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.