Clothes - Part 3 - Accessories

Buttons. To prove that I am actually a man, I used nails for the buttons. I went out and got the smallest nails I could find at the hardware store, which was 1/2". They ended up being a little longer than I wanted, but I was able to fix them in the end. I started by painting them white.

After the paint had dried I cut the nails down to about 1/4" (maybe a little smaller) with my Dremel.

I had to reshape the ends to a point so they could be pounded into wood. Again, I used the Dremel and carefully cut a point at the end of each nail.

I realized about half way through painting that the paint was going to come off of the nails as soon as I started pounding them into his chest with a hammer. Fortunately, It did not turn out that bad. In fact, I kind of like the way it looked so I left it.

Belt. This was relatively easy in comparison to the buttons. I started out wit a piece of pleather cut from an old purse. Using an Exacto knife, I cut out a strip about 1/4" wide and just long enough to go around the waist of my model.

I rounded the end with a pair of scissors.

To make the buckle, I started with a paper clip that I had previously dipped in acid to remove the shiny outer coating and cut it in half.

I folded one side in and trimmed off the excess.

I then glued the buckle in place with super glue

I put double stick tape on the inside of the belt to help it stay in place.

I cut the head off of a straight pin and stuck in at an angle to make the prong. I added a little more double stick tape to the end of the belt to hold everything in place.

You may have noticed that there was a stain on his shirt next to the buttons. I had some grease on my hands when I was pounding in the nails and got some on his shirt. I found that you can take out stains like that with Bissel carpet cleaning solution. I mixed 1 part Bissel with 2 parts water and put it on the end of a cotton swab and GENTLY rubbed out the stain. I added water to the other end of the swab to rinse it out.

He totally has a belt made out of a purse.

Up next... Animation.

Clothes - Part 2 - Shirt

Shirt. I found this pattern at undeadthreads.com. It is actually for a trench coat but I modified it to be a dress shirt. It was very easy, I cut the length in half to accommodate my model, shortened the sleeves a bit and omitted the flaps in the front. Because this pattern was made for a doll, I did not need to resize it in Photoshop. Instead I just cut away what I did not need after printing.

I pinned the pattern to my material. I used an old pillow case for this one.

I started with the vest.

I hemmed the bottom and the front. The seam on the front was curved for the extra flap on the trench coat so I sewed it straight to make it a dress shirt.

I attached the front and back together at the shoulders.

I then attached the arms to the vest.

To make the collar I started by drawing a straight line for the seam on the pattern.

I sewed up the sides and trimmed away the excess fabric to make it easier to turn inside out.

Tada! I actually had to make the collar twice. The first one I made was too short for the neck hole. But that happens to me a lot.

I then folded the cuffs in half a sewed them together.

I attached the cuffs to the end of the sleeves. Before I put the collar on, I noticed that the shirt was a little bigger than I wanted. I decided to take about 1/2 inch out of the back of the shirt. I did this by folding the back in half and sewing a straight line from the bottom to the top. I then cut off the excess material. Then I could attach collar to the neck. 

Finally, I ironed the collar down and sewed up the sides and the sleeves. I folded the top front directly underneath the collar at a slight angle. I did not think I could sew this piece so I used a bit of Stitch Witchery to hold it down.

I will need to add buttons to the front at a later date.

Contemplating his next move. 

It is at this point that I began to have nightmares of this model coming to life and trying to kill me. I guess that means it's working.

Up next... accessories, and buttons probably.

Clothes - Part 1 - Pants

Pants! I am not the best at sewing so this is actually the hardest part for me. I tend to make a lot of stupid mistakes, and end up redoing quite a bit of work. Anyways, I started by finding a free pattern on google, which for pants, is very easy. I took the pattern into Photoshop and resized it to my needs. I printed the pattern and pinned it to my material.

I had already added the seam allowance in Photoshop so I just cut along the outside of the pattern. 

From there, I hemmed each piece along the top and bottom. 

Here is where I made my first mistake. I hemmed each piece the same way, so all of the pieces where right fronts. So I actually had to start over and recut two new pieces and re-hem them the right way.

Making sure the pieces where facing the right direction, I sewed the two front pieces together and the two back pieces together.

Placing the fabric face to face I sewed the front and back together. I turned them right side out and...

Pants!

Up next... Shirt.

Wooden Armature - Part 4 - Hands

Hands. I started by bending animation wire into shape.  I thought his hands would be too wide with four fingers, so I am only making three fingers and a thumb for this model.

I twisted the wire to form the fingers and the wrist.

You have to be very careful not to leave tool marks on the fingers. They are very susceptible to breakage being that they are so small.

I added epoxy putty to the palm of the hand to make the whole more solid. At this point it is import that you remember that you are making a left a right hands so you can position the fingers correctly.

I added common self adhesive bandages to flesh out the fingers. I will making gloves to put on the hands so the fingers will be covered in the end. 

I then used my dremel to sand down the dry epoxy putty to a more pleasing shape. You must be very carful not to hit the animation wire or you will need to start over.

Then I wrapped the wrist in heat shrink and attached it to the arm using more epoxy putty.

Now he's starting to look like something.

Up next... Clothes.

Wooden Armature - Part 3 - Feet

Feet. I started by cutting out a basic foot shape from two 1x6x13 of pine glued together. It only took a couple of minutes with my new used scroll saw. I then separated the pieces so I would have two shoes the exact same size.

I drilled a hole on top to stick the animation wire in. I then used a dremel to round of the sides and sanded the shoes smooth with a detail sander.

Then I painted the shoes black.

Next, I drilled a hole in the bottom for a nut. The nut will be used to hold the model in position when animating.

To attach the nut to the bottom of the shoe, I first screwed the nut onto a threaded rod.

Then I filled the holes with epoxy putty and pushed the nut into the bottom of the shoe. I then unscrewed the threaded rod and removed the excess putty.

To attach the shoe to the armature, I started by twisting together five pieces of animation wire. I used epoxy putty to secure the animation wire to the legs of the armature.

I cut the wire down to size and covered the exposed portion with heat shrink.

Finally I filled the holes on the top of the shoes with epoxy putty and attached them to the bottom of the armature.

Up next... Hands.