Shelby's Biker Scout WIP

[ouiouiouwha]

Hi everyone! My name is Shelby and I'm looking to become a member of the 501st with a Biker Scout as my first costume submission. 

Started this build officially at the beginning of August 2019 and I've made a bunch of progress on it so I thought I would share it here~

As of right now I have almost all of the soft parts mostly completed except for the pouches. I'm waiting to obtain my armor before tackling those to ensure that the proportions are correct and accurate. 

Here's where I currently stand with each part of the kit:

Boots - Done!*

Flight Suit - Done!

Gloves - Done!

Flak Vest - Done!

Cummerbund - Done!*

Cod Piece - Done!*

Pouches - Fabric obtained, waiting for armor

Armor - Research phase, have not purchased

Helmet - Research phase, have not purchased

* - Items are completed but will require adjustment once armor is obtained

Images will be posted below~

 

[BikerScout007]

The pouches should be 6x5x2 to be the most accurate.  We used to encourage people to modify them based on their own body proportions but the results were all over the place.  We highly recommend going with the standard size, especially if you plan on going for Level 2 at some point.  

Great work on your build so far!

[ouiouiouwha]

Boots

First thing I tackled with this build was the boots.

Purchased some relatively cheap work boots off Amazon and went straight to work on carving out the sole for Lancer Status. A small flat bladed X-acto knife was my best friend here and with the help from a member of my local garrison, we were able to tackle all the carving in a few hours. 

Here's the finished product:

After all that carving was done, I had some left over marine vinyl from another project and started getting the boots covered. With a little heat, a lot of pins and bit of patience, the boots were covered relatively easy. 

Next, I made the actual boot covers and with the help of more local garrison members, I was able to rivet the boot panels appropriately and they really started to come together at that point. 

The dog bone pieces were then glued on to hide the seam and my boots for the most part are done~

Armor still needs to be completed and attached to the side of the boot so they aren't completely done. I will update with pictures once completed~

[ouiouiouwha]

Flight Suit and Gloves

Gloves were easy as they were obtained from WampaWear and a size medium fit me perfectly~

 

Flight suit was obtained from Red Cap and I started by taking off the back pockets and modifying the collar. As a mandarin collar, the fabric was too tall around my neck and was super uncomfortable so I adjusted the height and attached the additional tab and velcro for the appropriate look.

Next were the suede riding patches to be conquered. Before seam ripping the inseam, I marked were the patches should be in white chalk and made a pattern. 

When cutting out the suede I gave myself an extra inch on the part that overlays on the inseam to ensure appropriate coverage when sewing up the seam again.

Carefully positioning and pinning one panel at a time, I sewed each patch on individually. To attach the thigh straps, I simply seam ripped a small opening for the strap to go through and sewed over the line again.

I attached the butt flap to the top of the waist seam to ensure it goes high enough to be covered by the cummerbund. 

Lastly, I did have to shorten the arms, legs, and take in the legs for a more fitted look but I'm anticipating that I'll have to do a bit more tailoring once my armor comes in but will have to wait to see.

[Chopper]

Nice work so far! You're getting the tough stuff out of the way, so once you pick up your armor, the rest should be easy!

[ouiouiouwha]

Flak Vest

The flak vest I made from scratch using a stretch cotton/polyester blend fabric that was similar to a slightly thicker t-shirt material. Using a comfortable t-shirt as the base for the pattern, I cut out the front panel first. I went a little larger for the seam allowance but also because there will be a flight suit underneath and I didn't want it to be too tight or restrictive. 

For the back panels I added an additional 3 inches of overlay for the velcro to be attached and overlap in the back. 

Once pinned together, this is what the back looked like:

After sewing the shoulders and the sides together, I cut out the sleeves, using the t-shirt once again as a pattern. I slightly lengthen the sleeve to meet standards. I followed the curve of where the sleeves will attach to ensure no excess or inadequate fabric once they are attached.

I cut out a total of four panels of the sleeves. Two will be used for making the ribbing, two will be used for the inside lining of the sleeves.

I then marked in chalk one inch lines along the length of 2 of the sleeves for the ribbing thats in the sleeves.

I cut out my batting using the sleeves as a guide.

Then I sewed along the lines along with the batting to get the ribbed look. I went the full length of the fabric to make sure that my lines would be clean once the edges would be finished. 

Next, I folded the sleeves and sewed up the seam along the bottom for all four panels. 

Placing the seams of a padded panel and an unpadded panel together and pinning along the straight edge of the sleeve, I sewed the edge of the sleeve together to make a proper finished edge. 

When the sleeve is flipped inside out, you have a properly finished sleeve for the flak vest.

