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[Stitchlord]

Hello!

My name is Vera, I'm working on The Armorer from The Mandalorian. I've been researching over the last year (And have been writing a standard for the Rebel Legion starting with the one here, if anyone is interested in chiming in... I went into a lot more detail there: Rebel Legion Standard

I've come up with a basic plan on how I want to construct my flightsuit, and I made my plans a lot more solid since it was on display at Celebration and pictures gave me a much better idea on what was done. I'm still on the fence on if I'm going to make the neck seal attached or separate...



I took a trip to Springfield Leather last winter and sourced the leather I wanted to use for the apron and the apron trim (possibly the pants trim, too, trying to decide if it's the same leather or not...) I couldn't find fabric in the shade of gray that I wanted, so I dyed it myself using a custom dye mix. I'm pretty happy with how it came out. I used a stretch heavy denim, and I'm using the reverse/non-twill side.



I've started pattern drafting the pants for the suit. Since the waist is covered, the plan is to do it as pants and a jacket.  I made my mock-up with the pleat, and I just have some shaping tweaks to do to the pants, but I think it came out pretty good. The pleat needs to be stitched down on the top half so it doesn't flare out and I'm thinking about putting a cargo pocket on the thigh under the apron since this costume doesn't have any pockets or pouches.

[Talgal]

Keep it up!  I bought a full get up a year ago for my wife but not happy with the soft parts, especially now the Celebration photos came out.  I can’t sew worth a poodoo, but am interested in your progress!  If you come up with something or find a suitable pattern, I’d be interested.

[Talgal]

and bookmarked your RL post as well

[Stitchlord]

Kind of took a break on this project once winter hit since I wasn't able to work on my armor due to the weather. Been working on the flight suit jacket the past couple weeks!



Based on my observations, I note seams at the midway point on the armscye on the front as well as on the princess seam at the waist. I can't quite tell on the back, but there is a 2-part sleeve, so I've concluded this is the likely shape of the bodice. Based on the placket in the center back (only visible because the exhibit used a too-tall mannequin) and no evidence of a front closure, my guess is the closure is in the back. I started by pinning twill tape to my dress form where I wanted my seams to be and pinned it out in some muslin. Draping is pretty much pinning-and-clipping until you get the desired fit. Once I pinned in the bodice shape, I eased off on the side seams a little to give some ease to the fit. Then I draw in the lines where the pins are on both sides of the muslin, unpin the pattern and clean up the lines.



Once I've finished cleaning up the lines on the muslin, I transfer it to pattern paper with a tracing wheel and further true up the lines with various rulers, making sure all the lines match up, are smooth etc. When working with patterns, I never add in seam allowances. It's much more precise and easier to make changes to draw on the stitch lines and just add seam allowance when you transfer the pattern to fabric directly.



Next I constructed my mock-up in a similar material to my real flightsuit. I'm starting with patterning and testing the fit of the mandarin collar first. It'll be beneath the neckseal, but I sewed on my draft collar to make sure it sits in the right place and is confortable. Then I draped and patterned my neckseal collar on top of this.



The neck seal, I noticed, had a seam at the side. I'm not sure if that's necessary, but I put it in there anyway :lol: I ended up flaring it out a little there so it wouldn't be too snug to the mandarin collar. I shortened the mandarin collar as there really is no need for it to go all the way to the center back as it is covered and I wanted to reduce bulk. I figured based off the pictures that the neckseal collar is a single layer with the top folded over, and that the suede trim you see along the top of the collar just backs the entire thing. I folded and topstitched them together. The suede (felt, for the prototype) is not included in the seam allowance to reduce bulk. I have the top of the seal going about to the base of the skull, that should give good coverage. When trying on my prototype, I was sure to turn my head and altered the collar shape based on where my ears were hitting it.



I installed a separating zipper with a long pull (just something I had in my stash) up through the neck seal. I ended up taking back the edges of the neck seal and sandwiching the zipper tape between it and the suede. I put a placket behind to prevent anything from getting stuck in the zipper teeth and the center back panel to cover the zipper. I noticed the hex/ironheart motif repeated from the pants near the neck and the back. Not sure on placement, but it doesn't really matter as it'll be covered. I'll probably add a snap to the top of the zipper cover so it stays put. I noticed when putting this on myself that the long pull really helped, so I'm going to try to find one when I order the zipper for the actual suit.

Just put on the waistband and next up is drafting the sleeves... my least favorite part   

[B3TH]

Following!  This is looking great!  I'm in the middle of an Armorer build too!  I started in 2020 and then with the pandemic and everything else in the world that project fell into an abyss.  Went to Celebration Anaheim and saw the costume in-person and decided to get back at it!  Now that we have all this new information, I've found myself completely re-doing everything I'd done in 2020 to match the new references.  Even the belt greeblies are different now than they were for season 1.  It's a lot of work but TOTALLY WORTH IT.
-Beth-

[Stitchlord]

Awesome! I had planned on this build, but I'm glad I didn't truly get started until the exhibit pics lit a new fire under me, I'd have been very annoyed if I saw new info and had to rebuild, so I get where you are coming from! Do you have a build thread going, B3th?

[Stitchlord]

I have a lot of updates and in progress shots but no time to edit and upload them  :lol: I'm trying to finish this costume before Dragon Con in a month.

