 2 way stretch. I'm a 56 year old trans woman who would rather be too hot than cold. My flightsuit will comprise of high waisted leggings and a top that is midway between crop and waist length. The flak vest will cover any gap between the above garments. The flak vest will also be made from the Scuba, with some heavy duty fusible interfacing on the reverse and have a lining of some non-stretch fabric that I have. The flightsuit top will have a polo neck added, with a hidden zip at the back. The flak vest will follow the 8074 pattern top C, but with short sleeves. The layers of the flak vest will be reinforced by additional stitching, to give it, additional rigidity.
That's the plan, here goes.

[Kandra Sabe]

Now all I've got to do is find a tutorial that shows how to post photos!

[Second Son]

Here's a useful guide. Lets see those pics!

[Kandra Sabe]

Thanks for the link to the guide, Second Son, but I still can't get it to work using my mobile. Hopefully, when my new laptop arrives, it'll be easier to post the pics.

[Kandra Sabe]

Sorry I haven't posted anything for a while, but I wanted to get started on my soft parts and report my progress. Um, I finished my flight suit, but I'm not happy with the way it's gone. The scuba fabric is awful to sew and hard to finish well. At least I tried it and can advise anyone else contemplating it to stay well away! A little disappointed, but I've ordered a new fabric sample which should be with me by the weekend. I also learned a lot about my preferred style of flight suit and it acted as a refresher course on sewing, as I hadn't used my machine for over 15 years. So I decided to do a decent sketch of my concept for Kandra and have also made an avatar from it. Another positive is that I have my bucket. Back in the mid 90's I made a Boba Fett costume from scratch (as there wasn't a lot of pre-made stuff around and the internet was non-existent for ordinary mortals) and it took me 4 months to build the helmet This time round, I've purchased a Black Series Bo Katan bucket, which I shall modify. I must admit it is nicely made and the detail inside is yummy. Anyway, I hope you like my concept sketch (colour scheme tbc).

https://imgur.com/n3WsMTa

[Kandra Sabe]

As an update, I've ordered some new fabric, stretch denim (grey) for the flight suit and grey duck canvas for my flak vest. While waiting for the material to arrive, I've used some old spare fabric to 'play around' with the style of the flight suit. I've added an extra seam to the trousers, similar to Bo-Katan's live action ones. I'm on the second leg and may post pics of the finished item, for comments and a laugh..... 

[Kandra Sabe]

While I was waiting for the fabric to arrive, I decided to make some alterations to the flight suit trouser pattern, to give them a more Nite Owl appearance. I had some spare fabric with no stretch to it. This is the result.....

https://i.imgur.com/Hpht3hF.png

Which were a little tight, hence no pics of me wearing them. I've adjusted the pattern again, but decided not to waste more time on these. I was going to say that I'm doing a Grease/Mando cross-over, i.e. Sandy at the end with Danny, singing 'You're the one that I want'.....but I thought better of it. 
So, I have my fabric, grey stretch denim for the flight suit, grey duck canvas for the flak vest and concealed zips.

https://i.imgur.com/JkekVqj.jpg

The fabric is a little darker than the images show. The canvas is on top of the denim.

[Second Son]

Not every experiment works out, but sounds like you learned what not to do at least.
A bit of stretch in the fabrc for a close-fitting suit sounds like a good plan.
Looking forward to more updates vod.

[Kandra Sabe]

Finally I think I've finished my flight suit, please see links to photos. The boots are for the photos only, but I wondered if they could be okay if my gaiters cover up the red elastic panels. I've shown front and back photos with my bucket, just to show that the collar hides my neck. I haven't begin work on my armour, so the bucket is still the unaltered Bo Katan one. I want to finish all of my soft parts before starting my armour.
Comments please.

https://imgur.com/MW8mSuO
https://imgur.com/ZC2M9Ab
https://imgur.com/c3eNBk5
https://imgur.com/tnyCqnD
https://imgur.com/A9pHXbN
https://imgur.com/xlvd6Pl
https://imgur.com/bhTrTrv

[Second Son]

Solid progress!

Better lighting in future pics will help, but everything looks pretty good so far.

Keep up the good work vod.

[Kandra Sabe]

Thanks Vod. I did think the pics were a little dark. Next time I'll ask my riduur to use her DSLR to take the photos instead of my phone.

[Kandra Sabe]

First attempt at my flak vest. The pattern needs adjusting in a number of areas, plus I added heavy duty fusible interface on the back of the canvas/duck and now it's as stiff as card!

https://imgur.com/NoAohdB

[Kandra Sabe]

Pattern adjusted and zip installed. The flak vest still needs some tweaking as far as fit is concerned, but I'm generally happy with it. I made up a pattern for the sleeve then cut one out from some spare fabric to test it out and make any adjustments to the pattern. I think the initial pattern seems to be okay, adjusted the length of the sleeve during the try-on and have now removed it to make up sleeves from the duck canvas that the rest of the vest is made from.   

https://imgur.com/GpXl6kR
https://imgur.com/Xo91ME2
https://imgur.com/LDXN7zt

[Kandra Sabe]

Here are the latest photos of  my flight suit with flak vest, for comments. I still need to adjust the tailoring of the flak vest around the bust.






I've moved my armour pics to the armour WIP section for comments.