Wednesday, September 8, 2010

New Sewing Machine Inbound

After Dragon*Con, I have been struck with a new wave of enthusiasm for this Superman Returns costume. One of the things I have wanted to get for many many years is a good serger. This is a type of sewing machine that is essential for sewing stretchy fabrics. I did a little bit of research on the internet, found what appears to be a decent quality entry level machine, and pulled the trigger. It should arrive in about a week.

In preparation for that machine, I am revisiting the body suit pattern I purchased a while back. I'm going to take another stab at doing a test build, but making a lot of mods to the pattern as I go. For example, the zipper will be in the back, the leg seams will only be on the inside, and I will probably move the side seams towards the back a bit. It should be a good exercise for me.

In other pretty exciting news, I heard back from Ricky Broussard about getting some fabric custom printed with my own diamond artwork on it. Basically, it's no problem. It's not cheap, but it's no problem. This is great news. This will allow me not only to get the diamond pattern PERFECT, but I will also be able to include the racing stripes in the fabric. On the screen used suit, these details were all screen printed. My research has shown that this will simply be cost prohibitive for a one off suit. I don't have the means or interest in setting up a screen print shop in my garage, which means I will have to outsource it. Just the setup costs for an oversized screen will run me many hundreds of dollars. At this point, I am willing to sacrifice a tiny bit of screen used accuracy if it will go virtually unnoticed to even the most sophisticated observer.

Overall, a really great day, and I'm very happy with the prospect of getting the fabric printed by Ricky. I am also pretty sure I know which blue I'm going to go with for the body suit. The color is VERY close in match to the screen used fabric, though not perfect. But it's the closest I've found. It's also a very nice fabric that has a nice feel to it. I think it will work out great.

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