Sturdy material pattern making

Hi, I'm new to the group.

I'm trying to make a costume out of a pretty hard leather, I'm trying to make it fit to my body but don't know enough about pattern making to start. Is there any basics I could learn to help out. I made a mock up, but it is basically a box.

Thanks for the help

Reply to
Mogul
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A great way to make a pattern for a costume that fits your body is the duct-tape method.

You need a friend to help you, a roll of duct tape, a permanent marker, and an old T-shirt you're willing to sacrifice.

Put on the T-shirt, and have your friend slowly cover the shirt with duct tape. Use 4-6" strips and make sure that you're covered.

Then go stand in front of a mirror. Think about where you want seams, necklines, etc to be. Draw the lines on the duct tape with the marker. Then have your friend CAREFULLY cut along one of the seam lines so that you can take the garment off. Cut along all the seamlines, and squash the pieces flat.

If you're working in hard leather and you only want to lace the pieces together, then use this as your pattern. If you want to actually sew seams in the material or leather you are using, you will need to add seam allowances to your taped pattern pieces before cutting them out of your final material.

I'm a costumer who works Ren Faires and SF conventions - I was a Masquerade judge Windycon this weekend. I'd be happy to give you more specific advice if you'll tell me a little more about what costume/character you are doing.

------------------------------------------------------ Wendy Z Chicago, IL (Moo) Wench Wear Costumes

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#525 AIM=wendylady525
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"Though she be but little, she is fierce""It's the little ones you have to watch out for...""I'm not short - I'm concentrated"--------------------------------------------------------

Reply to
zski

That is a really good simple idea, I'll have to try that. My goal is to make samurai armor. It is the type that involves long strips that are laced together kind of like a ventian blind. From info on a site I found I think I need to put a curve into the first few strips at the bottom and put less curve into successive strips until it gets straight towards the middle of the chest. It sounds difficult.

The site I'm talking about is

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Reply to
Mogul

Um - are you talking about the do? Cuz he has .pdf files on the site with scaled pattern pieces.

okegawa dô; four lame nagagawa dô(front)

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dô; four lame nagagawa dô(back)
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dô; five lame nagagawa dô(front)
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dô; five lame nagagawa dô(back)
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them up and cut them out of posterboard, and start taping them together. Trim them if you have to. If you use a removable tape to hold them together while you're fitting, you can then use the posterboard pieces as pattern pieces when it comes time to cut your leather. If it's the sendai-do you're after, the pieces are plates that are not curved at all. This picture
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how the flat plates are cut to fit close to the body.He's got a scale pattern on tehre for one of those too.Really, with careful reading, everything you need to know is on that site.------------------------------------------------------Wendy Z Chicago, IL (Moo)Wench Wear Costumes
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#525 AIM=wendylady525
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"Though she be but little, she is fierce""It's the little ones you have to watch out for...""I'm not short - I'm concentrated"--------------------------------------------------------

Reply to
zski

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