In Stitches

In my last blog, I took you step-by-step through the assembly process for my action figure body.  To everyone's surprise (especially my own), it was my best read blog entry in months.  Therefore, to punish you further... I've decided to write a new entry on sewing (I know, I promised painting too.  That will be my next one... I really mean it this time).

In this entry I'll focus on the sewing of a body suit, because c'mon... that's what most superheroes wear.  It's also one of the easiest projects to tackle.  Why, you ask?  Because the worst thing about lycra spandex (it stretches all over the place) is also the best thing.  It's very forgiving.  Just when you think you've sewn something too small or not perfectly straight... viola, you stretch the crap out of it and it magically fits.  Problem solved.

So without further ado, let's begin...

Step One:  Have a cool wife

For many, many years I sewed everything by hand.  After a while, I became fairly adept at achieving the results I wanted.  The down side was... it took for-freaking-ever to finish anything.  Then two years ago, my wife bought me a Singer sewing machine.  Don't get me wrong... I make lots of mistakes with it.  However, when I really get rolling I can bang out tiny pairs of pants with the best of them (that sounded much better in my head).

Sewing supplies... check!

To get started, I gather my "stuff".  That includes sewing machine, fabric, cutting surface, rotary cutters and patterns (there are scissors in there too, but they must be covered up).

Step 2:  The shirt

I prefer to make most of my bodysuits in two parts... shirt and pants.  This allows me to hide the seam under a belt (another superhero must have).  It also keeps me from having to sew snaps in the back (which IMHO doesn't look good in this scale).

Trust me.  This pattern will work.

First I lay my expertly crafted paper pattern on top of my fabric.  Yep... you guessed it.  Then I cut the fabric with my rotary tool.  If I haven't accidently sliced off a chunk of finger AND I've stuck relatively close to the pattern, this is what I get...

 Notice the tiny slit cut in the center.  That's the head hole.

From here I fold the fabric in half and the rough shape of a shirt appears.

or a funky "T" shape... whichever you prefer

And here's where things get fun, or terribly frustrating if your sewing machine is acting like a punk that day.  The folded fabric feeds through the sewing machine...

Look Ma... I'm sewing.

In one continuous stitch on each side, I sew from the wrist to the armpit to the bottom of the shirt.  (mental note:  this particular character is going to have gauntlets that cover the ends of the arms as well as a belt that covers the bottom seam of the shirt.  Since they won't ever be seen, I don't bother hemming those areas).  Once I'm done, my shirt looks like this...

Again, it doesn't have to be perfect.  This stuff stretches like crazy.

Guess what?  The shirt is done.  All you need to do is flip it right side out (it was inside out before) and you'll end up with something that looks unfortunately like this...

Hook 'em Horns!

Don't worry.  The shirt is fine.  The fabric will often roll in on itself when you first flip it right side out.

Now all you have to do is put it on your figure.  That's sometimes easier said than done since I like my body suits to be very tight.  The good news is that the elastic I use to string my bodies together is very forgiving.  Oftentimes the arms will need to be pulled out of their sockets to get the shirt to slide on.  But once it does, oh baby...

Is  "front" and "back" really necessary?

Step 3:  The pants

When sewn poorly, the pants can really bring down the overall quality of your custom (it's 11:51pm and a good "pants down" joke eludes me).  That's why, to be honest... I cheat.  You heard me, I cheat during this step.  Here's how...

more pattern and fabric fun.

First, I cut the lower part of the leg fabric really wide (where the foot will be - shown as the line drawn on the fabric in the picture above).  You'll see why in a bit.  That's not really a big cheat.  But this next part is...

Hey, hold on a minute!

Second, I buy a pair of premade shorts/underwear from one of the fine producers of such things.  Then, for fun, I rip the seams out around the leg holes and partially up the back.  Why take this route instead of sewing my own?  A) Sewing elastic bands into shorts this small is a huge pain.  B) These things are dirt cheap.

So, once I remove the seam from an existing pair of shorts and then cut my own leg fabric (remember, super wide at the bottom), I get something like this...

I ain't ever seen no elephant fly?

Notice here that the upper parts of the grey fabric are cut to match the interior circumference of the leg holes.  As I mentioned earlier, I keep the bottoms wide.  The reason being is that sewing the legs into the shorts is a major pain (you're sewing on a very small curve).  Since both fabrics stretch, it's often hard to sew them together perfectly straight.  After many attempts of trying to get this right I realized that if I left extra fabric on the legs, I could cut the leggings to the correct size after the pieces were sewn together and not have to worry about lining things up perfectly the first time.

Hey... it worked.

Step 4:  Pajama time

Once these steps are completed, you've got yourself a two piece body suit, like so...

Head shown for illustrative purposes only.

Sure, for now it looks like a sleep over at the Batcave.  But trust me, soon enough this figure will really start to come together and the foundations of this suit are the key.  Best of all, the seams are hidden (front and back).  And... because I now have one of those new fangled sewing machines, this entire process took all of 30 minutes. 

