All comic based images, store refrences and/or commercial products are copyright to their respective owners and claim no ownership or copyright infringments due to these posting
Spider Cap
Custom
The Spider-Cap costume started off as a idea I found online and with the great enthusiasm of my son I went immediately to work designing. I decided it would be more beneficial that this costume would be made by the process call Dye Sub Patterning. This process is where a design is taken from personal/commercial artwork and applied to fabric such as lycra, cotton,.... via a printing process similar to inkjet printing. I started with a free Spiderman pattern that I acquire online and then reformatted for this design. My son took a close interest in the design process prior to having it printed such as coloring of the legs and style of the chest spider.
Scaling was the last step in the artwork phase, I measured from the eyes to the waist and scale my drawing appropriately allowing a few inches for growth as the wearer is 10 years old and I started this project early in the year for Halloween and convention going. After the artwork was finalized I sent it out to be printed on lycra fabric through fabricondemand.com. Due to this is my first go round with this type of costuming I did have a short back and forth with the printer about scaling and worked it out. After two weeks I received the printed fabric and was very pleased with the outcome and quality. Then came the hard part - assembling. I cut around the pattern, not on the cut line but around the edge of the color pattern. Why? I wanted to keep this little bit for any future expansions that might be needed. The sewing process is difficult but can be done if you take it slow and think it out. I utilized the placement image for all my layouts. Only having a regular sewing machine (once again thanks mom for the loaner) I sewn the entire costume with double zigzag stitching except for the zipper. I had Cody try on the costume and laid the zipper out due to the costume stretch and zipper does not stretch. I sewn the zipper in with a small straight stitching. Cody opted to not to have feet or gloves on the body suit so I measured roughly a inch below the ankle for my heam seam. The hands I convinced him to go with a cover to the knuckles taking the fingers off the costume. I did have to expand the wrist and palm area slightly with some excess blue lycra left over. The head covering was a difficult process due to trying to match the webbing but once again can be done. We originally had the concept for a face shell to fit under the costume so the eyes can attach with magnets. This concept had to be scraped for a few reasons. One the hood did not allow for the shell and two due the stretch nature the mask did not position right and gave it a odd look. So we went with an alternate method.
We decided that this would be a great aesthetic to add to the costume and spruce up the empty spaces and brings you closer to a Captain America look. I started with a duct tape mold of my son's arm. Then proceeded to overlay 4 layers of craft foam. I only glue the top parts first in order to lay out and make my overlap seam. I sandwiched 4 magnets between to foam layers. As I made the closure I proceeded to glue the layers together with E6000 glue. A black elastic strapping was added to each for a hand grip to keep the guards from sliding down. After the construction was done I started to trim up and sand smooth the edges. I attached decorative pieces to finish them out. When finished with the construction I added four heavy layers of red Plasti-Dip as a finish paint job.
We decided that this would be a great aesthetic to add to the costume and spruce up the empty spaces and brings you closer to a Captain America look. I started with a duct tape mold of my son's arm. Then proceeded to overlay 4 layers of craft foam. I only glue the top parts first in order to lay out and make my overlap seam. I sandwiched 4 magnets between to foam layers. As I made the closure I proceeded to glue the layers together with E6000 glue. A black elastic strapping was added to each for a hand grip to keep the guards from sliding down. After the construction was done I started to trim up and sand smooth the edges. I attached decorative pieces to finish them out. When finished with the construction I added four heavy layers of red Plasti-Dip as a finish
paint job.
Cody wanted the Captain America look from the movies so the gloves were size small off the shelf fingerless brown biker gloves
The belt was a later decision made by my son in reference to Captain America. I looked around and found my solutions. I utilized a pattern I acquired from thefoamcave.com called the Age of Ultron Captain America Utility Belt. I have to admit with this pattern and a tutorial I finished this belt in under two days of construction. I added four heavy layers of red Plasti-Dip as a finish paint job. The pouch bars are simple 3mm craft foam painted white to give them a finish look.
Similar to the belt it was a later austenitic decision but made was by myself. I looked around and found my solutions. I utilized a pattern I acquired from thefoamcave.com called the Captain America Boot Covers. Does not cease to amaze me in the simplicity of the construction under two days of construction like the belt. I added four heavy layers of red Plasti-Dip as a finish paint job. The closure straps on the back are two layers of 3mm foam with Velcro glued to them and the covers. The white sort of buckles are 3mm craft foam painted white to give them a finish look.
I based the harness off of the Age of Ultron Captain America costume. Loosely based is the more like it. I started with adding machine tape and laid out the straps on my son to get the shoulder to armpit placement along with the positioning of the shield attachment plate. Took the tape and laid it out on 12x18 foam sheet and glued the foam to faux suede fabric and sewn the edges for a aesthetic appeal. I attached the buckles, slides and straps onto the base harness straps all of which was sewn in place. I found a rough layout of the shield attachment plate and transposed it to a double thickness PVC sheet (1/4 inch total) and cut it out with a dremel. Tractor Supply had the strong magnet I was looking for and attached the it to the plastic attachment plate with a small screw and nut. The plate front was painted silver and the back black Plasti-Dip prior to attaching the magnet. The shield holds on well minus a hard heavy run.