I finished my flightsuit and just have to weather it. I'll upload more detail shots at another time. I chose to add thigh pockets to both end the side pleat and have a place to store things as the armorer has no pockets or pouches built in. Also have the screen accurate Merrell boots seen in The Mandalorian season 2.5 (I mean, Book of Boba Fett)



I got my fur and the last of my leather, so there's 9 different leathers total in this piece  :shock: Working on patterning the apron now!

[Stitchlord]

So I hauled -censored- on this costume the last month to get it ready for Dragon Con, apologies for not uploading in progress pics of the leather goods. I did take a bunch of pictures though that I will upload. It's also come to my attention that thanks to my awful hosting service not having an SSL certificate, my pictures aren't always visable, at least on mobile devices, is anyone here having trouble seeing my pics? I'm looking around for a new host and will hopefully switch before the year is out. I really only use it for storing costume pictures now.






I think I did alright! Emily Swallow is 5'7", and I'm only 5'0", so some of the proportions won't be as long, but everything lands about in the right spot.

I have a small list of changes to try and accomplish before our Dantooine Base photographer, Chris Moody, takes my final application photos this weekend. I've already worked on adding weathering since these pics were taken. I am going to:

-Trim the fur to show the pauldrons and back of the belt
-Find a way to stop the inner belt from drooping
-Secure the back apron tabard so it stops getting in front of the skirt opening

I'm not happy with the belt greeblies that are available, they might even be too big for my belt, but they'll do for now until I can figure out how to 3D model my own or better ones are made. I would really like to find a paint that gives a bit of the coppery shimmer, but I spent so much on paint already that I'll repaint it if I come across something better later. I'll have final application pics next week and with any luck, triple club approval soon!

[Second Son]

So I hauled -censored- on this costume the last month to get it ready for Dragon Con, apologies for not uploading in progress pics of the leather goods. I did take a bunch of pictures though that I will upload. It's also come to my attention that thanks to my awful hosting service not having an SSL certificate, my pictures aren't always visable, at least on mobile devices, is anyone here having trouble seeing my pics? I'm looking around for a new host and will hopefully switch before the year is out. I really only use it for storing costume pictures now.

I can only see the photos if I right-click on the image block and select open in new tab. I'm viewing on my computer machine.
Once I get them to open, they look a lot like what's visible on the showgram.

[Stitchlord]

I can only see the photos if I right-click on the image block and select open in new tab. I'm viewing on my computer machine.
Once I get them to open, they look a lot like what's visible on the showgram.

Was afraid of that. I'm not entirely sure what to do since I can see them on my computer. Only thing I can figure is it's because my stupid host server doesn't have an SSL certificate anymore. They want me to pay a boatload for one. How do most people link their photos?

[Second Son]

Imgur or Flickr or a similar "free" third-party hosting site.
If you donate 5$ to be a Supporter you can create and host photo galleries on the Mercs server. You can directly link your photos from there.

[Raquel91]

Hi Vera,

Your Armorer looks great so far, do you by change have a picture of the backplate?
I was going through the CRLs and noticed one was required.

[Stitchlord]

Hi Vera,

Your Armorer looks great so far, do you by change have a picture of the backplate?
I was going through the CRLs and noticed one was required.

D'oh! Didn't even think to take one with the cape off! Do I have to have a photo of me wearing it, or is a pic off my dress form ok? Sorry the lighting is washed out in my sewing room.

http://www.rebelshaven.com/images/costumes/armorer/vera/submission/backplate.jpg

Since the shoulders are covered, I went with a strap to connect the front and back plate which I use to stabilize the pauldrons and connect the cape to, and magnets on the bottom of the armor. I can take a pic if you need to see any of those connections as well.

[Stitchlord]

Now I'll start back-tracking on the items I never put in my other build threads, starting with the pauldrons.

I decided that the pauldrons needed to be semi-flexible for movement, so I decided to wet-form a base shape out of veg tan leather, and weave my leather on top of it. I made a base pattern using craft eva foam sheets. I then used the measurements from that to make a rough positive to mold the leather over. This is my second Tinkercad experiement...



I sanded the facets off and coated it just well enough with primer to smooth it out. Using about a 4-5 oz piece of veg tan, I wet it and stretched it over the mold using small clamps and let it dry for a couple days. Then rinse and repeat.



Next I trimmed the excess. I made sure the mold was a little oversized so I had room to clamp and then trim off the ends.



I think the color of the leather on the pauldrons looked the same as the apron, so I used left-over leather from the apron and split it down and cut it into strips .5" wide. Starting with the center top and bottom, I basket-wove the strips, tucking everything tighter as I packed more leather in.




Once I got the leather woven in as tightly as I could, I trimmed the excess and taped the ends down.



Then I bound the raw edges in the same trim I used for my apron (which I had to dye to get it more reddish in color). I did a thinner binding for the inner edge and a wider 9/16" binding on the outside edge, to make it easy to identify the visible side and the shoulder side.



I set hard snaps in the corners of the pauldrons. They go underneath the armor, so I put the opposing snaps on the front and back plates of the armor. I have a strap connecting my front and back plates, so I also attached a strap to the top of the pauldrons that wraps around the strap to keep the pauldrons in place. I also feed that strap through straps on my cape to attach that as well (I will get pictures of this later)