Documenting My Journey to Becoming Boba Fett
The Velcro strip that holds the Codpiece seems to be a bit low, causing the Codpiece to sit lower than it should…
Here’s the original positioning of the Velcro…
After a quick test fit, it seems the Velcro just needs to come up a little bit…
I then ripped out the stitches…
And pinned the Velcro in its new position…
Then it was sewn onto the Vest…
And, here’s the new position of the Velcro…
The Vest seems a bit loose, so I’m going to attempt to alter the fit…
I made some new measurements…
And then transferred them to the sides of the Vest…
I then ripped out the side seams…
Remarked the seams, and pinned them in place…
After sewing the new seams…
The sleeve actually has a small part at the bottom now. This should hopefully help keep the Shoulder Armor strap in place…
The resized Vest…
Last bits…
I need to finalize the neckline. Now that I have the Chest Armor done, I used it to create a rough outline of the new neckline…
The original pattern neck band is pretty small, so I’ll be making mine a bit longer…
I folded the Vest down the center, and secured it with safety pins…
And, then made the cut. Fingers crossed…
I guess that looks ok?
The neckband is pinned into place…
Of course, I came up short, so I had to get creative. I’ll be adding an extension piece to each side at the back of the Vest…
I created a small fold on one end, which help hide the extension seam…
The extensions were then pinned into place…
Then, the excess was removed…
Then, the neck band was sewn. Not bad for a novice…
Next is adding the two inch Velcro closure…
In order to have it close right over left, the hook side should go on the outside of the left panel…
The hook side Has been sewn…
The loop side should go on the inside of the right panel…
The loop side pinned…
The loop side sewn…
We now have a fully functioning Vest closure…
And, the finished Vest (I hope)…
Getting closer…
The sides seams have now been brought in just a bit…
Now, I need to determine the bottom hem…
I drew a straight line where I’ll need to make my cut…
And, then cut off the excess material…
The bottom hem was folded over and pinned so it could be sewn…
The bottom of the Vest has been hemmed…
I finished it with a nice double stitch, even though it won’t be visible…
Maybe this is it?
A quick test fit, and it looks to finally be correct!
I’m now going to stitch up the sides…
Right side pinned and ready to be sewn…
And, the left side pinned…
Both side seams, sewn…
Another test fitting with the Flight Suit and the Vest. It still looks pretty good. However, it seems I need to take in the side seams a bit to make the Vest better fitting. And, while trying to juggle holding all of the parts together to take this pic, I dropped my Back Armor (breaking it into three pieces) and it will now require some repair work…
A quick sketch of where I need to bring in the seam…
I then transferred the measurements to the other side…
Time to assemble…
Before I can begin assembly, I have to remove the last remnants of the old sleeve…
The old sleeve, all removed.
I then pinned up the first sleeve to be sewn…
The first piece sewn into place.
Then, the second seam was pinned up…
And sewn…
That’s two seams down, which means one sleeve is now fully in place…
The third seam pinned up…
And sewn into place…
And, finally the last seam pinned up…
Now, both sleeves are attached…
I feel like I’ve been here before…
I separated out the two sleeves, and then marked the seam lines for the edge…
The edge seam was then sewn.
Both sleeves, with the edge seam sewn…
The seams were first pressed flat.
Then, the inside seam gets pressed “open” so that the batting is easier to apply all of the way to the edge…
Both sleeves with the inside seams pressed…
Then, those seams need to be pressed flat again. So to help keep them crisp, I pin them in place first, and then iron them flat…
Cutting some new pieces of batting…
The batting is cut along the edge so it matches…
Then, the batting is inserted and pinned along the edge to make sure it stays in place…
The center stitch line done…
And, unpinned…
The first half of the ribs done. With the curved edge, it makes it a bit more tricky to try and keep the stitches properly aligned to the one inch required size…
the first sleeve, done…
Cutting the batting for the second sleeve…
The center stitch line pinned…
The center stitch line, done…
And, finally, all of the ribs done on the second sleeve…
Time to do a test fit…
I donned the vest and tested the fit with a Shoulder Armor Piece (sorry for the poor image quality as I’m trying to shoot it using a mirror). The new sleeve is short. It also seems to start at the correct place, but instead of going straight around my arm, it angles up, then angles back down…
I decided to try adding some sleeve, using the sleeve parts I made for the first version of the Vest.
This may work…
I’ll need to try and connect the old piece of sleeve to the new.
I ripped enough of the seam to the point where I think the pieces will connect…
Now, I need to figure out where to make the new seam…
I just kind of eyeballed a curve…
And, then cut it…
Now, to align the extra piece with the sleeve ribs, and have the proper amount of sleeve left showing below the Should Armor. Way easier said than done…
I pinned it up…
Then, tried it on. Something’s not right, now it’s way too long?
To help get a better idea, I went ahead and put the Flight Suit on, then added the Vest. The fit is a lot better…
The Vest seems to be a lot better, but I’m not 100% happy with the way the shoulder part “flares” when the Shoulder Armor is in place. It just doesn’t seem to fit correctly. Plus, “m not really liking the look of the two piece sleeve. It just looks “off” to me…
I’m thinking I just need to scrap this and try for a single piece sleeve…
I got out the black material, and stacked up four new pieces…
I’ll cut new sleeve parts, but modify the edge…
New sleeve parts, cut…
To get the correct edge, I’m going to use the two piece sleeve I created…
Figuring out the new cut line, allowing for the 5/8 seam…
The new cut line…
I cut the material, so there’s no going back now…
Time to assemble the pieces…
I pinned up the left sleeve to the back.
Then it was sewn.
Looks pretty good.
Then, the other side of the left sleeve was pinned to the front.
And, sewn, using a heavy duty stitch…
The left sleeve, completed…
The right sleeve was then pinned to the front and sewn…
And, finally the other side of the right sleeve was pinned to the back and sewn…
The right sleeve attached…
Both sleeves now finished…
The duck cloth tends to come unraveled the more you mess with it…
To help stop this, I decided to run a small hem along the raw edges of the back pieces. Here, the hem is pinned…
Then I made sure it was the same width from the top to the bottom…
And ran it through the sewing machine…
The result… A nice tidy edge…
The same process was repeated for the other side…
Then, to simulate the back closure, I pinned it together with a two inch overlap…
On to the next sleeve…
The next two pieces were sewn together, to get ready for the padding process.
The batting, put into position.
I then trimmed the batting.
I marked the line for the first run.
Then, the pieces were all pinned in place…
The first line, done…
Half of the lines done…
All of the lines on the second sleeve have been sewn…
The sleeves, pinned into place…
The vest sides, pinned into place…
Using a hot iron to “erase” the white crayon marks…