Backlash cosplay: Pants

     The gentleman decided to do a military-style take on his cosplay for Backlash, since he's not super keen on the idea of spandex. I certainly can't blame him, I didn't want to do it for his partner, Taboo, either.

     Since the gentleman wears BDU pants for work anyway, he ordered a pair in dark blue as a base to start from. They were a little light, so I dyed them darker, then took off the cargo pockets, so I could add the white stripes. This is where I very much appreciate heavy fabric in general, and ripstop in particular - once you get a seam partly unraveled, you can just rip the two pieces apart, knowing the seam will go and not the fabric itself. 

     It took some doing to find white ripstop material, since most people want ripstop for tough wearing, which is not really synonymous with situations where white would be useful. I did eventually find a reputable website that had it though, and ordered the 2 yard minimum. Turns out it's good I overordered, because one layer of it against the dark blue looked kind of dingy. Two layers, though, looked pretty decent, so I cut out basic shapes to the gentleman's dimensions and sewed them on.

     Yes, I know it looks backward to the picture, but the design varies depending on who's drawing the character, so I went with what the gentleman requested. The gentleman, as I mentioned, is used to wearing these types of pants, so he requested I put at least one of the pockets back on. I used the bits I ripped off as a pattern to recreate it in white, and sewed it on - no mean feat, since at that point, I was going through 7 layers of fabric at the corners, and there was definitely an order of operations required to get everything on easily. 

     Unfortunately, I'd decided this "wouldn't take that long - it's just some simple sewing, right?" at the beginning, so I didn't track my time on this. I know it took more than 10 hours, but I can't speak to exact time. Needless to say, I'll be tracking hours on everything from here on. Not a bad start, though.

     Yes, he did get a 6' "action figure" to build and store the cosplay on. Personally, I think it's creepy as heck, but to each their own. He's promised to keep it in his room only, after I threatened it with violence if I find it elsewhere, unexpectedly. After a month of not being murdered by it, I'm slightly less suspicious of it, but only slightly.