Playawear Work In Progress 2014

[ProfessorChaos]

It's a material called Wonderflex. It's essentially a type of mold-able plastic which become malleable (and more importantly self adhesive) when you heat it. Once it cools it retains it's shape (which can be done multiple times). It's pretty incredible and not terrible expensive ($75 for a massive sheet of it). It's also fairly light weight so it won't be problematic to wear it around or do the typically hilarious things you do out on the playa.

I'm putting together some playa armor for my girlfriend and I!
I'm using Wonder Woman armor as inspiration for her outfit, started with the bracers/buckler as practice and it's coming along nicely!

Can't wait to see how she looks in the finished deal!

looks great
what material ? leather ? or?

These look awesome !!! I want to make some of these out of leather and I am just too lazy to work with thick leather pieces.

[Monkeystyle]

got another tutu done for a friend that's joining me for our first burns this year. orange and black to go with my green and black. and FINALLY got started on my playa coat. found an antique fur coat for $25 last year at an estate sale. today added the first 80 LEDs. 80 or so more to go to finish the back and arms.

[*Kat*]

and FINALLY got started on my playa coat. found an antique fur coat for $25 last year at an estate sale. today added the first 80 LEDs. 80 or so more to go to finish the back and arms.

Wow! that looks so cool! How did you attach the LEDs?

I think I'll really go hunting for a fur coat now... been thinking about it for years, but never found anything nice I could afford...

[Monkeystyle]

I pulled the silk liner out of the coat , cut small holes in the top of the insides of the pockets and fed the wires through so the battery packs are in the pockets, then popped holes in the coat with a bbq skewer and pushed the lights through, then secured them from the inside with a dab of gorilla glue. $25 for the coat at an estate sale (real fur), $16 for the lights, $5 for batteries, and $8 for the glue. took about 1 1/2 hours while watching game of thrones lol.

[Monkeystyle]

now I just have to put some new cloth on the inside to cover the wires... seems like another job for the gorilla glue... lol
also had my neon green Borat style, over the shoulders speedo delivered today lol, looks super bad but bought it just to freak my conservative friend out that's coming with me... best $4 ever spent, but goes well with the green tutu I made

[AfricanFire]

Finished my fuzzy, but still sheer enough, warm poncho. I always want something warm but still fun that will show off at least some of the costuming underneath it. Made the pattern up myself. (You can see the wall through the neck which would be how it looks over clothing or over naked flesh).

[jola]

Yay, just finally figured out how to post some pics. (I'm so computer illiterate sometimes!)
Here are some goodies I got at a yard sale from a retired burner. $10 for all of it, includes furry boot covers, furry vest (I'm going to add lights to), bustier top (in the right size!), tutu, awesome pink and black dress, hat, and utility belt!

[Monkeystyle]

Wow, great find!

[Fidget]

$10! Score!

[trilobyte]

After having made one or two of what we call 'Rawr coats' for other people over the years, we decided that we wanted to make coats for ourselves this year, both for an upcoming party we're going to and for the playa. Here's a pic of one of the older Raw coats...



And here's a pic of some of the fabric swatches for the pair of coats we're going to be making.



We have a couple other fabrics and pieces for the project on order, they should hopefully be here by the end of the week. That'll give some time for sketches and pattern tweaks to get where they need to be (each one will be unique), and then hopefully both coats can get knocked out in time for the party at the end of the month. If not, mine can wait - as it happens I've got other monster-themed attire I can wear if I need to. I'll grab more pics as we go.

[Drawingablank]

After having made one or two of what we call 'Rawr coats' for other people over the years, we decided that we wanted to make coats for ourselves this year, both for an upcoming party we're going to and for the playa. Here's a pic of one of the older Raw coats...



And here's a pic of some of the fabric swatches for the pair of coats we're going to be making.



We have a couple other fabrics and pieces for the project on order, they should hopefully be here by the end of the week. That'll give some time for sketches and pattern tweaks to get where they need to be (each one will be unique), and then hopefully both coats can get knocked out in time for the party at the end of the month. If not, mine can wait - as it happens I've got other monster-themed attire I can wear if I need to. I'll grab more pics as we go.

If that purple fur is the stuff I got a sample of, the glittery parts were really moopy so be sure to test it before ordering a lot.

[trilobyte]

Thanks for the heads-up. It MOOP'ed a bit, but passed the brush test better than a lot of the longer furs we've worked with.

[ProfessorChaos]

After having made one or two of what we call 'Rawr coats' for other people over the years, we decided that we wanted to make coats for ourselves this year, both for an upcoming party we're going to and for the playa. Here's a pic of one of the older Raw coats...



And here's a pic of some of the fabric swatches for the pair of coats we're going to be making.



We have a couple other fabrics and pieces for the project on order, they should hopefully be here by the end of the week. That'll give some time for sketches and pattern tweaks to get where they need to be (each one will be unique), and then hopefully both coats can get knocked out in time for the party at the end of the month. If not, mine can wait - as it happens I've got other monster-themed attire I can wear if I need to. I'll grab more pics as we go.

This is an awesome pattern! Where did you find it?

[trilobyte]

In our heads.

[Fidget]

Moving on from the bracers to the helmet! Going to do some more detail work before starting the paint job!

