Today I’ll go over Part II of my Ariel tutorial. Part I can be found here.

Last week you found a few reference photos or stills that showed the entire outfit head to toe, back to front, right? Good.

Hopefully you have your coveralls. If you’re having trouble locating some, hit the surplus stores for old military ones like mine, try a feed or outdoors store, a nearby uniform supplier, or hit the internet. Too big isn’t a problem, you can always take it in. Like me!

First things first, wash them. Adjust the size to a comfortable fit. Fitted isn’t necessary since it will be covered by an EMS vest. *chalks, pins, and sews* I shortened the waist and crotch, took in the sides and legs, and resized the zipper.

Get your reflective tape ready. I used 1in tape. Why? Reflective fabric trim was hard to find locally. The tape was cheaper online than the trim was. This means laundering my costume is problematic but not impossible. I haven’t had the tape pull away from the material yet. *crosses fingers*

The stills show trim down each arm and around each leg just below the knee. One strip across each back pocket. I recommend at least three rolls (40in ea.) per costume to allow for placement errors (please measure to be sure). The vest should have all its reflective trim already on it. Pin and stitch the trim or mark the fabric and place the tape. It’s one of the easier steps.

Optional: There is additional reflective designs on the coveralls that are obscured by the vest. I chose not to do them since I planned to keep the vest on while in costume. One strip across each front chest pocket. One asterisk star with caduceus center on upper left chest.

Next up, modify the vest. You’ll have to examine the vest you chose. The one from Rothco I used needed to have the black netting removed from several areas. I also added black elastic to hold EMT implements. The ID badge will need a tab where it attaches. Take the netting you removed and fold it over and tack into place at the left shoulder.

That’s it for today. Depending on how short you are will determine how much sewing you needed to do. I hope you’re taller than me. I’m positively petite!

Next week we will make the patches and badges. I’ll share my scans and line art with you so you don’t have to worry about such things. You will need to take a headshot on light background with your makeup and hair styled similarly to how you plan to wear it in costume. Or be completely goofy, it’s your badge. This will need to be in digital format.

Next week: same bat-time, same bat-channel.

Continue reading… Part I | Part II | Part III

Tags: Ariel, EMT, Firefly, How to

This entry was posted on Friday, April 25th, 2008 at 11:02 am and is filed under Costume Journey, Sci-fi, TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.