woobiee

Haha, I used a chopstick.

It's been over a week since my last progress report but I promise I'm still at it! Previously, it was agreed that my thigh straps were a bit too long. However, I've been holding off on that modification until I heard back on whether the IB flight suit came with real or faux suede. I still have not heard back and I bet my money that it utilizes the faux stuff. To that end, I went ahead and purchased some pigskin suede from Tandy at the recommendation of @AradunFF. On another front, I'm starting the custom pouches, bund, and cod piece. I went to Joann's to pick up some supplies; duck cloth, poly fill, sateen cotton fabric, and lots of heavy duty needles! One actually exploded in my face so now I wear my glasses when I sew heavy materials. I must thank @AradunFF for his invaluable WIP thread for all the recommendations. With pouch patterns printed out, I attempted my first set. After consulting the Scoutopedia, I've opted to keep the seams normal (without any hidden seams). To me they look like they didn't attempt to hide the seams at all. The first set of pouches turned out okay but not perfect -- I know I can do better! I learned two things after this first set: I need to take it slower on the machine (though I find it difficult because the foot pedal on the machine is hard to modulate) Remeasure everything and compensate at every step of the way. With the knowledge gained, I'll have another set done hopefully by this weekend. This time, I'll utilize @Chopper's velcro tips and add some hidden velcro on the pouches. Let's hope I break ground on the bund and cod piece next week!

Question for pouches and bund specific: For the pouch attachment tabs/flaps and the bund closure at the back, do we need to hide the threading used to sew the velcro on? To be more specific, can we sew the velcro through both layers of fabric or we must only sew onto the backside fabric layer? Thanks!

You got it boss.

Hi all, Chopper informed me to post this up here for you all experts for review. This is my IB bund with a closeup of the fabric. There were discussions in one of the Lancer Request threads that the IB bund/cod material is not compliant with the Lancer CRL. May I ask you all to look at my bund and see if the material will pass Lancer? Even thought it's also from IB, it looks like the shape and material look different than the one in the recent Lancer Request thread. Perhaps one of us has the new design vs an old one -- don't know who has which. Thanks!

I've tried MrPoopie's method of hiding the front flap seam (hoping I did it correctly) and even though I did this rather quickly and crudely, I think it may work well for some. Here is a shot of the backside where the seam will be hidden from the front. Instead of making two identical patterns for the front flap, I trimmed one of them about 1/4" on all sides. This one will become the backside of the flap. Sew as usual but constantly lining up the edges. Once finished, one side will be more poofy than the other because of the two size difference. Turn it inside out and the seams get offset to the backside.

I've updated some of the document/images from earlier. It's now tidier, with some simple steps and notes for sewing novices like myself. MrPoopie suggested a seamless front flap option but I'll have to test that out before it gets added to the document.

Yeah I think I got you. I can update my patterns with the option.

Do you mean to avoid this? (photo from DK5IDE)

I do not believe so. The material felt like what the IB bund was made out of. I'm used to canvas being similar to denim in weight -- this was certainly lighter than denim. Perhaps it was a lighter weight canvas that I'm not familiar with?

I should have mentioned that 3 things were modified in these patterns: 1) The front flap is 5.25" wide vs DK5IDE's patterns at 5.5". He mentioned that the front flap should have been 5.25" in total -- 5" wide + 1/8" on either side to equal 5.25." 2) I had to decipher the size of the square velcro on the front flap based on DK5IDE's low resolution image. My results got me to 0.75" square. 3) I made the velco on the front pouch where the front flap meets larger than on the flap itself. I thought it would be easier to close the flap rather than having equal sized velcro squares and needing to hit it dead on. The larger velcro will be hidden by the front flap anyway.

Absolutely!

After feeling a little down, I pivoted and took some time to investigate the pouches and how I can make them from scratch. The IB pouches that came with my soft parts would pass Basic but I do not think it will pass Lancer because of the materials used. Plus one of our cats peed on them and well, I'd rather not be wearing eau-du-chat when trooping! I found the brilliant patterns from DK5IDE and used it for my first test pouch using scrap fabric my fiancé had laying around. Considering the last time I touched a sewing machine was about 25+ years ago in middle school, I think my test turned out great! Translating the patterns to fabric was a bit cumbersome. In hindsight, I should have printed them first and traced it to fabric. As a super novice with all things sewing, I initially was having a rather difficult time imagining how these pieces went together and deciphering the order of operation. I'm a visual person so to help me with this, I went ahead and made color-coded patterns plus diagrams of the pouches using DK5IDE's originals. They are also vectorized so they are high resolution for people who opt to print+trace. If something isn't right with these patterns, let me know and I will correct! And here is the PDF file for print: Pouch Dimensions.pdf

OK thanks Chopper! I'll future proof it and stand down with these ribbed elastic. I'll find another source.

Today's small task is to replace the lower strap of my knee armor. The armor came with 1" wide elastic but the CRL for Lancer requires 1/2" or 3/4" wide elastic. I found this 3/4" black elastic at Joann's. It has some ribbing on it whereas all other elastic from the kit are smooth. Is this allowed or do I need to find another source of 3/4" black elastic?

