I need to finish this piece by completing the top seam, and then adding some Velcro here and there…
First, the top is prepped by removing some of the batting…
Which enabled me to properly fold over and pin the top hem…
Which was then sewn closed…
I’ll then need to add a strip of loop Velcro across the top of the Codpiece…
This will connect to some hook Velcro at the bottom of the front of the Vest…
The loop Velcro has been attached to the top of the Codpiece…
I also made some marks across the middle of the Codpiece where the Belt rests. This is where I need to attach some hook Velcro to help support the Belt assembly…
To try and get the final details as accurate as possible, I printed out a 1:1 copy of the bottom portion…
I cut the chevron part out…
Then, applied it to my pattern…
And, sewed a test into my test piece. Looks good, to me…
So, I cut a new piece of paper to create a new pattern piece…
Traced and cut out the bottom portion…
Marked where the top of the chevron should go…
And ended up with my new template…
A new piece of foam was traced and cut out…
Test fitting the foam…
Since I’m having to use two layers of batting, I decided to sandwich the foam in between them. This should help cut down on any sharp edges of the foam showing through the white material…
I’ll just lightly coat both sides with the spray adhesive…
The foam, sandwiched in…
The Codpiece was then turned right side out…
The results, so far…
To finish up, I need to stitch in the chevron. So, I’ll use my last template to mark the first one…
The template in the correct position…
I then traced the edge…
To give me a guideline…
The first line was sewn…
Then, the second line was sewn about 1/4 of an inch above the first…
I then took a rough measurement to the bottom of the back of the Vest, and marked the elastic. I’ll need to add some Velcro here…
And, another piece at the bottom of the Vest…
Here, the loop side has been added to the bottom of the Vest…
And the hook side is attached to the elastic strapping…
This part will require creating a pattern, I need to press some pattern paper…
This should be big enough…
To get the basic shape and measurements, I’m using this PDF file that I found on the Pathfinders Forums…
My first rough sketch…
I cut out the template and held it up against the existing parts. It’s a big narrow…
So, I tried beefing it up a bit…
The second one looks a lot better…
I’ll mark this one as a success, for now…
The pattern I just created is for the visual part, so I’ll need to add the correct amount of edge for the seam…
I’ll be adding 7/8 of an inch to try and attain a 5/8 inch seam, and help allow for the thickness of the batting…
Here, the new pattern ans been drawn out…
And marked as “final” so it doesn’t get lost in the shuffle…
The CRL calls for “polished cotton” for this piece. I’ll be using the white “batik cotton” that I picked up at my local Hobby Lobby…
The final pattern pinned to the cloth…
The final pattern drawn onto the cloth…
Beginning to cut…
Pattern pieces cut…
For the batting, I just used the original pattern piece before the edges were added…
The pattern was pinned to the batting…
And the batting was cut to size…
The Codpiece parts were pinned…
And sewn…
Here, the sides and bottom have been sewn, leaving the top seam open…
Before I go any further, I want to make sure I tackle one of the issues that seems to plague this part of the costume; the dreaded “crotch crunch”. There are several methods used to combat this, so I’m going to do a little experiment to see what works best for me…
I marked up a small sample of the Codpiece cloth…
I sewed it and cut a piece of batting that fits inside…
This basically simulates a plain Codpiece…
And, you can see how easily the bottom area can “crunch”…
One method I’ve seen used is to add some thin foam. So I’ll be trying some of this 3mm foam sheet…
I cut a piece to fit in the bottom of the Codpiece…
What it looks like, at rest…
And, what it looks like, under stress. It seems to eliminate the “crunch”…
So, let’s take this a bit further. I want to see if this should just be free floating, or if it can actually be sewn through…
I did a quick sew of the crescent design, aiming JUST above the foam insert…
This gives undesirable results, as you can see…
So, I tried sewing down further, so there wouldn’t be a loose edge floating around…
The back didn’t look too good…
But the front didn’t look too bad…
And, no “crunch”. I may be on to something here…
While I’m processing the “crunch” solutions, I’m going to get the actual Codpiece ready. I need to attach the two inch elastic strapping. This originates at the center of the bottom…
I marked the area where it needs to go…
Then removed that part of the seam…
The elastic was slipped in…
And the seam was resewn…
Then, the raw edge of the elastic was zigzag stitched to keep it from fraying…
Back to the experiment. I wanted to test using adhesive to hold the foam piece in place…
This seems to work, but it is messy, and the adhesive seeps through. I think this may be overkill…
