Sharp eyes may have caught this up for preorder already, but for everyone else: I have a new book coming in April! The lovely folks at FanPowered Press saw fit to indulge my interest in glovemaking, as part of their impressive and growing library of cosplay craft books. The market for cosplay crafting content has changed a huge amount since my first book came out five years ago, and many excellent creators have been venturing into the realm of print. So this was a wonderful opportunity to dig in on one of my favorite topics instead of feeling like I had to cover a bit of everything, because I’m in great company these days.

Glovemaking is a fun topic because although it’s a very specialized crafting niche, it’s one that touches nearly every cosplay genre. Superhero comics, historical epics, magical girl shows, high fantasy, and science fiction all feature interesting and specific handwear. I tried to include a little something for everyone in this book, which uses a couple of basic patterns (plus more that you can draft yourself) to create nine totally different looks, ranging from a simple ruffled cuff to a full armored gauntlet. I expect that all the cosplayers out there will immediately strip these projects down to their component parts and run away to make something completely different with them, which is one of the most magical things about cosplay and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

In addition to the projects, I poured in as much information as I could fit about glovemaking materials, hand and machine sewing techniques, useful embellishment methods, fitting and working with glove patterns, and more. There are tips for seamlessly incorporating gloves into bodysuits, for working with tiny pieces and tinier seam allowances, and adding straps and hardware details to your creations. So even if you don’t feel like diving into the full gusseted glove experience just now, I hope you’ll still find plenty of material that’s interesting and relevant to your own projects.

The brilliant Neil Bonabon did the photography for the cover and interior project photos, so I can crow about how beautiful they are because that’s the one bit I didn’t do myself. He’s added elegance and drama to this ambitious little craft book, and I hope you’ll find it as inspiring as I do.

The Handwear Handbook will be available April 25th, and can be preordered now at your local independent bookstore or your favorite online retailer!

Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Bookshop • IndieBound • Powell’s

I’m not the most reliable poster at the best of times, but as it happens I’ve had an extra good reason to be Internet Quiet for the last few months. See, this trio of ridiculously talented makers – Lauren, Sharon Rose, and CutiePieSensei – have been working their behinds off to replicate the Captain Marvel movie suit for the latest Marvel Becoming episode. That’s a major project by itself, so when they wanted to add a certain significant jacket to the ensemble I got called in as reinforcements.

Captain Marvel’s jacket is a pretty accurate rendition of an A-2 flight jacket,* so as I was developing the custom pattern I was able to refer to pictures of actual historical jackets to fill in any gaps in the available references. I did two mock-ups, the first to work out the basic details and proportions and the second as a fitting sample that I sent to CutiePieSensei to try on. With her feedback, I started cutting out the actual jacket.

The jacket was cut from 2.5oz cowhide, which was right about at the limit of what my domestic sewing machines could handle in the number of layers required for this jacket. Skipped stitches were the biggest problem I encountered, followed by feeding issues, and I pulled out the whole bag of tricks to make it work (might do a separate post on that later.) The battle was totally worth it though, as the color variations in the leather (with some strategic cutting) gave me a head start on weathering the jacket and giving it some authentic texture.

One detail that I loved on the historical jackets is the hand-warmer pocket hidden behind the patch pocket – a subtle but very functional detail that makes the jacket feel more real. This was a bit of a trial in the heavy leather, especially the topstitching through approximately a bazillion layers around the pocket outline, but it’s actually pretty straightforward to do as long as you get the pattern and construction order right. I did the pocket portions of the jacket front first, before beginning to assemble the jacket, so that they’d be easy to maneuver through the machine.

The bag for the welt pocket is cut long enough to extend past the far edge of the patch pocket, then fold back on itself to make the inside layer of the pocket. I sewed a patch of leather to the inside of the pocket bag behind where the opening would be, so that the pocket lining isn’t visible in the gap. I sewed the welt pocket up to the point where the pocket bag would be folded back and closed up, then paused and attached the patch pocket to the outside of the jacket. This way, the patch pocket stitching holds the pocket lining in place and keeps it from bunching up inside the jacket, but doesn’t sew the pocket closed. Once the patch pocket and flap were finished I went back and finished off the hand-warmer pocket.

While I was assembling the jacket fronts, I also started painting the jacket back. I drew out the graphic in Illustrator, so I could check placement on the back pattern and resize it as needed. Then I printed out extra copies of the graphic and cut individual stencils for the various elements to copy the shapes onto the jacket back.

I included registration lines on all the individual stencil pieces, to make sure everything would stay lined up and proportioned correctly. I usually mark leather with a silver gel pen, which doesn’t rub off the leather as I’m working but wipes away with a damp towel when I’m done.

I really wanted to emulate the balance of detail and and painterliness in the original graphic, so I freehanded the rest of the design once I had the basic shapes blocked in. The graphic was painted with Angelus leather paints, which are impressively tough and resilient but sometimes required several coats to get good opacity.

