mdb- costumes

m i c h a e l a d e b r u c e ; c o s t u m i n g

body suits

Bodysuit for a Batgirl costume, the rest of the costume wad not made by myself.
The fabric is a metallic print nylon lycra and required much work to find the right combination of needle, thread and sewing machine to sew up. However once this was found sewing commenced easily and went quickly.
The suit required a few extra seams from the standard four panel body suit, which was easily created by cutting at the waist seam then adding tucks from bust point to waist to simulate darting which was seen in the original.
It closes up the back with a long purple invisible zip and I had found the easiest way to insert one of these was to use a piping foot. It means you have control over how close the seam gets to the teeth by opening the teeth up and getting the needle right up to the edge. Of course now that I found a better foot, it is even easier.
The original was made from stretch lame apparently and it is still possible to buy. Other costumers have used the blue and overdyed to a purple, they have kept their method secret however. It may be a mix of acrylic ink and a water base. I have used acrylic paint too overdye polyester quite successfully. This latter method produces subtle shading however unless used on acrylic fabrics (like fur).

dawn, by joseph michael linsner

Not an actual recreation, but a variant of the famous green battle costume. I had planned on a costume done in white but then as I was going through my fabric stash to throw things out I found a length of lycra in a wine red with a really interesting texture. I bought it on a whim several years ago with the intent to remake a Lady M. costume. I had about 5M of it and it was about 150cm wide with 4 way stretch. Perfect for making a body suit. I decided to cut it like a regular suit with seams down the sides and centre front and back then cut the front out. I also cut all the pieces except for the banding around the opening on the bias. This creates an interesting effect with the dappled lines. Initially I wanted to cut it wrong side out as well as it has much more flash but it really did look inside out. So the suit is now right side out as can be seen in the second two images.

poison ivy

After I had dyed my hair a lovely dark red, I finally had an excuse to go to a Halloween party in a costume I was desperate to recreate. Uma Turnman's Poison Ivy 'Day' outfit. Not the Roccoco confection near the end of the movie, not the evening body suit.
I had to use nylon wet look lycra to simulate the latex of the original. Of course, everyone warned me I could not do this.
Me being me set off to prove this wrong, as I had dyed fabrics many times before that weren't supposed to colour.
Not only did the lycra dye, but I got the shading effect I so wanted simply by dipping the fabric in the dyepot that was heated to various temperatures.
I took the pot off the element to cool the dye to create the pale lime green, the darker jungle green was simmering on the stove while I dipped the sleeves and body.
The horns in my hair were created by pinning a hairpiece in the shape of two horns to the crown and wrapping sections from the back left across and over front right, and vice versa for all four directions, this stabilised them so well that I did not fear them falling off.