Food for thought: Open-end rivets are hollow blind rivets that are pre-assembled onto a headed pin or mandrel. .....In general, open-end rivets come in dome, large-flange, or a 120-degree countersunk head. Yup, looks like we just focus on the 1/8" domed (standard) rivets.

If I had to hazard a guess, it kinda sounds like the size of "A" is a bit arbitrary and to stick with 'standard' over the 'large' version of size 1/8" rivet?

Thanks @AradunFF for the encouragement. That Chopper thread I have bookmarked for some time! I'm sure I'm not the only one who has gotten discouraged by little setbacks. Maybe I'll start putting some velcro inside the knee armor now -- it's easy and I'm in need for some small victories.

Thanks all! RS assembled my kit and gave me some extra rivets for the holster so I do not have the original rivet packaging. But it sounds like I am in the clear based on your feedback and illustration!

Thanks for the feedback Chopper. I do not know if the suede is real (I understand it needs to be real for Lancer). Are there tricks to tell if one is real or not? I'll ask Vince at IB for details. For tightness, if I try to do a squat, a kneel, or a normal bend of the waist, the backside is so taught that I feel like the seam would start to buckle. I have a seam that connects the top half and the bottom half of the flight suit. I think you are onto something with the flex fabric -- the fire suit that I use for my other cosplay character has flex fabric around the lower back and I have no issues with bending over.

To you Lancer experts or Lancer approved members! The CRL for Lancer requires 1/8" rivets, for example the knee armor or the boot holster, etc. But does anyone know if the 1/8" is for the diameter of the hat (the hole) or the head (the overall diameter)? The rivets that were used for my armor have 1/8" sized holes, with an overall diameter of 5/16." Will this satisfy the Lancer requirement? Thanks!

Some progress but more set backs One of the difficult things so far is since I am still figuring out where things should stay in relationship to my body and the flight suit, everything is currently held in temporarily by friction or pressure so any subtle movements from me would shift the pieces around. The photos generally captures the state after some movement -- the example here is how the cod piece seem off centered/crooked. Anyway, for the positives, I think the cod reshaping came out alright. I think I can physically slide the cod down towards the crotch by 1/4 to 1/5" further without additional reshaping. As for negatives, I think the thigh straps are now too long whereas before it was too tight. My guess is I need to take in about 3/4" - 1" of strap here. I'm also starting to believe the suede riding patches are not shaped quite right. The more I see it the more it looks more like a "V" to me, whereas it should be an upside down "U." The biggest issue I have now is how the flight suit is fitting and how immobile I feel when I'm in it. Bending over and kneeling is exceeding difficult, to a point where things may start ripping around my backside. Sitting while putting boots on feels constrained around the knee area. For the bending over and kneeling problem, what are some solutions to this? I can see a lower crotch would help but then it would look silly to me (the flight suit came with a super low crotch that I had my tailor take in). For the sitting while putting boots on with constrained knee area, is this as simple as opening up the trouser legs? Like instead of a tapered look, go more for a straight cut? Honestly, I feel a bit defeated and discouraged. But I am trying to fight through and push forward!

@Retrofire thanks for the advice! I've cosplayed as other non-SW characters before and I totally understand the little ones' preferences Do you know if the knee armor from RS's (or any other kit) can sustain our body weight on hard surfaces? At first glance it seems a little delicate.

Awesome thanks Corey! Early this evening I scrutinized my fitting with the CRL images and I totally agree with your feedback. I did a test and inverted the straps so it wrapped around my inner thigh (vs the correct outer side) and the legs felt much better -- the legs felt more relaxed thus allowing the riding patches to lay naturally. I am now confident that the thigh straps are indeed too tight. I should have suspected something was off when I first received the flight suit from IB. The straps were aligned inside the inner thigh out of the box. I have a good feeling they missed that little detail and measured out the straps to wrap around the inner thigh vs the outer. Sigh. As for the cod piece, my plan is to reduce the height between the very bottom of the cod piece and the arc detail by about 1 inch and rework the shaping in this area. I have plenty of extra cod above the belt so I should have enough to slide this down a tiny bit to compensate. I may even lower the belt by a hair if needed. Good call on the thigh straps being too low. That's an easy adjustment

Today I got my flight suit back from my tailor. We targeted the lower half of the flight suit, from waist on down. Please ignore the belt and drop boxes because I have not adjusted them yet -- it is only to illustrate roughly where my waist is. Same goes with the bund. I also think I was standing off kilter and some things look off centered. Let me know how this looks but here are my observations: The legs feel a little tight around my legs...I think we went too far with the suppression? Does it look this way in photos? The thigh straps are way too tight. This came with the suit and I think new straps are required -- maybe 0.5-1" longer straps? Is it located around the right place on the thigh? I think the butt flat came out pretty decently. I will be adding pant stirrups in the future to help bring down excess fabric Is the cod fitting and sitting in the right place?