Well, that's it for Body Suits 101.  I hope you've enjoyed reading this twice as much as I enjoyed writing it.  Next up... painting.  Good night and peace out.

Body Building

I'm often asked two questions when I tell people I make custom action figures.  The first is... "how old are you"?  I'm 43 (and a half).  The second question is... "how do you do it"?

First of all, there are many ways to "customize" an action figure.  When I was 7, my skills maxed out at swapping heads and/or clothes from one figure to another.  To be honest... there's still a lot of that going on.  However, the fun(nest) stuff I do now involves making major modifications to existing bodies (or body parts), or sometimes making my own bits and pieces from scratch. 

Although the sculpting/molding/casting portions of the hobby are fascinating, I'm going to jump ahead and concentrate on body assembly in this post.  But don't worry... the next time I fire up the pressure pot to cast a foot or torso or head, I'll bore you with those details, too.

Step one:  Gather your parts

 There are 16 separate parts (excluding head and hands) for my custom bodies  

You counted right.  The upper bicep is two parts.

Getting to this point takes many, many hours.  Each of the resin cast parts above sprang from a separate mold.  And they don't just grow on trees, ya know.  And even with the best molds, there is a lot of cleanup that has to happen before you can begin building bodies.  Long story short... it took a crap load of work to get to the picture above.

Step two:  Dremel and drill.

 Yep... He's solid.

Speaking of prep work... all of the pieces I cast are solid.  And for most of the parts, that's a good thing.  However, the torso and pelvis need to be hollowed out to allow me to string elastic through the body (stay tuned, I'll show you that later).  So, at this point I grab my handy drill and even handier dremel and hollow these puppies out.

 Ignore the elastic.  We haven't gotten to that part yet.

Step 3:  Dry fit the head

Once the torso's hollow, it's time to test fit the head.  This is a trial and error process that requires a light touch with the dremel.  You'll want to be careful here, because if you make the hole too big, you'll never get the head to attach properly (there's a joke in there somewhere).  Take your time.  Also, please note that these steps only work with a ball joint type neck plug.  Other heads attach differently.  That information will cost you extra.  ;-)

YAY... got it right!

Step 4:  Strings and pins

Here's where things start to come together and a place where a video camera would have come in handy.  Instead, with the help of Industrial Light and Magic, I've created this awesome graphic to illustrate my technique.

(give me a break, it's late)

The blue above indicates where pins are inserted to connect various pieces.  Most of the pins are simply that... small, straight, plastic rods.  I have a stash of these and when I run out... I'm screwed.  They allow for hinge joints to form at the elbows, shoulders, knees and feet.  The hip pins have small hooks on them... which is a good thing, because the red line represents the elastic that holds it all together.  I typically pin all the parts together first and then run the elastic.  This can be a little tricky.  Get the elastic too loose and you have a floppy rag doll.  Get the elastic too tight and your figure will have difficulty standing (and often gets the "I have to pee" stance where the legs want to pull toward each other too much).  It takes a little trial and error, but once you string 30-40 of these together... you get a good feel for it (sarcasm alert). 

Step 5a:  Prepare the head

Now that the body is put together and the head fits into the torso, it's time to prep the head to connect to the body.  This involves drilling two holes. 

Two holes.  No waiting.

First, drill a larger hole from the base of the neck straight up towards the top of the head.  You only need to drill up 3/4 of an inch or so.  Second, drill a smaller hole from the back of the head, towards the front.  Be careful NOT to drill through the front of your head.  Why, you ask?  Well... if you do, you'll have a big hole in the front of your head and that "just don't look right".

Step 5b:  String the head

I needed 3 hands for this picture.

Push a loop of elastic up through the larger hole at the base of the head. 

Again, needed 3 hands.  The elastic should be going into the larger hole.

Push a rod (I used a nail) through the small hole.  If you line up things correctly, the loop of elastic will now be hooked around the nail. 

(Don't forget the knot, cuz if the elastic comes out... you ain't getting it back in)

And just for good measure... cut the nail flush, putty up the hole and sand smooth.  That way, when it's painted up no one will see it.

I know, you can see it.  It's not painted yet.

Your head is now ready to attach... but DON'T. 

Step 6:  Have a Dr. Pepper

No... really.  Go drink a Dr. Pepper.  I'll wait.

At this point you should have a finished body and a head with elastic sticking out.  For some figures, you can go ahead and attach the head.  It's as simple as untying the knot in the elastic and fishing the two ends of the elastic down through the body.  I've left a small hole in the pelvis that the elastic can be threaded through and tied off (I forgot to photograph this step... oops).  However, for this particular character I've learned (the hard way), that it's better to attach the head AFTER he has his shirt on.  As you can imagine, it's always fun to realize 20 hours down the road that you can't get the shirt on with the head attached.

Okay... that's all for now.  Thanks for reading.  Next time I'll talk about painting and sewing.