Happy slow burn update! A big hurdle I've had recently is my shiny new Sailrite sewing machine actually shipped to me with a flaw that somehow missed quality control. We are in the process of sending the unit back to Sailrite for repaires which means no top stitching for leather products any time soon. Darn.
Until then, a couple of other updates:
I was still bothered by the color of the flight suit, the cut of the collar and ultimately it being a one piece verses a two piece. So I seam ripped out the zipper, and sleeve cuffs. Once the garment was prepared, I proceeded to dunk it into a nice steamy polyester dye bath. I used iDye Poly in 462 Silver Grey and it boiled for about 20 minutes. My goal was to add some deepness to the green and cut the yellow qualities of the fabric. The screen used flight suit color is described as: "greyish green." In fact, Emily Swallow herself aided me in this one:
I test swatched several scrap pieces before dying the flight suit itself, I definitely don't recommend attempting to dye fabrics unless you know their fabric composition and its ability to take dye.
Flight suit soup.
The swatch sitting on the flight suit is the original color. You can see the tone a little more true to (real life) color in the skirt photos below.
For the skirt, after mocking it up in muslin, I moved onto leather. The tiered layers are cut from a 3oz hide, and the binding is cut from calfskin. My methodology is a little unique for this skirt. The hide is a chrome tan hide, so the urethane layer was removed from the tiered levels after sewing the binding down.
The binding is sewn down.
The binding was glued down and then glued again under each piece since there is no visible topstitching on each tier of the skirt.
The urethane topcoat was stripped with acetone. Proper respirators and ventilation is absolutely essential when working with solvents.
I then used Tandy Eco-Flo waterstain, touching up areas as needed with Angelus leather paint.
After staining, painting and sealing the leather, I sewed down each tier onto a cotton-stretch underskirt. The pieces move well together between the stretch of the underskirt and the 3oz leather. I will need to wait until my Sailrite sewing machine is repaired in order to work on the tabard portions on the back of the skirt.
I may lighten up the brown tones at a later date, but I'll see how weathering the rest of the costume goes next.
Thanks for following along, until next time.