Small victories spur me on.
Aug. 18th, 2010 11:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mellymellYesterday was Jonah's first day back at school. He goes two days per week, but we're going to get put on a waiting list for a third (hoping it will help with the last bit of potty training). It was so hard to pull myself out of the reverie in quietude that I didn't really get working until lunch time.
Even still, I managed to finish the cape completely and got the helmet 75% glued together. I also made a list of everything I have left to do. It's a lot when itemized, but I'm still confident and determined. I've got pics of the cape and the progress on the helmet, but I'm not taking time out to post those just yet. Maybe tonight.
Another small victory: the catsuit just arrived. It's perfect! Except it's actually a little too big. Better than being too small, I guess. I ordered the size based on my height, which I guess was good, because the torso is still a tiny bit short and gaps where it stretches over the arch in my back and the space between my ribcage and bust.
I tried it on along with my extra boobs, which are a definite must. I wasn't sure until I tried on the suit without them and the vertical stretch in the torso swallowed my breasts. That just won't do. Not for busty Elseworld Batgirl!
I'm thinking of putting some darts in the back to make it curve more naturally. If I don't get around to that, no biggie. The cape will cover the back most of the time anyway.
There's a lot of extra length in the limbs though and it has a tendency to sag a bit in the arms and legs. The shoulder seems want to creep down my biceps. But these are all minor issues really and I can deal and make alterations later, as I think this one is going to stick around in my active inventory for a little while.
I need to wash it though, because it turned my fingernails a bit black just in trying it on for a bit. It's kind of weird to have a full coverage suit. It's kind of like stepping into a second skin. It'll be better once I cut a face hole.
One hiccup that I think is still fixable: I tried on my helmet and it's not going to work. I still have one seam left to close (the center front) and I don't think I can close it as it stands and still have it fit on my head. It's fine when I get it into place, but getting it onto my head is the problem. I curved the back at the base of the skull inward too much. I think I can pull it apart in the back, glue up the front and then try to re-glue the back to leave it a bit more open so that the angle kind of drops straight down from the back of the head. Sucks because it's backtracking (undoing some of the work I did yesterday), but the whole thing is useless if I can't put it on, so, I'll do what needs to be done. Also sucks because I used E6000 to glue it together and it's really holding well. It guess that's good, but not in this situation.
Well, back to it...
ETA: As I began trying to pull apart the foam and glue and seeing what it was doing to itself (not pretty), I decided to look online and see what I could find in the way of Batman cowls commercially available. Rubies makes a decent looking and decently rated deluxe latex version and for less than $30 shipped, it's worth it to me to set this aside, buy that one and potentially be able to modify it to my needs rather than mess with this thing anymore.
Ah, I feel better already. Estimated delivery 24th-27th. Plenty of time to do what I'll need to do to it (namely cut off everything below the nose and add silver lenses to the eye holes).
ETA2: Wow! It's already shipped! Says estimated delivery August 27th. Kind of pushing it, but still plenty of time to make the couple of changes I'll need to make to it. Not enough time to do anything about it if it won't work for some reason, though.
Even still, I managed to finish the cape completely and got the helmet 75% glued together. I also made a list of everything I have left to do. It's a lot when itemized, but I'm still confident and determined. I've got pics of the cape and the progress on the helmet, but I'm not taking time out to post those just yet. Maybe tonight.
Another small victory: the catsuit just arrived. It's perfect! Except it's actually a little too big. Better than being too small, I guess. I ordered the size based on my height, which I guess was good, because the torso is still a tiny bit short and gaps where it stretches over the arch in my back and the space between my ribcage and bust.
I tried it on along with my extra boobs, which are a definite must. I wasn't sure until I tried on the suit without them and the vertical stretch in the torso swallowed my breasts. That just won't do. Not for busty Elseworld Batgirl!
I'm thinking of putting some darts in the back to make it curve more naturally. If I don't get around to that, no biggie. The cape will cover the back most of the time anyway.
There's a lot of extra length in the limbs though and it has a tendency to sag a bit in the arms and legs. The shoulder seems want to creep down my biceps. But these are all minor issues really and I can deal and make alterations later, as I think this one is going to stick around in my active inventory for a little while.
I need to wash it though, because it turned my fingernails a bit black just in trying it on for a bit. It's kind of weird to have a full coverage suit. It's kind of like stepping into a second skin. It'll be better once I cut a face hole.
One hiccup that I think is still fixable: I tried on my helmet and it's not going to work. I still have one seam left to close (the center front) and I don't think I can close it as it stands and still have it fit on my head. It's fine when I get it into place, but getting it onto my head is the problem. I curved the back at the base of the skull inward too much. I think I can pull it apart in the back, glue up the front and then try to re-glue the back to leave it a bit more open so that the angle kind of drops straight down from the back of the head. Sucks because it's backtracking (undoing some of the work I did yesterday), but the whole thing is useless if I can't put it on, so, I'll do what needs to be done. Also sucks because I used E6000 to glue it together and it's really holding well. It guess that's good, but not in this situation.
Well, back to it...
ETA: As I began trying to pull apart the foam and glue and seeing what it was doing to itself (not pretty), I decided to look online and see what I could find in the way of Batman cowls commercially available. Rubies makes a decent looking and decently rated deluxe latex version and for less than $30 shipped, it's worth it to me to set this aside, buy that one and potentially be able to modify it to my needs rather than mess with this thing anymore.
Ah, I feel better already. Estimated delivery 24th-27th. Plenty of time to do what I'll need to do to it (namely cut off everything below the nose and add silver lenses to the eye holes).
ETA2: Wow! It's already shipped! Says estimated delivery August 27th. Kind of pushing it, but still plenty of time to make the couple of changes I'll need to make to it. Not enough time to do anything about it if it won't work for some reason, though.
