advice on Loki costume

[polishanarchy]

Hi, I'm new to these forums. For Halloween this year I'm planning on putting together a Loki costume for myself and a Sif costume for my girlfriend based off of Marvel's Thor movie. I was wondering if anyone here had any suggestions as to what I might be able to use for the main element of Loki's costume, which as far as I can figure is a kind of surcoat. I'm going off of his outfit in the earlier parts of the movie:

I've been trying to take apart the costume by drawing it out, and the surcoat part or whatever I should be calling it seems like the hardest part. I'd greatly appreciate any advice! Thank you,

polishanarchy

 

[TheManBat]

For starters, be extremely tall. I recommend leg extension surgery.

 

[fleefromme]

better pics will help with figuring out what the material is.

 

[troopermatthew]

The DVD is out Monday (in the UK anyway) so that should give better pictures. Shame you arnt doing the King Loki outfit as I have been researching that for months and am about to start that myself.

Here are a few better pictures though

 

[polishanarchy]

Thank you so much! Believe it or not the pictures I'm using are snapshotted from my copy of the DVD...

That third picture is really great especially I think. But note that pictures 2 & 5 are actually a different outfit that he wears early in the movie when they return to Asgard, before he changes into his armor. Thanks again!

Here's a couple more pictures taken from the movie--

 

[troopermatthew]

Thank you so much! Believe it or not the pictures I'm using are snapshotted from my copy of the DVD...

That third picture is really great especially I think. But note that pictures 2 & 5 are actually a different outfit that he wears early in the movie when they return to Asgard, before he changes into his armor. Thanks again!

Here's a couple more pictures taken from the movie--

Yep, you're right lol! That was me rushing a reply before I had to catch a bus :angel

FREE BUMP

 

[polishanarchy]

Yep, you're right lol! That was me rushing a reply before I had to catch a bus :angel

FREE BUMP

It's all good. And thanks! Hey, we should compare once we've put together our different Loki outfits.

Does anyone have any ideas about the material? I've wanted to say some kind of leather but I'm really new at this kind of thing. Should I be trying to find something I can buy and alter, or should I make it from scratch? Any direction would be extremely helpful. Thank you!

 

[polishanarchy]

I don't like to bump a thread especially as a new member here, but I just wanted to try one more time and see if anyone has any advice before giving up on here. Since I like this forum though even if there's no advice I'll probably come back when my costume's finished to post pictures. Thanks,
polishanarchy

 

[Eveningarwen]

You're definitely looking at leather for parts of it. You could probably use pleather if you're on a budget. This is definitely a custom job. I can't think of anything you could buy that could be altered. I'd try to focus on one element of the costume and get that really good and then simplify everything else until you have more time to work on the rest. For example get his coat done really well and just wear some black pants. It's long and I think he wears boots so the pants wont be seen all that much. Heavy canvas or cotton like materials could work for the simple black parts. As for the textured black that involves going to fabric stores and hunting out unique fabrics. Also the armor part you could either do your own resin castings and paint silver (the design itself is simple) and then glue it to your fabric. I believe there are also nail or screw heads in those silver rectangles that you may want to find clock parts or something like that and stick in the resin so it looks like it's been nailed to the garment.

Honestly there are lots of things that could be done with this costume but others are probably not responding because there isn't much to respond to. If you were trying to put something together and had a hard time and had pictures of what you're attempting members could help guide you but......it's pretty hard to tell you exactly how to build an entire costume in a thread post.

I hope that some of the info I gave you was helpful and the best thing you can do is search around on the RPF to see if anyone else has attempted aspects of Loki or costumes similar to his that you can get ideas from. I would look up Star wars costumes as you could probably alter some of that stuff (pattern wise) and use similar build techniques.

 

[fleefromme]

i dont know much about sewing, so im not much help there. i would suggest getting as many angles as u can to help you figure out the composition of the costume. to me his top looks like a single piece, but layered. instead of finishing the costume and then posting pic, you should post progress pic when ever u have them. never give up! never surrender.

 

[Eveningarwen]

Also look up Matrix costumes....those have a similar feel to the very first pic you posted. There might be something there that can give you ideas of how to create this/what to use.

 

[polishanarchy]

Thank you guys! That's very helpful. And I'll post progress pics then when this gets rolling! Thanks for the specific direction, Eveningarwen.

fleefromme, that is absolutely my favorite quote. And I agree that it seems like a single piece.

I'm really excited to get this going. I'm hoping I can acquire most of the materials at fabric store locally...either way, we'll see. I might start by putting up some of the sketches I've been working on so I can piece this together.

Thanks again for the replies!

 

[fleefromme]

subscribed! i thought it was appropriate.

 

[Eveningarwen]

I actually feel like there is at least 2 pieces....the jacket and a vest. But that's going off of the first pic you posted and it's a bit dark. I only mention because of the front closure of the outer jacket and then the criss crossing under vest that expands below front of the jacket. And if something is "layered" looking it's usually actually layered at least a bit. But you could probably make it work as a one piece. Now I feel the need to watch Thor and check out his costume. I love Loki by the way.

 

[polishanarchy]

Loki is definitely my favorite character. I can see what you mean, and I think having some actual layering would work but I'm going to try to get a lot of it in one piece if I can. I already know I'm going to be wearing a sweater underneath (he has a kind of double-collar thing and the inside layer looks like a sweater I used to have).

Anyway, I revised my initial sketches to something like this. I'm really sorry for the quality--I can scan once I get my new printer up and running. For this sketch I omitted the "sweater" part, the gold plate with the pad-type-thing underneath (I haven't figured out what I'll use for that but it looks sort of thick), and all the arm stuff. And his legs. etc.

edit: I think the part that crosses from the left (our left) to the right side could potentially be a kind of strap (velcro?) where it "opens," so to speak. I'll try to unfold the whole thing in another sketch.

 

[Eveningarwen]

see to me it looks like there would be an under jacket that would consist of the jacket skirt, probably the actual long sleeves and the under criss crossing section with v point in the middle. Then the outer criss crossing, the cut up sleeves, the collar and the crossing hip flap things would be some pieced together '"cut out" jacket on top. And then under those two you could wear the sweater. Even in your drawing you drew that center line on the outer criss cross which to me signals an opening. The "under jacket looks like it would close on the "wearers" right side. (almost like a double breasted vest but going even farther across.

Again I know you want to make it one piece and if you can then great but as a seamstress that's probably how I would break this costume down. Totally not telling you how you should do it though, just thought I'd share how I would do it in case it helps in the future.

Sigh....the more I look at this the more I want to do a Loki costume for my fiance lol. I wish he were tall so I could.

 

[polishanarchy]

I might actually go with two pieces now. It makes more sense (and my girlfriend likes that idea more). Thanks!

 

[fleefromme]

its a 2 piece. shoulders got me confused.