ROTJ Scout Cummerbund Tutorial

[BikerScout007]

I will be making a video of this to go into the "Pathfinders Armor Party" series, but in the meanwhile, here is a photo tutorial!

1.  First thing is you need to do is measure yourself and preferably with some layers on.  Even better if you are wearing the vest and flight suit.  If you don't have these items yet, try wearing a light jacket or heavy shirt.  Your t-shirt isn't going to be thick enough to simulate the other soft goods.

With my flight suit and vest on, my chest measurement was about 41.5, so I called it 42.  The bottom of the bund should line up with your waist and the top should be about 8-9 inches above that... so just under the pectorals.  

2.  Cut out your fabric.  

The bund should be between 8-9 inches in height when it is finished so the pouches and their attachment tabs fit squarely inside.  However, the batting will take away some of that height, so 16-18 inches isn't going to be enough.  You should go closer to 19-20.  

For the width I went with 46 inches.  Again, the batting will take away from the width somewhat and -- it's better to have more to cut off later than it is to have not enough!  For height I went 19 inches: 

Alternatively, you can cut out two separate sheets that you fold together.  So in my case, it would be two sheets of 46x9.5 inches.  And I'm sorry for the Imperial units but I'm American and that's just how my brain has been programmed.  

3.  Fold your sheet in half, and then iron it along the folded seam (or alternatively, pin your two halves together):

4.  Close up the width seam and ONE of the height seams:

Your final product should look like this:

As you can see, I sewed the bottom and right side shut, but left the left side open.  Don't worry if it's not 100% perfect, the next step will take care of that.

5.  Cut out a piece of batting this is slightly smaller than your original piece.  Mine was 46x19, so my batting piece was roughly 45x18:

6.  Fold the batting in half and lay it on top of your fabric:

7.  Turn the fabric inside out, and pull the batting all the way through while you do.  It's not that difficult really, though if you want to be super careful you can use pins.  Your final product should look like this.  You will want to pull out those corners on the left edge so that edge is straight (sorry forgot to take a pic of this):

8.  Okay now normally with most garments, you'd probably want to make the folded side the BOTTOM, so there would be no visible seam from the outside, but I looked at the MOTM exhibit and....

You can see the seam plain as day on the bottom of the bund.  So that's how I am doing mine!  The folded part will be the TOP and the seam will be the BOTTOM.  This is important to determine because the closure is RIGHT-OVER-LEFT.  So the right "half" will end up being slightly longer than the left half.  

9.  Now that we've determined the orientation of our bund, we need to figure out what the midpoint of the front of the bund is.  With my flight suit and vest on, I lined up the left side closure in the center of my back and then wrapped the rest of the bund around my front to get a rough idea where my centerpoint was.

Once doing this, when I folded the bund at the closures and laid it out flat, the bund measured 19 inches.  Which puts my centerpoint at 9.5 inches across the front.

This made sense because my last bund (which was made when I was a little skinnier LOL) measured 18 inches when folded like this.

10.  Sew the hook to the left side closure.  This is the side that should be sewn shut already.  You are using hook because that is pointing AWAY from the wearer.  To determine which side you are sewing the hook to, fold the closure in the back (right over left).  The side of the left that is facing you is the side it should be sewn to.  

11.  Determine how much to shorten the right side closure by.  

We made our initial piece of fabric 46 inches long, so there's going to be some overage.  That's okay -- better to have too much than not enough.

With the bund laying flat and closures flapped over, line up the left side closure centered over the centerpoint of the front.  Then lay the right side flap over that.  

I then used painters tape to mark out a 2 inch area (for the 2 inch velcro) that is centered over the left side closure and the centerpoint of the front.  This is where we want our right slide velcro.  You can see that leaves about 2 inches of extra fabric.  Also, we have left the right side open -- this is where we close it!

12.  Sew up the right side closure.  

What you want to do is fold about half an inch of fabric down into itself and then stitch it down.  That will hide all those loose threads.  When you are finished, it should look like this.  

The part to the left of the blue tape is the excess fabric we need to get rid of.  You may be tempted to cut it off but hey -- you may need that excess someday!  So let's save it!

13.  Fold the excess fabric up to the tape line.  Obviously you will be folding it so it faces the inside of the bund, not the outside!

So like this:

14.  Stitch the velcro loop OVER the fold and up to the edge of your bund:

So when complete, yours will look like this from the outside (though you will sew your top stitch straighter than I did here!)

15.  Ribs:

With the center point in the front still marked, you can now mark out where the 6 stitches that will create the 5 front "ribs" will go.  I couldn't find my fabric pencil, so I just marked them out lightly with a regular pencil and a yardstick.  One inch between each:

And there carefully sew them in a straight line down the front of the bund.  You don't want to go too fast here, because you're stitching between two pieces of fabric and two layers of batting.  It's easy for things to get snagged:

 

16.  Finishing touches!

Here is the complete bund:

I added velcro on both sides of the top edge to affix the pouches and to secure it to my vest:

And with the pouches.  They fit squarely on the bund from top to bottom:

I hope this helps!  

[mmmtoastyboy]

Do you happen to know the name of the material you used? There's alot of options at the store to decide from. 

[BikerScout007]

47 minutes ago, mmmtoastyboy said:

Do you happen to know the name of the material you used? There's alot of options at the store to decide from. 

That is a cotton-polyester blend I picked up from JoAnn Fabric a few years ago, so I don't have a record of the exact fabric. Sorry!

We just ask that you use a smooth cotton.  So it shouldn't have any pattern on it (like a twill would).    And not heavy like a denim or duck cloth.  

[mmmtoastyboy]

No problem, I'm remaking mine and also dont remember the name of the material. I just know what I'm going to find at the wall of white fabrics. 

