Haven1221

Thank you so much for your thoughts! Of all the fixes, the boot height and vest neck opening would be on the easier end, so I'm grateful those are the things that jumped out most. Can't wait to try with armor on!

Lots of progress over the past two weeks! Making the boots was a new adventure, and turned out to be easier than I anticipated. Gloves came in from WampaWear & fit well. A lot of the work I did this week was looking at the sewing I had done to see where I could tighten everything up, because it all looked too big on me. So lots of ripping seams apart and moving things in by 1/4 or 1/2 an inch -- but it paid off. I'm much more pleased with how it fits. (I did make an adjustment to the cummerbund after seeing the picture where I was wearing it...sewed 2" velcro to the back of the bund and the front of the codpiece, which spread out the force of the point of attachment and eliminated the crease in the middle.) All the buckles, webbing, etc. were delivered this week, so that will be the next focus. I'll be interested to see how the fit of the soft parts will work with the fit of the armor. As always, if you notice anything that doesn't look right or needs an adjustment, feedback is welcome.

Okay...opinions, please, on placement before I stitch this in place. The way I have the faux suede pieces pinned, they end approx. 1 inch above the middle of my knee. (Also, I must have been standing funny in the second one, because the pieces are identical, yet look a little uneven on the bottom...they actually do end at the same place on both legs.)

So excited to start this build thread! I currently troop as a Jawa with the 501st and a Jedi with the Rebel Legion. I've watched my teenagers build armor, and decided it was something that I wanted to try. We have one Shadow Scout and several Biker Scouts in our garrison, and they've been great with advice. Armor was created by a friend in Pittsburgh; still waiting on the chest armor and the helmet. (Regular size chest armor was going to be way too big; working from smaller molds now.) I decided to save money and sew my flight suit. (This may not have been my best decision, but it's summer and I have time to work on things. Plus, I want to try and keep the cost down where possible -- and this ended up around $40, so that was a bonus.) I based the suit off of Simplicity's pattern #8722. My big mistake was that I didn't think to alter the height of the pattern before starting. (I'm the type of person who can follow literal sewing directions, but I don't have the same sewing intuition that my mom does. I could have used a big heads-up in the directions that said something like, "STOP! Measure torso length and adjust pattern accordingly before cutting fabric!") The thing is, I'm only 5'2"...so as I was putting the suit together, I realized that it was ridiculously long, even though it was based on a size small. I didn't want to start over, so after a lot of thought I decided to cut the suit in half (ugh...) and custom fit the center where a belt would be. The thing that kept me going was remembering that the torso of the suit ends up being totally covered anyway, so I doubted that I could mess it up beyond repair. In the end, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.