Making a cummerbund, pouches, and cod

[Zugor]

I have been teaching myself to sew by making bags to put my armor pieces in while they are stored in my tote. Now that I am confident I can sew a straight line I decided to tackle making the cummerbund. I figure the cummerbund is the easiest of the items so I will start there. I started by measuring my belly area which came out to 46 inches. I bought white canvas to make all the parts and cut out a section of cloth that is 48 inches by 17 inches. I added half and inch on each end for the area to sew in and have the measurements come out to 8 inches tall and 46 where the velcro will attach.  I then sewed together one end and down the long side. At this point I realized how important it is to check your machine before sewing anything.

As you can see the thread was not pulled tight by the tensioner and I had to cut all the threads off and redo.

Once I fixed that I sewed the batting to the short end and pulled the batting in as I turned the cummerbund inside out.

I then drew light pencil lines on the fabric in the center where I wanted the quilting to appear, rolled up one end and fed it through the sewing machine.

Once I was finished with the quilting I added the velcro to the ends. 

Not too bad for my first try. Next time I have some spare time I will build some pouches. Its taken me almost a year to get this far.  I did have a screw up while I was making this, it turned out that I needed to add an additional 3 inches to the material length. Meaning I needed to cut out a 50 inch length instead, not sure why that happened but if your making a cummerbund I recommend going a few inches long and you can trim it off if you need. I now have an extra cummerbund that is a bit too small. Oh well, if I loose that weight I have been trying to get off then it will come in handy.

[BikerScout007]

Good job!  The more you do it, the better you get!

[Frank75139]

Way better then anything I could do


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[Zugor]

Thanks for the encouraging words! I spent time making bags to put the hard armor parts of my TK in. It was a good learning experience but as you can see I still make mistakes.

[mmmtoastyboy]

When I made mine too small, I moved the velcro over and let it hang off the edge of the fabric. You can only see it when I undo the velcro which is never since I pull it up. 

[Zugor]

Let me tell you I made a ton of mistakes building these pouches and I am not finished. First, I thought I would make my pouches with a double layer of canvas. Figured I would make them durable. After breaking 4 needles and countless attempts to get the flap sewn on I decided this was a bad idea. While the body of the pouch came out nice there was just too much material to try and sew through at certain points. I ended up ripping the threads out and breaking the fabric of the main body back down to just the flat pieces I had cut out originally.

 

I used some small patches of material behind the velcro patches, which by the way are really good to sew on before you do anything else, I learned that the hard way. Then I resewed the corners, folded the top return edge in and sewed on the flap. I stuck some cardboard inside to make it stand up and look right. 

I plan to take apart the other pouch I made and redo it so I will end up with 4 pouches when its all done. That way I can pick the best two and use those. I am also of the opinion that I could have added the material for the back to the piece I cut for the front making one continuous piece of fabric and then I would only need to sew one edge instead of two . I think I will experiment with that next time I have the sewing machine out.

 

[Aradun]

4 hours ago, Zugor said:

I am also of the opinion that I could have added the material for the back to the piece I cut for the front making one continuous piece of fabric and then I would only need to sew one edge instead of two . I think I will experiment with that next time I have the sewing machine out.

 

 

Hey Peter,

Way to persevere brother.  The pouch looks good.  I too broke several needles trying to attach the flap to the pouch and realized the key was not to stitch to the end where it became very thick with folded and seamed fabric. 

While you could just make the back and front one continuous piece and only have one seam to stitch, I think the reason it is pieced together currently as two separate pieces is because the seams on either side of the pouch’s front are clearly visible in photos of scouts on set and so the goal is to be as screen accurate as possible.

I don’t see anything in the CRL that stipulates that both seams have to be visible but I’m not sure how that would effect a Lancer app.  Maybe someone more well versed in these matters can chime in as to whether or not it would make a difference.

Also, I steam pressed my seams with an iron once completed to give the pouch nice crisp edges all around and it does help the pouch hold its form.  Looking at your flap, consider running an iron over it.  The one edge where it is angled looks very rounded in the photo.  Ironing it would help it lay flat better and remove some of the wrinkles.  

Nice job!

[Zugor]

Well, I am glad you said something! I never realized I had the box backwards. I thought the seams were supposed to be to the back and now that I look at the pattern it clearly says the single panel goes in the front putting the seams in the front. Sigh...guess I am taking that box back apart. Good to know now tho before I put the other boxes together.

[Aradun]

Glad it helped, but to be honest I didn’t catch that in your photo until you said something LOL. Glad you caught it now before putting the other pouches together.

 

And technically you just need to take off the flap, turn the box around, and reattach the flap.

 

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[Zugor]

I put velcro patches on the front and back to hold the flap and the box to the cummerbund so I need to cut them off and redo them. Its ok, its all a learning experience anyway. The last two pouches should turn out pretty good. 

