More updates and a how to....
I got some tackle twill from BatNinja. And I will say this right up front, what he charges for his flak vest is simply not enough. If I were doing a Boba Fett build for myself, I'd buy from him for sure. Creating a vest, while doable, is incredibly time consuming for a sewing hack like me. With screw ups etc. it took me about 5 hours to put a vest together for my son. The neck seal should have taken only an hour or so, but the closure on it has been tough.
Photobucket isn't being nice yesterday and today, so I'll see if I can get some pics and links. Hopefully this goes okay.
Anyway, here's the final flak and neck seal. I'll probably have him wear the seal "backwards". I think it looks better that way. I couldn't figure out a good closure and ended up just doing an overlap with 3 squares of velcro.
Tutorial.
The only thing I don't like about the current neck seals is no pleating. There are clearly pleats on the neck seal. I don't think that can be disputed. Sewing puffy lines through the fabric and batting inside is a decent, and fast, way to simulate the pleating. The thing I couldn't figure out is how the seal closes. So I'm sure there's a better way than this, but here is how to get pleats for your neck seal.
First off, take your neck size and add 4 or 5 inches. The more you add, the looser, and nicer, the fit. To me, the seal looks like 3/4" pleats. I did mock ups with 1" pleats and it just doesn't look right to me. Here's how I did mine.
I cut out a rectangle of 22" (loose 18" neck) by 16 inches. The pleats themselves are going to take up 10 1/4".
I marked both sides at 5" and overlapped it, creating the first "peak" of the top pleat. I pinned that in place. Then I took my iron (set to 3) and steam and pressed the top pleat. Nice and crisp.
I went back to the Alvin board (get one if you don't have one. It's great for every project) and made 3 marks every 3/4" from the top pleat. The first mark will be where the second pleat has to end up. The second mark (not really necessary) is the valley fold, and the 3rd mark is the peak fold of our next pleat. Here's a pic:
Pin the second pleat and fold/crease it.
Take it to the ironing board. It should look like this:
I fold the top pleat "under" to get the 2nd pleat onto the board itself. Then I press the second pleat with the steamy iron. Once that is crisp, I move the first pleat back into position, then I fold and line up the 2nd pleat with the mark on both sides. I remove the pin and pin the second pleat to the first. Then I press both pleats and valley pleats. (flipping it over). Here's a pic:
(photobucket is being an absolute tool the past couple of days. I hope to get the photos rotated correctly, someday. Damn you photobucket. They have no problem serving up the ads though. My god)
Then you go back to the Alvin and mark your 3 dashes from the top of the second pleat on both sides. Pin and crease on the 3rd mark.
Then you fold under pleat 1 and 2, and press the 3rd pleat. Line the 3rd pleat up with the mark at the bottom of pleat 2, pin to pleat 2, and press all pleats. Repeat until you have 5 pleats. It really doesn't take that long.
Here's all 5 pleats pressed and pinned and ready to sew. Line up the part you folded over with each edge as that's going to be sewn in to create a pocket.
Here's where I get lost, and where someone who knows what they are doing would probably do better.
I sewed the pleats together:
With all the strings hanging off, I probably should have folded that under and hemmed it. I end up having to do that later.
Here it is flipped over and you can see the pocket that was created by sewing the pleats to the flipped part.
Finally, fill the back pocket with batting and sew the pocket shut.
I have a lot of pics of where I sewed in the velcro etc., but I hated it. If I have it in front, I couldn't really look down as the velcro would push on my neck. I could wear it in back.
I finally went with 3 squares of velcro and an overlap. The dickie I tried to put on is horrible. I may have to look up a how to.
Here is the velcro before:
VERY STIFF.
Here's the velcro after with only 3 squares.
That isn't stiff at all. I'll probably have him wear it in back anyway.