Does it come in black? Part 2

"And then, quite separately, we place another order to a Chinese company for these."
"Put it together ourselves."
"Precisely."  – Alfred Pennyworth and Bruce Wayne

 

Recently I have lamented quite a little bit about my attention being split from side projects, and some of them having caused significant delays in creating the batsuit, but these things are not altogether without their own merits.



Things being what they are, and crazy being crazy, they are still moments in my impossible schedule where I manage to derive great pleasure from my somewhat less-than-philanthropic efforts.  Besides working on my very first commissioned costume piece, which was already featured in the previous posts, I've also found some time to help build a Halloween party location in Campbellville, as well as a haunted Halloween maze at the PhatBoys Halloween Bootique in Mississauga (pictures forthwith).



Secret Wishes Thigh-High Boot Tops



The flipside of course, is that the clock is still ticking, and I have only 15 days left to finish all the work necessary.  That is an extremely uncomfortable timeline, and I am immensely grateful for anything that would help speed up for simplify the work at this point.



So naturally when I saw that PhatBoys carries boot tops, I couldn't resist picking a pair up for myself. Afterall as great as my boots are, they are only 10 inches tall, and by no means do they cover my calf to the knee (as would be accurate to the Nolan costume).  So, these Secret Wishes "Thigh-High Boot Tops" seemed like a great idea at the time.

Comparision - Stock boot top vs. bare 10" boot

Little did I remember in my excitement at the time, that Secret Wishes is in fact a Rubie's Costumes brand, and well, I've already had to repair one item of theirs (namely the cowl) stemming from faulty manufacturing.

First of all, credit where credit is due:  PhatBoys carries a lot of amazing products, and, had I purchased these boot tops to be used for their original purpose (which is to turn a pair of ladies shoes into thigh-high boots for a day), I'm sure they would look great.  Not so much, when I'm trying to hack a single-purpose product for unintended use.



Modified boot tops - side view

Put side-by-side with the original boot, the general sentiment was, that "it looked like an old man's booties from the hospital".  I'm sure even Bruce in his old age would find this wholly unacceptable, not to mention the hordes of Batman fantatics out there that would run screaming like little girls.

So the wheels of deliberation, enginuity, and reverse engineering spins.  I present modification plans to my mother, and we spend a couple of hours hacking the piece to specifications, chopping off the top and bottom, and seaming the trunk back together, all the while complaining about the bad workmanship of "Made in China".

And voila.  No more old man's booties, the full glory of the 10 inch combat boots (or at least the shoe part of it), and the now- knee-high boot tops blend in exactly the way they should, looking like they could even pass for part of the shoe itself.  All I have to do is replace those scrapped inner gauntlet pieces for a stock sheet of 6mm EVA.

Hack win.



Modified boot tops - front view