I’ve finally started a new cosplay. Yes it’s been nearly a year. Yes I’m lazy. No you don’t have to keep reading.
Most of my friends and family on facebook won’t read this so I’m going to go ahead and post my “mystery cosplay” progress here. They’ll get updates but none of them will actually figure it out until I post the finished project.
So I will be at NYCC in a week and a half and one of the guests will be Bill Nye. Many know him as Bill Nye the Science Guy. But before he was the science guy he was a superhero. He was on a little skit comedy show based out of Seattle called Almost Live. And one of my favorite characters was Speed Walker. He fights crime while strictly adhering to the National Speed Walkers Association rules. HEEL TOE, HEEL TOE!
Since Mr. Nye will be attending on Saturday I wanted to wear a cosplay for him that predates the Science Guy.
As you can see it is a pretty simple costume and should be easy enough to make. YET! There are some tricks involved. Sewing the letters to the crest and the crest to the shirt may looks easy at first glance. But try to remember some of the tricks of sewing;
1. Edges of fabric unravel.
2. Sewing machines are not designed to sew from the inside of a shirt.
This means that the letters and the crest need to have the edges folded over and basted to keep the edges from unraveling. This includes notching the fabric to make a nice smooth edge on the curves of the S.
To add some flair to the cosplay I decided to make the crest and letters raised to stand out some more. I am using t-shirts as the starting fabric for value sake. It was a cheap costume on the show and that part will remain but I want the finished product to look a little more finished.
I made simple stencils for the letters and hand drew the crest to fit my chest. I traced the stencils and crest onto midweight fusible interfacing.
Unfortunately, and this was kinda expected, the bond between the interfacing and the fabric in not particularly strong. This is not a surprise as it is designed to be sewed into the final product. In this case I am using it to give the crest and letters more heft. Because of this poor bond I am gluing the edges of the fabric down to the back of the interfacing. I used a plastic bristle paint brush to “paint” the glue onto the edge of the fabric and the back of the interfacing and pinned it to hold it in place.
I used the glue to tighten the sleeve of my Rogue belt and was impressed with how well it has held up. It takes some time to dry and I will check it in the morning. If it looks and feels good I will continue gluing the remainder of the crest and letters.
As I said, this is a pretty simple cosplay and I’m working on a short timeline so not everything is going to be picture perfect. I will be putting the crest on a grey shirt to match the grey shorts that I have. These are pretty major changes from the pictures but should be easily overlooked in the spirit of the character.