While watching Into the Spider-Verse I noticed the Peter B Parker Spider-Man had a very similar body type to my son (lean with a big gut). Since he loves Spider-Man, I decided to make him an early Halloween costume based off the movie, but chances are he'll out grow it before next month.

Ended up being a lot more work than I thought it would be as I incorporated some things I've never done before. This was my first time recording most of the process and it ended up taking more time than I imagined. Also, probably should've started working on it before the last week. haha

I attached a time-lapse of the project that reduced 15 hrs of footage to 11 minutes.

Step 1: Find Reference

Here's where you collect as many images of your character, so you can make your costume as accurately as possible.

Step 2: Drafting Your Patterns

STEP 1:

Start with your basic block. If you don't have one find or buy a spandex onesie you can take apart and trace the pattern out on.

STEP 2: Draw your cut lines onto the block. I like keeping a blueprint of the design, so I trace the pattern pieces onto a separate sheet of paper and add on the seam allowance. This method takes longer but keeps you more organized. You always have something to refer back to, in case you lose a pattern piece or forget to label/notch a piece. If you're in a hurry or this is a one-time use project, feel free to just cut the pieces out directly and tape additional paper onto the borders for seam allowance. DON'T FORGET TO LABEL YOUR PATTERN PIECES. A general rule is 1/2" all around and 1/4" on inclosed seams like necklines and cuffs. Those guidelines can change based on your design or if you're from a different country.

STEP 3: True up your patterns. Truing up your patterns or walking them is the process of aligning pieces that will be sewn together to check if they will sew together correctly. It allows you to see if you have an excess length on one pattern piece or not. If you do, then you're going to have to correct it, either by increasing the length on the opposing pattern piece or by finding the difference between the two. During this part, you also want to notch your pattern pieces. Notching is the act of putting visual registration marks on your pattern piece, so when you go to sewing it, you have indicators to align the seams. When you're done, it should look something like the picture with all the pattern pieces laid out on the floor.

Step 3: Creating Cut Files

STEP 1:

Scan the pattern pieces that need to have make "S" patterns and webbing on.

STEP 2:

Bring your scans into Adobe Illustrator or any program that can create cut files for your cutting machine. Draw out all the webbing patterns with the brush tool, expand it, and clean up the excess before you merge the paths. (Photo 1)

STEP 3:

Make the "S" pattern a tileable swatch and fill a rectangle with the new pattern. Expand it and remove the clipping mask. Go in and remove all the areas where the swatch pattern overlap, because the "S" patterns are all split where it overlaps. (Photo 2)

STEP 4:

Make a giant sheet of the textile pattern and cut it out of your pattern piece using the pathfinder tool. Do this to all your pattern pieces. (Photo 3 & 4)

STEP 5:

If the textile print is too large you'll have to split the pattern piece. Cut it with the pathfinder tool. (Photo 5)

STEP 6:

Lay out your cutting markers so you don't waste material. (Photo 6)

Step 4: Cutting & Weeding

STEP 1:

Send your cut files to your printer.

STEP 2:

Weed out the items you don't need.

Step 5: Cut Out All Your Fabric Pieces

Use whatever you're comfortable with, rotary blade or scissors and cut away.

Step 6: Apply the Iron-On Vinyl to the Fabric

STEP 1:

Apply the "S" pattern on the fabric first. Probably best to get a Cricut Easypress if you plan to do this often. Since this was my first time using the fusible vinyl, I just stuck to a regular iron. Using an iron didn't give me consistent results and I found myself going back to iron parts back on.

STEP 2:

Apply the Web pattern on the fabric with the "S" pattern already fused on it. I found baking parchment works great for placing your weeded sheets on. The adhesive doesn't stick to it so you can easily piece patterns together.