coreythompsonhm

Ok, I think I have something that works well for me. Heres the first two rows at 8mm spacing, going sloooow and getting it straight. The stitches off to the left was me getting my machine running correctly with this material. And a pic of the ribs in profile. As this was a test piece, I measured my top fabric to see how much length was taken up by X many rows. Also, playing around with how I sewed in each row set up wise. I figured out the first way I did it was better for the results. I think I may be happy with this material. However, not exactly happy with the backing, but it will work nicely.

Last night after work I went searching (again) for a suitable material for the gaskets. I ended up in a Joannes fabric store, saw they had a little section for cosplay. There was a ton of rubbery coated spandex material. The one that caught my eye was a smooth semi gloss rubber. It reads as a grey in photos from the light reflection. But, over a textured cording for rib structure, a slight texture will probably be transfered through the fabric. I bought a piping/cording foot for my machine. This will allow me to lay the chord between the layers and sew right next to it. Looking at the reference photographs, it appears that the ribs have a D shape to them, meaning that the backing material was layed flat. I am going to sew up a test piece tonight and see where this gets me. If it is too pronounced, I will sew channels and insert cording like Tom has done. Here is a pic of the fabric. Its black in person, light reflection is showing as a grey green color.

It has been awhile since I have done any sculpting, so I decided to start out with something simple. I found my stash of Chavant Soft NSP and started sculpting the right hand plate. Here are links to photos right now, when I get on my desktop I will embed the photos.