[DukeOfNachos]

Sateen Cotton Fabric Solids

Item #: 5970074

^^^ is what i used for my cumberbund/cod, i believe its the same stuff I nabbed off one of the build threads

[BikerScout007]

30 minutes ago, DukeOfNachos said:

Sateen Cotton Fabric Solids

Item #: 5970074

^^^ is what i used for my cumberbund/cod, i believe its the same stuff I nabbed off one of the build threads

Im pretty sure that's what I got as well.  

[Aradun]

Yep! Same stuff I used as well.

https://www.joann.com/sateen-solids/5970074.html

[John W]

On 5/30/2023 at 6:47 PM, BikerScout007 said:

I will be making a video of this to go into the "Pathfinders Armor Party" series, but in the meanwhile, here is a photo tutorial!

1.  First thing is you need to do is measure yourself and preferably with some layers on.  Even better if you are wearing the vest and flight suit.  If you don't have these items yet, try wearing a light jacket or heavy shirt.  Your t-shirt isn't going to be thick enough to simulate the other soft goods.

With my flight suit and vest on, my chest measurement was about 41.5, so I called it 42.  The bottom of the bund should line up with your waist and the top should be about 8-9 inches above that... so just under the pectorals.  

2.  Cut out your fabric.  

The bund should be between 8-9 inches in height when it is finished so the pouches and their attachment tabs fit squarely inside.  However, the batting will take away some of that height, so 16-18 inches isn't going to be enough.  You should go closer to 19-20.  

For the width I went with 46 inches.  Again, the batting will take away from the width somewhat and -- it's better to have more to cut off later than it is to have not enough!  For height I went 19 inches: 

Alternatively, you can cut out two separate sheets that you fold together.  So in my case, it would be two sheets of 46x9.5 inches.  And I'm sorry for the Imperial units but I'm American and that's just how my brain has been programmed.  

3.  Fold your sheet in half, and then iron it along the folded seam (or alternatively, pin your two halves together):

4.  Close up the width seam and ONE of the height seams:

Your final product should look like this:

As you can see, I sewed the bottom and right side shut, but left the left side open.  Don't worry if it's not 100% perfect, the next step will take care of that.

5.  Cut out a piece of batting this is slightly smaller than your original piece.  Mine was 46x19, so my batting piece was roughly 45x18:

6.  Fold the batting in half and lay it on top of your fabric:

7.  Turn the fabric inside out, and pull the batting all the way through while you do.  It's not that difficult really, though if you want to be super careful you can use pins.  Your final product should look like this.  You will want to pull out those corners on the left edge so that edge is straight (sorry forgot to take a pic of this):

8.  Okay now normally with most garments, you'd probably want to make the folded side the BOTTOM, so there would be no visible seam from the outside, but I looked at the MOTM exhibit and....

You can see the seam plain as day on the bottom of the bund.  So that's how I am doing mine!  The folded part will be the TOP and the seam will be the BOTTOM.  This is important to determine because the closure is RIGHT-OVER-LEFT.  So the right "half" will end up being slightly longer than the left half.  

9.  Now that we've determined the orientation of our bund, we need to figure out what the midpoint of the front of the bund is.  With my flight suit and vest on, I lined up the left side closure in the center of my back and then wrapped the rest of the bund around my front to get a rough idea where my centerpoint was.

Once doing this, when I folded the bund at the closures and laid it out flat, the bund measured 19 inches.  Which puts my centerpoint at 9.5 inches across the front.

This made sense because my last bund (which was made when I was a little skinnier LOL) measured 18 inches when folded like this.

10.  Sew the hook to the left side closure.  This is the side that should be sewn shut already.  You are using hook because that is pointing AWAY from the wearer.  To determine which side you are sewing the hook to, fold the closure in the back (right over left).  The side of the left that is facing you is the side it should be sewn to.  

11.  Determine how much to shorten the right side closure by.  

We made our initial piece of fabric 46 inches long, so there's going to be some overage.  That's okay -- better to have too much than not enough.

With the bund laying flat and closures flapped over, line up the left side closure centered over the centerpoint of the front.  Then lay the right side flap over that.  

I then used painters tape to mark out a 2 inch area (for the 2 inch velcro) that is centered over the left side closure and the centerpoint of the front.  This is where we want our right slide velcro.  You can see that leaves about 2 inches of extra fabric.  Also, we have left the right side open -- this is where we close it!

12.  Sew up the right side closure.  

What you want to do is fold about half an inch of fabric down into itself and then stitch it down.  That will hide all those loose threads.  When you are finished, it should look like this.  

The part to the left of the blue tape is the excess fabric we need to get rid of.  You may be tempted to cut it off but hey -- you may need that excess someday!  So let's save it!

13.  Fold the excess fabric up to the tape line.  Obviously you will be folding it so it faces the inside of the bund, not the outside!

So like this:

14.  Stitch the velcro loop OVER the fold and up to the edge of your bund:

So when complete, yours will look like this from the outside (though you will sew your top stitch straighter than I did here!)

15.  Ribs:

With the center point in the front still marked, you can now mark out where the 6 stitches that will create the 5 front "ribs" will go.  I couldn't find my fabric pencil, so I just marked them out lightly with a regular pencil and a yardstick.  One inch between each:

And there carefully sew them in a straight line down the front of the bund.  You don't want to go too fast here, because you're stitching between two pieces of fabric and two layers of batting.  It's easy for things to get snagged:

 

16.  Finishing touches!

Here is the complete bund:

I added velcro on both sides of the top edge to affix the pouches and to secure it to my vest:

And with the pouches.  They fit squarely on the bund from top to bottom:

I hope this helps!  

I worked on mine tonight . Got it pinned . Gonna stitch tomorrow