Laughing Magpie's Trek Costumes

When I started to work in earnest on a reproduction of the Star Trek XI/2009 crew uniform I decided I'd like to keep it open and available to anyone else who was working on a similar project. My usual LJ deals with lots of other costuming, some of which (1930s clothing, for instance) might be of zero interest to a Trek costumer, and it just seemed simpler to start this one for easier access and sharing.

I'll try to keep this LJ easily searchable by tags, and once I get enough information assembled I'll conglomerate it into summary entries.

There are several websites and forums that I've joined, and I've learned a lot from them. I would always like to give credit where it is due, so if I mistakenly attribute a photo or anything to the wrong person, please let me know, I will happily change it. I'm not doing this to pretend I'm the one who has figured it out, I just need a place to keep my research in order.

Some great places to learn about Trek costumes:

( Click to to see the links and resources behind the cut. )

Wow, long time no see Trek Journal!

But, occasionally I still get some real comments (not just the loads of spam... *sigh*), and today Anonymous suggested a pattern for the Crew Pants that I think deserves mention:

Vogue 2973:
http://voguepatterns.mccall.com/v2973-products-8325.php
http://sewing.patternreview.com/Patterns/17745

It captures the feel of the pants very well but if we're comparing it to the Men's Uniform Pants (I haven't seen great pictures of the pants on the women), the Vogue pattern does have some differences that I can see on first inspection:

- the uniform has two back welt pockets, this pattern doesn't have back pockets
- the uniform has two front seamed pockets (like regular jeans do), this pattern has two front zippered pockets
- the uniform has usual side seams, this pattern has side panels
- the uniform's knee detail is a section of ridges/corded pintucks (there are about 12 of them), not pieced and seamed like on this pattern.
- the uniform has a couple pieced and seamed sections just below the knee, the pattern doesn't.

Still, it's a striking pattern and might be an option for someone, although it's out of print.

I had a lot of trouble with the v-neck binding on the crew shirt, and I've been asked about how I dealt with it. I thought I'd share a couple links about using self-binding on a v-neck knit shirt that helped me.

I used self-bias binding on the neck and followed - basically - these directions below. They are all essentially the same technique, but sometimes it helps me to read different sets of directions for the same technique:

http://www.opensourcesewingpattern.com/techniques/t-shirt-v-neck-how-to-finish/technique_steps/15

http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/3742/not-your-ordinary-t-shirt

This video doesn't have the v-neck variation but it has the clearest directions I found for dealing with how you need to stretch the binding, and use a shorter binding than the neckline is, to make the binding lie flat:

http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/3839/video-a-neckline-binding-for-knits

Despite all that, I needed to re-do the neck about 3 times before I found the right ratio of binding to neckline length for it to lie flat!

These are on my (ladies) dress form which is also much too small for my husband's uniform, so you'll have to trust me it fits him better than it does the form!

There's a "seam" where the screens were matched at the very center front and very center back of the shirt:

As always, click until you get to highest resolution pic if you want to see detail.

( Continued behind the cut! Click! )

I really should give a bit of a summary on the costumes I finished for DragonCon, so I'll at least give it a start and will fill in more when I've got a bit more time.

This was sewn in 4 days. I'm normally so slow while sewing! Remind me never to do that again.

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Screenprinted with acid dyes, for much, much less than dye sublimation would have been.

When I return from DragonCon in September, I will tell all. In the meantime, forgive me while I finally get to sew this stuff up, with only 4 days to spare!

Some inspiration for when Star Trek ladies are finishing up in the powder room - some Uhura and general 1960s make-up and hair tutorials:

Uhura's Cat Eye Makeup:

By oxfordjasmine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpTb768QDGQ

By medicamina:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGI1IV335OE

1960s hairstyles

Personally, I think the movie failed in the women's hairstyle department and could have used some more vintage inspiration.

You don't need a tutorial for a screen-accurate Uhura: just put in a high ponytail, or use a ponytail extension, and wrap the base with either an extension or a reserved piece of your own hair. There was another lady who also had a ponytail on top of her head, it's braided, stuck straight up (put a pipe-cleaner in it or something like that), folded back down and the ends are probably then hidden in the base.

But if you want to succeed where the movie failed, add a bit more '60s pizazz to your hair:

( Continued behind the cut: links to '60s hair tutorials. )

Things have gone a bit quiet because I'm in the throes of trying to get this done for DragonCon.

But here's a quick outline of how I'm approaching and dealing with this costume:

Blue Crew Shirt:

- pattern: I took apart a raglan sleeve t-shirt for the initial pattern, made a muslin from cheap stretch-knit, then altered it to fit on my husband. Despite all they say about raglan sleeves being easy to sew, they are NOT easy to fit!! I'm not 100% pleased with the fit, but it's good enough. The muslin from this is now ready to use as a pattern on the good fabric.

- fabric: the heavyweight 90/10 nylon/lycra 10 oz knit I got from Spandex World. It's going to take about 96" of it because the fabric is just a little too narrow to lie the front and back pieces side by side on it.

- dye: the fabric is going to be dyed with Jacquard Acid Dye in "Royal Blue" with a bit (I'm still working out the proportions, but a bit less than 1:4) of "Golden Yellow". Royal Blue on it's own is too vibrant a blue.

- delta: at the 11th hour (seriously, I need to have this sewn up by next Wed) a technician from the College of Art and Design replied to my request and thinks she might be able to get this to work, I'm not entirely sure how - but I'll let you know how the meeting goes. Otherwise, I think I've figured out a way to overlap the Inkjet Transfers for ActiveWear that should look better.

( Continued behind the cut with the Undershirt, Pants, Boots and Starfleet emblem )

There's been some question about the weave of the Pike costume card sample - the assumed crew pants. The original post is here.

I decided to sacrifice a bit more of my costume card sample to see if I could get a better handle on the kind of weave: twill or not.

It's so hard for me to tell - even taking the card apart! - whether this is a 2x2 twill or a plain weave (specifically an oxford type of basket weave) that I personally think you can rest assured that whether you use a twill or a plain weave (within reason) you are going to look fantastic so long as you get the right weight and colour of cotton and sew an accurate pattern. If anyone challenges your choice of weave, direct them to this post :-)

( Continued in more detail, with pictures, behind the cut. )

I'm back! Things are slowing down for me on the posting side since I'm actually starting to make some costumes this summer. But I'm still around.

I just received some beautiful fabric samples from Mirkwoods Queen and thought I would share some new thoughts I have on Kirk's fabric sample (the dark undershirt).

I'm comfortable with the idea that Kirk's costume sample is a wool-blend knit (see the original post on that here) and it's possible that extras were given shirts made of something else (like a cotton-spandex/lycra blend knit).

There are some gorgeous merino-wool technical underlayers, like those made by Icebreaker (http://www.icebreaker.com) that are comfortable, non-smelly, washable and breathable that I would use if I were a costume designer, at least for the Principals.

The samples that MQ sent are of a black wool "crepe knit" and black wool "jersey knit". If I were in the fabric store I would have no problem buying and using either and being proud of the results - they are both very nice matches to Kirk's costume card.

The "crepe knit" is perhaps a little bit closer than the jersey in hand and weight, since the crepe knit is a bit heavier, thicker and not quite as tightly knit as the jersey.

And though the sample is a bit less saturated black than the samples (and this shows in some pictures more than others) it really is quite close in colour too.

Here are some photos:

Wool Jersey on the left, Wool Crepe Knit on the right, CC sample on top:



Click for bigger versions! Almost all of my pictures are bigger than what's displayed. You might need to click a couple times to get to the highest resolution photo.

( Continued with more pics behind the cut! Click here! )