here goes guys, the first of what will probably be many incremental updates over the next few weeks of a new flightsuit i'm working on, and will hopefully be able to make available soon.
here's the standard front/sides/back. as you can see i've decided to go with a two-piece flight suit rather than the accurate one-piece coverall. my decision for that is the increased comfort and mobility of the two-piece. i've worn a one-piece flightsuit on my boba and a two-piece with jango for years now (both based on Kwik Sew pattern 3389), and despite the fact that neither flightsuit were the best tailored, i found the two-piece of the jango a much more comfortable fit. the flight suit i'll be making will be based very loosely on the 3389, but with many modifications.
here are the front and back seams on the double sleeve. this muslin is pretty translucent, so the details of the seam are a bit lost, but the seam that run along the front of the arm are folded up, creating the seam in the correct direction. again, difficult to see with the white on white, but the accurate top stitching along the seam is present along with the four top stitched rows at the hem of the short sleeve.
here's a problem that i'm seeing: the back of the arm seam isn't back far enough. i will make a note of that, and adjust for it. i am happy with the placement of the front seam, however, pretty sure i nailed that. i'd also like to note: using a better fabric than cheap muslin will create more texture and fabric depth at the seams in the finished product.
i plan on using 1/4" elastic in the "waistband" of the flightsuit, similar to the fold of elastic used on the original costume (starting with the supertrooper and used on all the various versions of the costume). that elastic will hold the waistband tight to the wearers torso, and have an appearance similar to screen accurate. i skipped that step on this prototype simply because i didn't have any elastic handy for the job.
here at the cuff, i had to put in a relief slit to allow my hands to fit due to how form fitted the sleeve are. this was used in the original costumes as well, though it was more constructed, and lacked the simple elegance of a single line of serging. this part of the costume isn't very obvious to the casual observer since the cuffs will probably be hidden by the gauntlets, so i probably won't change that part of the design even though i'm going to rework the sleeve pattern to put the seams in the right place. that seems like a huge amount of R&D for something that won't ever be seen. however, i am aware there are supposed to be four top stitched lines at the cuff, and those will be present in my final product.
finally, the front closure. i went with 2" velcro because that's what i had on hand at the moment. if i go with a velcro closure in the final product i'll used a 2" loop and 1" hook. i think that will help reduce bulk in the area while allowing for a bit of adjustment, in case of fat days. also, i've put zippers in jackets before, and it's awful, and zippers are expensive. so in homage to Alan Harris and the first Supertrooper, here comes the smolder.
so what do you guys think so far? are there any details i've missed? any decisions that are offensive to boba fett and mandos everywhere? tell me what you think, and stay tuned to this thread. i've made a pair of trousers for the suit, but i wasn't happy with them at all. so i'm not showing those off, and unfortunately, making the wrong pants has put me out of muslin. there will be a trip to joann fabric for me in the next few days to resupply. in the meantime, that will give me the chance to study the pants, figure out what went wrong, and make pattern adjustments before trying again.
