Notes on SUSAN STORM THE INVISIBLE WOMAN: It’s interesting to go back and read the entries to be reminded of how plans change sometimes. I had wanted to learn about casting to make chest logos and was going to start with this project. It was a few tests of completely unusable foam pieces so I ended up embroidering the logo and loved how it came out. The finished suit and the teaser gallery were one of my best photoshoots with John Hudson.
These are the notes & old blog entries regarding this costume:
Work in Progress: back
Front before logo was embroidered
I HATE MAKING GLOVES!
For some reason, I got the bright idea to make all my accessories really shiny so I used PVC. I was in this PVC phase for a while. It's a very sweaty fabric and does not get along with my sewing machine.
The way to make gloves is to buy a cheap pair then disassemble one. Use that one as a pattern pieces and the other for reference in how to put it together.
Close up of finished glove. It takes me 8 hours PER glove. This is why I do not include gloves in commissions.
In the end, this became one of my favorite suits!
OLD BLOG ENTRIES:
Entry 7/2/2007
With all that new blue spandex I bought, I was trying to think of costumes that I could make. 'Lo and behold, it dawned on me today that Sue Storm/Invisible Woman of the F4 is the perfect outfit for the shades of blue that I purchased. I'll have plenty of the bright robins egg blue but probably just enough of the navy to make the neck piece, belt, and I'm adding stripes for the more modern look of Sue. I don't have boots or gloves but I'm not on a deadline for it right now. Instead of the large chest emblem of the "4" symbol, I'm going to do it more like the movie version and have a breast pocket area patch. That way I won't have to worry about having the zipper go through the emblem and I'd rather not move the zipper to the back because that just makes life difficult.
So far, I only have the muslin cut out. I've been transferring the commercial Kwik Sew pattern to the muslin so that I can make all the necessary new design pieces. Then I'll just use the muslin as the pattern pieces. I'm also thinking of adding some detail -- this is the kind of stuff fanboys hate -- like white or black piping around the stripes on the side pieces and maybe some horizontal lines on the stripes to give it some texture so it doesn't just look like a different color of plain ol' lycra and more like a different kind of fabric. I'm sure people will not like the design but it's all artistic interpretation.
I looked at a number of pictures today on ComicVine showing the different variations of Sue Storm through years and across titles plus the movie shots. Overall, I like her color scheme a lot. Sometimes there's white, sometimes it's blue with black and others it's blue with dark navy. Like the other outfits I've designed, I'll take the elements of each one that I like best and put them together.
Entry 7/9/2007
After thinking about it and after I started working on the new project, I completely changed my mind. I'm going to do the old fashioned Sue Storm/Invisible Woman in her classic two-color style. I need to get a zipper and then get the supplies for making the chest emblem. I also need to make the belt, figure out what to do for the boots and gloves too.
Entry 7/18/2007
I had tried crafting the chest emblem design out of Sculpy but was just too difficult. It was not the right medium. I messaged another costumer through myspace about what she uses for her accessories and she sculpts out of plaster and casts the latex from there. I could not find plaster at my closest hobby shop which I know I saw there previously; instead I picked up some blocks of wax and spent most of yesterday trying to work in that. Every time I thought I'd get a smooth surface, it would dry wavy and lumpy. It's still better than the Sculpy.
Entry 8/6/2007
I got to play with plaster and start the mold casting process for my Invisible Woman costume chest logo. A friend gave me a lot of tips like add plaster to the water not water to plaster; use hot water with a little salt, and you don't need an expensive moldmaking box (we just took duct tape and a piece of floor tile and make a containment area). It's humid today but I'm sure the plaster will be cured by this afternoon. Then comes the part of removing my wax sculpture from the plaster. Next step -- LATEX! Woohoo!
I have also given more consideration to auditioning for Season 3 of Who Wants to be a Superhero? if there is one. I watched a few more YouTube videos of the Texas Titans (that's a bunch of people who auditioned for Season 2 and have stayed friends and make fun cosplay movies) and it inspired me. I have realized that there's no need to be nervous about auditioning because it's so unlikely that I'd get chosen. BUT, I'd be there and I'd be connecting with other fans and maybe a Titans East could be formed. Ya never know.
Entry 8/15/2007
Right now I'm working on the casting of the chest logo in Flex Foam and latex. The Flex Foam worked better much to my surprise. I really expected the latex to win. It was my first time doing any kind of moldmaking and casting so the fact that they suck isn't a surprise.
I have no idea why huge chunks are missing from the latex. There aren't any chunks left inside the plaster mold so I have no idea where they are. Even after two days, there were still parts of that outer circle ridge that were not cured but it didn't seem like it was enough to make those giant craters.