Now comes attaching the sleeves to the vest. One again lining up the seam in the underside of the sleeve and the side seam of the vest, I carefully pinned the sleeve in place on the vest.

Once the sleeves were sewed in place, I finished all the edges of the vest including the collar, the back flaps, and the bottom edge with a double roll so theres not raw edges. Attached the velcro to the back with the right flap over the left just like the cummerbund, the flak vest is done~

Bonus image of me trying on a friend's armor to see where the shoulder bells came to make sure my sleeve length was okay.

[Chopper]

Shelby, great work on the vest. One small thing to note, and this should be an easy fix, but the CRL specifically calls for black velcro.

"Secured at the back using 50mm (2") black hook and loop fastener."

[ouiouiouwha]

Cummerbund and Cod Piece

I sadly forgot to take progress pictures while making these. The cummerbund was pretty straight forward being a long rectangle with the 5 ribs in the center. Sewed the ribs in first similar to the the sleeves of the flak vest and I used a few more layers of batting to get a fuller look. (Look how fluffy it looks~!) For the Cod Piece, but I used a softer foam instead of batting to avoid the dreaded tuck and toe look, and a sewed in the slightly curving lines in the front as well and attached the 2 inch elastic that goes up the back side. Will have to do some final adjustments once the armor arrives so I haven't properly secured the cod piece to anything. 

Here's the (mostly) finished cummerbund with the cod piece.

The back of the cummerbund with the right side overlapping the left.

 

[ouiouiouwha]

Silly update because I really want my armor and helmet to get here but if anybody was wondering what a Biker Scout looks like with no armor, here it is!

[ouiouiouwha]

1 hour ago, BikerScout007 said:

The pouches should be 6x5x2 to be the most accurate.  We used to encourage people to modify them based on their own body proportions but the results were all over the place.  We highly recommend going with the standard size, especially if you plan on going for Level 2 at some point.  

Great work on your build so far!

Ah, thanks for the update! I know the CRL states the dimensions but I just wasn't too sure due to not having the armor to properly proportion everything. I guess I'll start on those now with those dimensions. I believe I have enough duck cloth for 2 sets of pouches if I really need it, so I'll get those out of the way. 

13 minutes ago, Chopper said:

Shelby, great work on the vest. One small thing to note, and this should be an easy fix, but the CRL specifically calls for black velcro.

"Secured at the back using 50mm (2") black hook and loop fastener."

Oh dear, I did miss that. I think I was being impatient and just used velcro that I already had laying around. That's a super easy fix and I'll update that! Thanks for catching it. 

[spike]

WOW, nice job

[doubledx]

Wow very nice Job, Keep on going.

Your Skills are very good, the vest are

fantastic. I think the codpiece is a little

to straight, it could be rounded to the top.

but very nice Job. Hope we See more soon.

 

greetings from Germany 

[welshchris77]

Fantastic build Shelby, you are very skilled 😉

[Frank75139]

Great work


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[ouiouiouwha]

Pouches

I had to catch up on a bunch of commissions while I'm waiting for my helmet to ship but I was finally able to work on the pouches for the cummerbund. I had almost 2 yards of the duck cloth that I decided to just make as many pouches as I could. Couldn't think of any other costume that would require white duck cloth and I'm trying to get rid of the small mountain of fabric I have in my house so I didn't want to add more fabric to it so pouches it is! 

Traced my pattern out on the fabric and had JUST enough for 10 pouches, so 5 pairs. 

Sewed the flaps and the boxes all together.

Made sure to cut the corners off before turning the fabric inside out to ensure crisp, defined edges and corners for the flaps. 

Attached the flaps to the boxes and without any supporting structure on the inside, they look pretty sad. 

The saggy look was fixed easily with 1/4 in eva foam that I had left over from a previous project. Super glued a box structure together and then slipped it inside the box.

I sewed 1 inch square sections of white velcro to secure the flaps but I unfortunately don't have pictures of that at this time. 

I do have a questions in regards to the front flaps and how far they are able to be away from the bottom edge of the box. The above picture isn't completely accurate to where the flaps fall due to not having the velcro secured at that time but after sewing the velcro on, some of the boxes' flaps are about 1/2 inch away from the bottom edge of the box when closed. . Just want to make sure that is okay, as the reference pictures show the front flap going all the way to the bottom edge. I will try to provide pictures later today(09/30).

[TanRu]

I just want to publicly thank Shelby for all the work she put in on my flight suit, flak vest bund, and cod, which all came out great! I couldn't have done it without you! 

[greenyone]

I think the general consensus is a 6" tall, 5" wide by 2" thick pouch, with the face of the flap being 6" tall to be flush with the bottom of the pouch when closed.