I'm putting together some playa armor for my girlfriend and I!
I'm using Wonder Woman armor as inspiration for her outfit, started with the bracers/buckler as practice and it's coming along nicely!

Can't wait to see how she looks in the finished deal!

looks great
what material ? leather ? or?

[/quote]

These look awesome !!! I want to make some of these out of leather and I am just too lazy to work with thick leather pieces.[/quote]

[trilobyte]

Okay... we're back from our weekend shindig and the coats appear to have been a hit. Now it's time to share some of the work-in-progress pictures.

I already shared some of the fabric swatches, and one from an earlier coat in that general design (the pieces we make are generally bespoke/made to order). As we riffed on ideas for what we wanted, sketches took shape...



Then of course comes the measuring and cutting and whatnot...



The above left pic shows the spinal plates on Pandorra's coat, and the one on the above right corner shows the plates on mine. The white ones are a nice contrast in a dimly lit room and play well with any UV in a space, and give her room for adding lighting down the road. Mine don't have that option, but the stretch spandex hologram fabric is totally awesome, I like everything about that stuff.

[trilobyte]

Work continues under the watchful eye of the supervisor...


Hood testing and construction continues. Rather than thinking of the hood as a cute monster head, I wanted to think of the hood as a cute monster head eating my poor hapless human head. So we added teeth around the edges. Another area where they differ is where hers has plates going all the way up the top of her hood, mine doesn't. Instead, it's got giant googly eyes (nothing says whimsy like googly eyes).


Trinity the cat, in addition to being all-round supervisor, also worked as a claw model.

[trilobyte]

In part three, we tackle the tricky task of tentacles. It actually wasn't all that hard. We spend a lot of time talking about art projects and creative inspirations and assorted goofiness, and did more of that here. Conversations led to scribbles led to sketches led to making some patterns...


Once they were cut, they were stuffed with cushion stuffing (like my claws were) to give them depth and springiness and they were stitched into the coat. It took more conversations and testing to get the angle just right - I wanted something I could pop open and surprise people with, as opposed to something that would naturally just hang downward. Here's how it turned out...






In the last pic, you can see a bit of the detail in the shoulderpads, where some of that stretchy holographic spandex was used for ridges there too. I love the final coat, and almost everything about it fits perfectly. The hood's a little larger than I probably would have initially liked, and as I spent time wearing and testing it I wasn't liking how the oversized hood kept wanting to come forward and block my face completely. I wound up with the perfect solution, by wearing a victorian/steampunky shirt underneath, along with a bowler hat. That turned out to work perfectly not only for the event this past weekend in Reno, but for the playa. It's too hot to want to wear a fleece/fur coat by day so you want something different until the sun goes down. Here's a pic of Killbuck and I hamming it up...


And here's a goofy pic Pandorra snapped of me busting out tentacles with frilly shirt and bowler underneath...

[BoyScoutGirl]

trilo, those surprise!tentacles are pure gold. Just look at how much fun you're having, and that's without unsuspecting passersby to startle.

[trilobyte]

On Pandorra's coat, she wanted 'flat' claws and spinal plates (no stuffing inside).


It looks like she's missing a plate in the side view, but it was just angled away from the camera view. I strongly suspect that we'll revisit how her claws and plates work when we get around to adding some lighting over the summer.


And here's her 'fashion modeling' pose showing the coat's full length.


Overall, we're both really happy how these things have turned out (so far... they're still works in progress). By using a double sided minky fleece, we were able to avoid having to do a separate liner, and while they're warm they don't get oppressively hot. A part of me wants to add more pockets, but I don't think they need them. They've each got a couple, plus we both generally use some kind of utility belt/pack for the general playa stuff. Like I said before, we're still thinking through how we want to add lighting to each.

[lucky420]

And those fabulous coats are super soft too

[MyDearFriend]

Beautiful work, you guys.

[Joeln]

Yep. love the coats and especially your facial expresion Trilo.

[theCryptofishist]

Those orange puffs make the tentacles. And I'm a woman who knows her tentacles...

[trilobyte]

Thanks guys. Yeah, I love the orange fur - specifically picked not only for the fuzziness and feel, but because that particular hue absolutely pops under UV. Playawear pro-tip: we picked up a couple inexpensive UV LED flashlights a couple years ago, I think from Amazon. It makes life MUCH easier when you're shopping for fabrics on a project you want to have UV/blacklight elements. Works really well on paint and other non-playawear projects too.

[Bexx]

oh wow~!

those are fucking fabulous! well done!!

[Jovankat]

A-fucking-mazing Trilo I am super jealous of your tentacles!

[theCryptofishist]

A-fucking-mazing Trilo I am super jealous of your tentacles!

I bet you say that to all the squid...

[tatonka]

nice coats , great imaginations

[Hope-a-Lope]

I sewed these white fairy lights onto my playa coat, but they didn't come out as I intended. I meant for them to kind of outline the fur trim on the collar and bottom, but large sections (especially on my left side) ended up more underneath. I'm ok with it since they were pretty blinding but now I'm worried if it's bright enough. Think this will be ok for nighttime on playa? The lights continue on the trim across the bottom of the back, and under the collar as well.