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Supplies Necessary: | ||
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Step 1: If you look at the last step you will see what the final product will look like.Start off making a pattern for the bib that goes on the front of the shirt. |
Step 2: Determine how wide you want to cut the index card by placing it against the shirt you'll be using. |
Step 3: Fold the index card in half to get a line of symmetry.
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Step 4: Place your index card pattern against the body of the figure you will be using. Determine how LONG you want the bib to be and then cut off that unwanted length from the bottom. |
Step 5: See the cut points that are marked? Connect these and cut. Notice I used the folded center line as a guide to fix the bottom two points to cut off. |
Here is the pattern placed on top of a darker shirt so you could see it better.
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Step 6: Pick out the items you want to dye. Keep in mind that all fabric will react differently to dye--choose fabrics that are alike in texture and blend. See my notes below for more comments. I did 3 shirts and 2 small pieces of material
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Step 7: Get the water boiling first. Add some salt if you're doing cotton or polyester fabrics (I added about 1/2 cup). This will help the dye soak into the fabric. When the water is boiling add the Scarlet dye and blend well. Use a pot that you will never cook with again. |
Step 8: While the dye is returning to a boil wet all the stuff you want to dye. WEAR RUBBER GLOVES--SQUEEZE out the excess water in your fabric--you don't want it sopping wet, just damp. Add this to the boiling dye mixture.
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Step 9: Boil the fabric for about 5 minutes. If you have a lot of folded pieces be sure to mix it up good and stir constantly. Poke and turn the fabric over. I use a wooden spoon for this. Keep all the pieces of fabric submersed in the boiling mixture at all times.
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After boiling for 5 minutes lower heat and simmer for another 5 minutes then remove the pot from the burner and let it all cool for another 30 minutes. Now it's time to rinse your fabric items. Keep in mind it will look lighter after it dries. Rinse WELL! |
Step 10: After a GOOD RINSE, let the fabric dry completly. If you're impatient like me, you can use a blow dryer.
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Step 11: Pick out the shirt and piece of material that matches best. Pin the pattern down on the matching material.
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Step 12: Cut out leaving a small margin all the way around. I guess I left about a centimeter or 1/4 of an inch. You want just enough to fold over the pattern. Hey, here's a thought. Make a duplicate pattern just in case you want to do this again! |
Step 13: Fold the material with your finger till it creases. Start glueing at the bottom (because if you mess up here it's less noticable). You can iron this if you want. I'm too lazy to do that. |
Step 14: Continue to glue all the edges of the fabric to the pattern card.. You may have to trim some parts that overlap to make the seams smoother.
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Step 15: Remember to choose the shirt and fabric piece that best matches. As you can see from this picture mine don't match real great but looks okay considering the figure will also be wearing a leather vest. |
I don't care for these snaps to be showing and I want the top part of the shirt to be open--so off they come. Save those snaps! Heck, save everything! I never throw anything away! If you don't want to make the leather belt skip to the last step. |
| To make the belt you'll need some supplies. See the list above. Feel free to improvise and adjust your measurements. If you make a pattern that works keep it for future projects. | ||
For the belt I ordered the leather from Rio Rhondo. This is a buff colored of leather. I don't recall exactly which sort of leather but they have a great variety to choose from.
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I know this is wierd, but I use a popcycle stick to mark out the outline of the belt. I find that this stick is just as good as a ruler and easier to control. The side width of this leather is PERFECT for the waist measurement of a dragon action figure too!
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After you've marked the line for the belt cut it out. Take your time to get a straight cut.
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Now you will need some sort of a buckle. Normally I use stuff I already have on hand but sometimes I find some scale buckles at fabric stores or hobby shops too. You can also get buckles online from doll supply sites.
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Maybe you might want to dye the belt before you glue the buckles in place? Either way it's tricky. I like to dye the leather FIRST then glue in place because if the glue seeps out onto the raw leather it will not catch the dye and will look bad. I picked up this dye at a place in town but you can also get it from RioRhondo. Check your local shoe repair shops too! They will have lots of stuff you could probably use. |
I also like to use something to clean up the dye and buff it up some. You can use whatever you want or use nothing at all. Be sure the dye is completly dry before you dress it on yoru figure or the dye will run onto the action figure's clothing. PATIENCE! like I know what that is! You can use an old paint brush to apply the dye. Most of the time the box with the dye has a cotton swab inside--those work great too. WEAR RUBBER GLOVES!!! Unless you don't care what your hands look like |
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At this stage you are ready to spice up your shirt. You can sew down one side of the bib to the front of the shirt (or glue it down) and then add snaps for the other side. I added some buttons and used my popsycle stick to measure the distances between each button. Nail heads make great buttons too! Poke the nail through with a bit of super glue--then use some wire cutters to snap off the nail. For each button, A dab of gluee--I was trying to make the project a SEW FREE tutorial. There are lots of possibilities with this--you could even dye the shirts black. Keep in mind though that black REALLY needs to soak a while or you will get some shades of gray. The longer you cook the fabric in the dye the better it sets. This is just a process you will have to play with. Then again you can always just use white on white. Cotswold has some very nice White Dress shirts but you have pockets that will need to be removed. For a completed version of this figure look here.Questions and comments are GREATLY appreciated. | |
