#buttbuttandchiselchest

the under-tunic is made from a heavier knit fabric (possibly a doubleknit idk i didnt check the label when i bought it lmao) with the hood and bottom half of the sleeves being a t-shirt weight waffle knit. the hood is also lined with the heavier knit fabric of the body so its more structured. the waffle-knit part of the sleeves are pleated and have a zipper sewn in the top (becuz the waffle knit was being a butt and kept stretching itself out so i needed something to stabilize the seam with and i only had black piping or zippers and i wanted the buttons on the side of the belt/corset thingy to not look out of place by being the only non-black part). i used a kimono-sleeved pattern i already had for the undertunic but altered it to have the points in front/back and longer sleeves so i could put the pleats in. i also took in the waist a bit. the hood i kinda just made up on the fly- i knew i wanted more of a cowl-type look that a regular hood so i traced the hood of a sweatshirt i own and then altered it from there, making the back more rounded and adding the cowl part to the front. the neck opening ended up being a bit of a tight fit- i cant put it over my head without taking off my glasses first lol- but thats probaby cuz i didnt clip the seam allowance. i wanna try getting my serger to work (havent used it since my mom sent it to me and i was in a hurry to get this done so i skipped that step) and just serge off the excess instead of clipping it.

the shoulder armor + belt thing is made from ridged faux leatherthat kind of has a foam-like texture and was surprisingly easy to sew on. the points at the shoulders ended up being kind of floppy, but again, i was in a hurry so i didnt fix that yet. i think im gonna just interface a piece of black and then whip-stitch it to the underside to make the points stiffer. hopefully that will keep them from sagging so much. i made the belt thingy using a waistband pattern i already had, but added to the top and bottom to make it wider. it ended up being too big in the hips to fit snugly cuz i didnt alter the angle of the side seams at all to compensate for the extra inch or so i added to top n bottom. it still looks ok tho when i wear it so im not gonna mess with that part. the design is black trim that i zig-zag machine stitched on and i kinda just pulled the design off of the top of my head cuz i thought just a top/bottom border would be too simple. because of that i ran out of trim to do all the edges of the shoulder armor so i gotta buy some more at some point to finish that.

the fabric over the faux leather armor is the same waffle knit i used on the hood and the sleeves. the upper part is pleated but not lined (shoulda lined it cuz it keeps stretching out but oh well i dont wanna take the time to fix it lmao) and the bottom part is lined with the heavy knit i used on the under-tunic body.

the belt thing is secured on the left side with four 1/2-inch gold metal shank buttons and some elastic loops.

the bottom part of the armor comes to just below my knees, with the points of the inder-tunic hitting mid-knee and the sides ending just below my pelvis. i think my favorite part of this costume is the fact that the under-tunic is simple enough-looking to be worn separately as a sweatshirt-dress thing without it looking like im wearing a costume piece ;p i plan on taking full advantage of that and possibly using the pattern to make myself another one that isnt so over-sized :33