 

[Zugor]

I took a break from the pouches and made my boots.

[Aradun]

Peter, those boots look fantastic. Well done!

[Zugor]

41 minutes ago, AradunFF said:

Peter, those boots look fantastic. Well done!

Thank you! I needed a success after the trouble with these pouches. I also decided to start work on the helmet. It’s a WTF I picked up a while back that needs some parts. I have a call into Walt for the parts it needs.

 

 

[Zugor]

Ok, I need some advice. I am trying to make the flak vest and used a XXL tee shirt as a template. I normally wear an XL so I figured it would be good to go over my coveralls. Boy was I wrong, in my infinite wisdom I did not try the XXL tee shirt on first. Now I have the beginnings of a huge vest. Is it ok to have a seam in the front? I need to take this thing in about 4 inches in the front. The back has the hook and loop closure so taking it in there should be ok, it’s the front I am worried about.

 

[Aradun]

Keep in mind that the flak vest is mostly covered by you bund and armor so if it’s a little big you may not notice it at all once you suit up.

But if you need to take it in I would start by taking it in via the back. Remove the hook and loop, try taking it in an 1” on either side (that will eliminate 1/2 the excess right there and tighten up the look). Then test fit it before reattaching your Velcro. This will allow you to see if further adjustments should be made before you reattach the Velcro. If you have your armor and bund on hand be sure to test fit with those on for full effect.

[Retrofire]

Cutting it from the front really won’t work since the vest will show above the chest armor and you’ll see that seam. It’s best to take it in from the back as Dennis mentioned.

[Zugor]

Ok, I finally got the courage to circle back and finish the pouches. I have to say I think these are the most difficult thing I have had to make from scratch so far. Trying to keep them from being wonky was not easy. I ended up drawing light pencil lines on the fabric and then lining up the pencil marks and pinning the pieces together and then sewing along the pencil marks to get them to come out as close to straight as I could get. Seems like everything works against you when your trying to make a straight sewing line. What do you guys think?

 

[Chopper]

Those look ok to me. Nice work. The only item I can see, and keep in mind that this is really a Level 2 critique, but are the top flaps wider than the box portion? Might be the angle? Or perhaps the lack of padding?

 

[Zugor]

I followed the pattern on here so they should be the same width as the pouch. I didn't sew them all the way to the end because the needles kept breaking when I tried. I figure they should look right when I add the stuffing to fill them out.

[Aradun]

I followed the pattern on here so they should be the same width as the pouch. I didn't sew them all the way to the end because the needles kept breaking when I tried. I figure they should look right when I add the stuffing to fill them out.

They look really good! Good call on not stitching the tabs all the way across. That last 1/2” or so is a bear. I know I lost a couple of needles on mine before I just left the ends unstitched. Won’t be an issue for approval or trooping.

This is just a suggestion, but for the corners of the flaps and bottom of the pouches, try to take a pencil and see if you can work the material for the corners out a bit. When you sew it inside out, and then turn it right side in the corners don’t always pop out and you end up with rounded corners. The pencil will help to work that material out and you can gentle erase any marks left by the pencil. Again, just a suggestion.

[Zugor]

I did something similar, I used a metal straight edge. I put the straight edge inside the sewn corners and gently pulled down to get the material out. That was with the flap and the little tabs inside, worked well on them. I will try it on the pouch and see if it helps them to look a little better. 

[Zugor]

I have finally gotten around to making my flak vest. I cut out the sleeves and used this stuff called Pelton Flex-Foam fusible stabilizer between two layers of black Poly-Cotton fabric I found at Walmart. I think the quilting came out nicely. Now I need to figure out how to attach them to the body of the shirt I cut out of the same fabric. I am not sure if you sew the sleeves together so they are round and them sew to the shirt body or sew them to the body and then complete the sleeve. I haven’t seen to many people make their own vest and post pictures of how they did it. I will have to do some searching tonight and see if I can figure out the process. 

[Aradun]

Hey Peter! It’s great to see you back at it!

I stitched the sleeves, turned them inside out, along with the flak vest, pinned the sleeves to the vest, and then ran it through the sewing machine. You can try it on while inside out to check for fit and adjust as needed before sewing.

[Zugor]

On 9/1/2021 at 2:17 PM, AradunFF said:

Hey Peter! It’s great to see you back at it!

I stitched the sleeves, turned them inside out, along with the flak vest, pinned the sleeves to the vest, and then ran it through the sewing machine. You can try it on while inside out to check for fit and adjust as needed before sewing.

That's a pretty good idea! I will try it.

[Zugor]

I have finished my flak vest. It’s not great but I think it will work. I learned a lot about sewing a shirt with this one.