Friday, July 25, 2014

Retro Catwoman: Part 1: The Shorts

Sometimes it's good to take a break from a project and work on something else. Currently I'm taking a quick break from the Rat Queen costume, and I'm making a quick Catwoman inspired costume. The idea is to create a 50s pinup look, similar (but not identical) to the one I saw in Heroes of Cosplay (side note: I love Harley Quinn's skirt. It's the cutest)
I wanted to make hot pants and a bustier, but to make the styling of the costume rougher, more like a biker girl than a classy Catwoman.

I happened to have the perfect material for this project:
 Presenting what is probably the world's most ugly dress. I found this in New Look during the spring sales. It was a size 18 (UK) pleather tent, and I don't think it would suit anyone, but I figured that there was enough material there to make a dress or a corset, and that buying the dress would be cheaper than buying fabric.

I used a lingerie pattern from Burda style to make the hot pants. The pattern looks a bit like granny pants, but it lends itself surprisingly well to hot pants. It would probably be good for a Wonder Woman costume too.

The pleather is very stretchy so it was perfect for this pattern. I cut out all the pieces, which only used up the front of the dress. Next I sewed the front pieces together. I used a narrow zigzag stitch on almost all the seams, and leather needles just to be on the safe side. I added a side zip (the pattern calls for an invisible zip, but I used what I had). Next I sewed the other side seam, then the crotch seam.

Once I checked that it fitted (it fitted beautifully; Burda patterns have very accurate sizes), I finished the leg holes, then added some elastic to the waistband, and top-stitched it with a narrow zig zag stitch.


These look great on, but off they look a bit crumpled. You'll just have to trust me when I saw the fit is gorgeous; I really recommend this pattern (go look at Burda's website - you'll find it easily).

Next step: the bustier, the cat ears, and the goggles.


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