There were still a few very fine details missing after two days of painting, but I’d reached the limit of what I could do with my existing brushes and had to go buy a size zero to finish. In the meantime, I started assembling the rest of the jacket.

The assembly of the front zipper/tab/ribbing situation is possibly the trickiest part of sewing a jacket like this, so you might want to pick up a pattern if you want to do this and haven’t made one before. The overlap and underlap sides are a little different, but basically the top outside edges of the tabs are attached to the jacket fronts and the zipper inserted first. Then the ribbing is attached to the tabs, and the ribbing/tab assembly folded in half and attached to the lower edge of the jacket. I was able to complete most of the zipper insertion and attach all of this before the back was actually on the jacket, but waited to topstitch anything until the collar and ribbing were on. The sleeves were inserted just before the lining, as they’re a pretty independent unit that can be assembled separately and just add weight while you’re maneuvering the rest of the jacket around if you attach them too early.

Throughout the construction of this jacket, I had to be pretty ruthless about managing the leather bulk. Sometimes that meant shaving away some thickness behind fold lines or where several layers of seam allowance overlapped; sometimes that meant walloping a fold with a mallet to get a nice crease. As long as you’re careful not to remove too much thickness and weaken the leather, or whack hard enough to break the stitches, it’s really helpful for getting nice crisp seams and edges.

The last finishing touch was the embroidered patches on the sleeve and jacket front. I admit I bought the flag patch; Carol would have done the same. For the nametag patch, I had to learn something new. I drew up a customized interpretation of the pilot wing symbol, with a bitty Captain Marvel emblem in the center. I digitized it myself, (my first digitizing project ever) and it was stitched up on Pitchfork Cosplay’s embroidery machine with lots of handholding from Team Pitchfork. (The finished jacket pictures were also taken on Pitchfork’s dress form.)

I’m pretty darn pleased with the final jacket, though now that I’ve seen the movie I notice I missed a few details (leather facing instead of lining all the way to the zipper; ketchup stain.) It fits a little funny on the dress form since it was cut to fit over the Captain Marvel suit and armor, so you’ll just have to check out the video to see it in action! I’m immensely grateful to the Marvel Becoming team for including me in this project, and just floored by the accomplishment of my fellow makers. Well done, Carol Corps!

*N.B., with apologies to any real A-2 enthusiasts who may find this post – I’m only interested in military fashion to the extent that it makes me feel like a William Gibson character, so my goal with the research was strictly to be true to Captain Marvel’s origin.

My Ciri cosplay from The Witcher 3. All handmade by me, including padded satin stitch embroidery, hand-sewn leather bindings, steel mail, worbla armor, a hand-woven wrist wrap, custom-patterned fingerless leather gloves, the works.

It’s been a long time since I managed any blogging but the workshop is as active (and messy) as ever. I just added a new costume page if you’d like to get an idea of what I’m up to, including some detail photos from my latest cosplay project, Ciri’s alternate outfit from the Witcher 3. I’d like to get around to full writeups of all these costumes eventually, but until then you can keep up with my projects on instagram.

Someday, someday I will have something to wear with them

I’ll get back to the Ezio project grind shortly, but in the meantime I thought I’d do a quick update about what I’m working on now. I recently scored the above bells on ebay, shifting that dream Sabriel cosplay from the “maybe someday” category to “I’d damn well better.” It’s still a long-term goal, especially since she wears a full shirt of scale mail and that sort of thing is neither cheap nor quick to construct, but given that she’s one of the most beloved characters of my childhood and I’ve now acquired the most elusive piece of the puzzle, it’s definitely going to happen someday. I just need to make a nice set of handles and build the bandolier, procure the aforementioned scale mail, and  embroider keys all over a surcoat because this is my preferred method of self-flagellation. In the meantime, feast your eyes on this very respectable rendition.

In the nearer term, I spent the weekend tinkering with a muslin for a sailor scout outfit. Yes, I saw thousands of them at Comic Con. Yes, I am going to join that parade with all expedience and dorky glee. Leaning toward Sailor Mars, but I may need to do Pluto as well. And you can bet that once I get it working I will be making them for ALL MY FRIENDS. Of course, there’s nothing to show off just yet because I did the muslin in unphotographable black. Erm. I tend to work on things in cycles, so this will probably develop in bits and pieces over a long period of time.

There probably won’t be a lot of other sewing happening this week, aside from some work-related stuff that I’ve already committed to, because I’m going all-in on Thanksgiving gluttony. Last year I took it into my head that I needed to singlehandedly prepare an entire Thanksgiving meal, and of course now that I’ve done it once it’s no big deal to do it again, right? Haaaaaaah. So I’m already in the early throes of meal planning, and will hopefully report back with extra smugness once the post-gorge lethargy wears off.

Thanksgiving 2013. Turkey, homemade rolls, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, roasted vegetables, sausage stuffing, gravy, and toasty-but-not-burnt pumpkin pie, all poorly photographed in a small apartment with bad lighting. I assure you it was more delicious than it looks.