Overall, the costume is not very flattering for my figure. It will most likely be up for sale once it's finished without boots because it's just easier for people to buy their own size.
Entry 2/2/2008
I finally finished (as finished as possible for now) my Sue Storm classic costume. I will be dying my hair blonde when I wear it but for the time being, you can at least see how it came out. After getting this much done, it's safe to say that the gloves are by far the hardest part. I ran out of fabric so even though the ones I have aren't particularly good, I've gone through all I can trying to make them. Strangely, the left one is tighter than the right one but that's because with so little fabric left, I couldn't properly cut with the greatest stretch going in the proper direction. The left pinky is also quite mangled and where I had to hand stitch (sometimes I just used whatever was in the needle like red), you can unfortunately see some stitches. I hate Hate HATE hand stitching.
The chest emblem was a change. I was going to make one out of latex or foam but after experimenting, I decided an ol' fashioned embroidered one would be best for my skill level. When I get better (and can afford more supplies) then I take some more whacks at special effect type of emblems. I'll be getting into masks someday too.
As for these boots, I followed instructions from League of Heroes veteran greenarrowfl (Brian) and I'm really impressed with how they came out for my first try. The epoxy was quite messy and is somewhat splattered on them but all in all, they don't look too bad. I wasn't planning on them being flared at the top, that's just how they came out. I simply didn't make them form-fitting enough. I did make nifty boot tops to fold over for a buccaneer look which can be tucked in and secured with safety pins.
The belt pissed me off a lot but still not as much as those gloves, mainly because I had a belt made out of the same dark blue fabric as the neck yoke but I can't find it. I didn't like it when I made it so I must have tossed out it. It took three attempts with the blue vinyl to get anything at all wearable but my stitching with the vinyl is so atrocious! Hopefully it's not noticeable from a distance but stitching on such shiny fabric does show up more than on matte.
This is most likely what I'll be wearing on Feb 23rd for the New Moon Comics grand opening of their new location in Little Falls, NJ. Come out and see me!
Entry 2/24/2008
I have to be honest here. I was not really a Fantastic Four fan until recently. As a little girl, I remember seeing the cartoon and thought they were kind of boring and dorky. More recently, I was not impressed with the Jessica Alba casting with bad blonde hair. Well, I couldn't get my hair right either (I look a bit like an Easter Egg with Yellow roots and burgundy-fuscia hair) so I've come to terms with her. Plus, I really loved the movie variations of the F4 suits.
But still, I wasn't excited by the first family of Marvel until I talked to Rob, owner of New Moon Comics. He's a real fan and the fact that he gave me and my suit praise warmed my heart. It was really something to hear someone talk so passionately about a character that he loved. His love of Sue Storm was contagious and made me proud to wear the blue spandex. So, thanks, Rob! I owe you for giving me love of this costume.
Originally, I was just going to make this suit and sell it because I hadn't felt any connection to Sue Storm. Now, I absolutely love this costume and can't part with it.
That's me there with a bunch of artists and writers from Arcana Comics (ShadowFlame, Eve Vampire Diva and Koni Waves).
Founder and Editor-in-Chief of AmberUnmasked.com and Vodka O'Clock Podcast. Author of The Farrah Wethers Mysteries, comic book short stories, prose, and non-fiction. Cosplayer and figure model. 3 Comments on Tutorial: Invisible Woman / Fantastic Four
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I just want to say thank you for posting this! Your costume turned out wonderful and you look great in it! Amazing work! I’m trying to make a Susan Storm costume as well, and this is very helpful! I have a couple questions I was hoping you could help me with. Did you sew the black collar directly onto the suit, or did you glue it w/fabric glue? Also how did you attach the embroidered logo? Also where did you get the suit? I was thinking of using a zentai or morph suit but, I am worried about it being too difficult to work with because they are soooo stretchy. I hope you still check this page, any thoughts or comments back would be appreciated!
I’m not sure I understand some of your questions. I made the suit. The whole thing. So it’s called color blocking when you take pieces and fit them together like the dark blue to the light blue around the collar. The logo was made with an embroidery machine and sewn in place. I don’t recommend ever using glue unless you’re working with a small detail. I tried that with the diamonds on my Harley Quinn suit because that’s what people recommended but it was awful. The glue gets everywhere and you can actually see it through the fabric.
You can try getting a zentai suit and modifying it. Sometimes that’s easy but you still need to be prepared. A full suit like this will have a long zipper. That means you’ll have to rip out possibly industrial machine stitches to remove the zipper, then block the colors in place then put the zipper back in. NY Dancewear has custom options so maybe you can find a style that closely matches Sue and just have to add a logo then: http://www.nydancewear.com/store.html?CID=131
Good luck!
Thank you very much! You’ve been extremely helpful!