Right, I may as well start posting, if only to resuscitate the thread.
Overall - Costume (custom sized)
Pros - Cosplaysky did a pretty good job with MOST the details on the costume, and got my measurements right - except the waist of the paints. One thing I wish they would do is switch up the fabric to something that looks more like... fabric. A twill polycotton would be ace.
Cons - Things I didn't like - lining the costume. Yes, yes, it gives a nice finish but let's be real. I have NEVER been to an event that wasn't heated comfortably, i.e. hot as blazes to anyone in more than a long sleeve shirt and jeans. And their lining is the usual slutty polyester stuff, so it sticks to you when you sweat. Also, the star is too heavy and needs backing to support it, and a corner of the star had punched a hole in the stretch fabric it lies on - I need to patch that. Lastly, the "kneepads and elbow pads" were huge wads of stuffing that felt weird and tend to want to slide away from the point of my elbow or knee, like I was trying to wear a round plushy on my joints.
Without further ado, here is me working over the Cosplaysky Civil War suit.
Stage 1 - Pants
With the waist band being the same size measurement of my hips (their custom sizing screw up), I had to add darts in the back. Also - LINING. So unnecessary.
Deconstruction - I took out the waistband and hems, pulled out the lining fabric and pulled apart the inner leg seams so I could work in the flat. What I saw was that Cosplaysky uses really cheap and nasty open cell foam to do the raised details of the costume. I felt the raised details weren't crisp enough and pulled out the foam which pretty much disintegrated anyway. Note - inner materials - not great quality. I also pulled off the horrible stuffed knee-pads, I loathed them. I got enough stuffing out of them to do two major muscle groups on the Cap muscle suit I was building.
Sizing - I put two big darts in the back of the pants to bring the waist to something approximating my own. Accordingly, I cut down the massive waistband, and put some elastic in the rear waistband where no one would see for general comfort when bending over or whatnot.
Detail work - I used a pre-washed and flattened felt to rework raised details. The felt is just under a half centimetre. I used felt instead of Eva foam because... well there was no good reason. I had it, it's washable, it worked, being flexible. I cut the shapes, used some glue stick to help position and stick them under the fabric, placed some scrap fabric under the felt, and top-stitched around the shape as close as possible with my zipper foot.
Note - the original detailing on the leg wasn't big enough. You can see the stitch holes where it used to be.
Tip - when you have obnoxious stitch holes visible in a costume, your friend is your iron, steam and a spoon. Or your fingernail. Steam the fabric at whatever your fabric can handle, and use your spoon edge to rub and tease the stitch marks, going with the weft, and then the warp. You can ease them smaller or even invisible. Steam it again, iron it, boom, no stitch marks. I have been using this technique on the stomach of the Cap costume, but haven't done the leg details yet, as seen above.
Knee Pads - Didn't take any pics during the making but I did take some of the elbows, which I still haven't installed. The process was similar - I used some eva foam for floor tiles to make the knees. Using a matting cutter that cuts at 45 degree angle, I was able to give the knees the cup shape. Note - the floor tile I used had a tatami mat pattern on one side, which is what you see in the pics. I used Masters to glue the pieces together.
Elbow pads
Tatami mat eva foam knee pads, aren't they odd.
Screw - up - I LOST one of the material pieces for the knee pads that I'd ripped off originally, and I had to cover my eva foam pads with a navy blue vinyl. Glue, cover, turn edge under and then hand sew to the stretch knit over the knee on the pants. It felt strange having the knee pad floating around over the stretch knit - probably because the knit isn't THAT stretchy, so I chopped it out. Made it feel much better when kneeling and moving.
And that was about it for the pants, until I add snaps or whatever to help connect the top part of the costume to the bottom.
The knee pads, in spite of having to use the vinyl cover instead of the original fabric, turned out well, they are bit flexible and pretty comfortable. And I was glad to test out the felt detail stuff on the bottom of the costume, since doing the top was up next.
Next - Detailing (and correcting the detailing) on the stomach of the Cosplaysky costume.
