The Cape and the Cowl

"Too expensive for the Army?"
"I don't think they tried to market it to the billionaire, spelunking, BASE-jumping crowd." – Bruce Wayne and Lucius Fox

Progress!  Yes, I promised progress, and I hereby deliver an installment.  Remember those short, 30 second scenes in Batman Begins where Bruce Wayne spends a seemingly miniscule amount of time creating his batsuit?  I think costume makers far and wide will agree, this stuff is exhausting!

Months have gone by since this work began, and now we're closing on crunch time, with still a heck of a lot left to do.  I will never look at costumes the same way again.

So, currently the armor pieces are currently still being worked on, and will probably be the focus of most of my time up to the project deadline.  A big milestone has been achieved though, and that is the tailoring and seaming for the cape, and the completion of the cowl repairs.


A rip in the cowl



I've done quite a few things to the mask, mostly geared towards extending the life of the product, and improving fit and usage.

Remember this big ol' rip above the velcro closure?  I relayed my disappointment in the lack of quality in this officially licensed cowl a couple of months ago.



Rip repaired



After long deliberations and a few trial and error attempts, I've managed to come up with a solution.

The latex material on the cowl apparantly has been treated in such a way that regular liquid latex will no longer bond to the cowl's surface, and so I ended up using rubber cement and tinting it with base colorant to patch the rip.  It's still visible somewhat up close, but it'c close enough that it isn't blaringly obvious, and at the very least, this supposedly good cowl I paid good money for is fixed and will hopefully give me a good few years of use.

Invisible zipper closure

You may have already noticed that the closure looks a little different than it did a couple months before.  After seeing how dangerously close the velcro closure was to that rip, I didn't want to risk reopening the tear, and so it was replaced with a 7 inch invisible zipper, sewn directly into the latex.  The combination of a zipper, and the fact there's a staple keeping the two sides from separating at the top, helps immensely to keep the mask in good shape.

The mask and the halo

And last but not least, is the most invisible modification of all.  This cowl was purchased with the understanding that it was a "one-size-fits-most" product, meaning that in truth, it did not really fit my head perfectly.

I was lucky enough that it was larger than my head, and there was some void space to fill in the inside.  My friends Adonis and Debbie, who had previously operated a halloween costume store, suggested that I craft a foam halo of sorts to fill the empty space.

Following their advice, I crafted a halo of sorts, that in truth looks like a dwarven miner's work hat, and fitted it inside the cowl.  It not only improves the fit, but it also cushions enough space between my head and the latex, which allows my skin to breathe better underneath the mask.  Awesome.

Mother, sewing

After all of that was done, a long wait ensued following the original patterning and cutting of the cape fabric.  Since my wonderful maternal-unit (read: mother) had agreed to help me tailor and sew the cape, this part of work was left to the mercy of her schedule, and that of her friend's (from whom we borrowed the sewing machine).

But, fortune was with us this week, and amidst an absolutely crazy schedule, I got to take some time out and behold this spectacle, and to direct and supervise the work.

The cape (rear view)

I will say no more other than that she is an absolute monster.  The woman sews at super-ultra-turbo-speed.  In less than an hour and a half, the work that would've taken me an entire day, was finished with flying colors, summa cum laude.  All I had to do was trim some stray seams and threads, and iron it.

And what's more, the result speaks for itself!  As I mentioned in the original planning posts, this cape is made with a panne velour material, which is a crushed velvet made from polyester.  The material makes for a heavier cape, but it affords a lot of comfort from the velvet pile and gives some amount of tolerance to stretching.

The panels were cut originally from 6' of material, but unfortunately that doesn't leave too much for seaming and whatnot, and when all was done the cape does not drag the floors like its Hollywood counterpart.  But I'm okay with that.  Having it hemmed at boot height makes for a lot less maintenance in the long run.  There's also a little tiny bit of overlap on the seams between each panel to give the illusion of having a glider skeleton built in.

And here we are... The cape and the cowl, patiently awaiting the rest of the batsuit to join them in the fight for justice.