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. )

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.

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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 :-)

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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! )

I'll be offline for the next week, but I'll be eagerly reading any comments and messages made in the meantime as soon as I get home!

I haven't really been satisfied with the other delta pattern graphics I've seen out there - perhaps I just haven't been looking in the right places, I don't know. But I decided to try to make one myself. I did this in a free vector graphics program, then put it in Photoshop Elements to "offset" it (that makes it tile-able) and then fix it up a bit.

It's really not perfect, there are errors in the pattern, but it is tile-able. This is a 172 dpi image:



Also, since my "JetPro for ActiveWear" heat transfers arrived, I decided to give them a try. I printed the entire design on the paper (ie, I didn't leave the delta's blank/unprinted) since if it's left without ink it does leave some white residue.

It does work quite well on the jumbo spandex (which I dyed myself - the colour is getting closer), and it stretches really well (see the video here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27512116@N00/3675767578/ )

I wouldn't call it handless though, you can feel it. It's not bad, but there. The biggest problem is matching up the printed sections, you can always see the line, overlapping is even more obvious, and it's super difficult to align it:


Click for bigger.


( More pictures behind the cut )

A very lovely member of ontd_startrek posted scans of ST magazine's article on the costume design for the movie and gave me permission to share them (thank you, zannid!). There were obviously some changes between these concepts and the finished costumes, but it's an interesting and informative read nevertheless:


Click for bigger.

( Continued with EIGHT more scans behind the cut. )

In addition to the Rittenhouse costume card episodes - which are now all done: McCoy (blue), Sulu (gold) and Uhura (red), Pike (pants) , and Kirk (undershirt). - I did an EPIC update to the Crew Uniform (Pants Outfit) Design Page so that it's hopefully almost a complete one-stop shop for information on the pants, undershirt, crew shirt and boots. The only thing I didn't get a chance to do was update one of the sketches (the back of the crew uniform), but I sleep now :-)

One final escapade with the Rittenhouse Costume Cards - my last sample is the gold delta fabric from Sulu.


Click for bigger.

After peeling back a small corner of this sample, I was satisfied that the material is just the same of the McCoy costume sample, so for fiber content, movement studies, etc I'll refer you to Adventures with the Real McCoy. This entry is mostly colour studies.

( Continued behind the cut with more pictures, including paint chips! )

Yet more exciting adventures in empiricism with the Rittenhouse costume cards! This time with the red delta fabric from the Uhura Crew Uniform sample.


Click for bigger.

After peeling back a small corner of this sample, I was satisfied that the material is just the same of the McCoy costume sample, so for fiber content, movement studies, etc I'll refer you to Adventures with the Real McCoy. This entry will include some examination of the delta pattern and colour studies.

( Continued behind the cut with more pictures, including paint chips! )

The pursuit of science and preventing you from needing to buy or dismantle your own Rittenhouse costume cards leads me next to Bruce Greenwood as Captain Pike.


Click for bigger.

Unlike the other costume card samples this fabric is not a knit, it's a woven and a very dark grey. The theory is that these are the Crew Pants, the "futuristic work jean" made of a "rough work denim that we dyed a charcoal grey" ( Link to Resource411 article.)

( Continued behind the cut with more science! Learn! )

Purely in the interests of costume research, I've found myself inspecting screencap collections out there for the presence of Star Trek butt. I know, I know - the sacrifices I make...

Show me your pants, boys!

( Pictures behind the polite LJ cut. )

I think these show the back welt pockets pretty well, in addition to the one button at the top of the fly, and the apparent lack of rivets.

Seriously, I will be re-doing the sketches for the pants soon.

There's been some off-the-rack suggestions for the crew boots and pants for both the Men and Women uniforms, as well as some better pictures surface, especially of Kirk and Spock but also the Uhura cardboard standee, that I want to share.

These will be included in edits to the main entries, but here are the big news:

1. Men's Boots (Crew Uniform):

These appear to have been off-the-rack black DKNY "Rebels" with a piece of leather to cover the zipper. Not only has at least one extra mentioned this, but there are good pictures of these boots (see the end of this entry) and they match the "Rebel" boot nicely.

"DKNY Rebels" in Brown:


They're discontinued and rare, but sometimes brown ones have appeared for sale. One black pair was on ebay recently with a starting bid of $300 (reserve not met) and it didn't get any bids (including none from me! Too rich for my blood.) For reference, these boots originally sold for $162 Cdn on Overstock.com.

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( You'll have to continue reading about the Women's Boots and Crew Pants, as well as more reference pictures, behind the cut. )

My Rittenhouse costume card of Chris Pine as Kirk arrived, and once again I took it apart in the interest of science, and so that you, my friends, do not need to do this yourselves.


Click for bigger.

I was quite surprised by this fabric. This is the fabric presumably described by designer Kaplan as "charcoal grey" and actor James Cawley as "cotton-lycra". It was actually so fuzzy with such an open knit that I burn tested some of it...

( Continued behind the cut with measurements, movement and colour studies, fabric comparisons... )

Men aboard the Enterprise wear a uniform consisting of dark pants, dark undershirt and colour-coded shirt for each division (Command: gold, Operations: red, Science: blue). Women have the option of this uniform as well.

According to costume designer Mark Kaplan: "We did an homage to the sixties with the female crew. We gave them the option of wearing a dress, jumper or pant suit. They were all made out of the same fabric." Link to Resource411 article.


The division "delta" fabric is the hardest part of the crew uniform, and it has its own entry here for discussion on how to make this print.

I've also studied Rittenhouse Costume Cards of McCoy (blue), Sulu (gold) and Uhura (red) crew shirt/dress fabric, so follow their links for more information about colour and fabric for those.

The women's short dress is here.

I have not seen any women's jumpers.

From the same interview with Kaplan:

“We employed some different cuts,” said Kaplan regarding the alterations of the uniform’s aesthetic. “I wanted them to be a little more wearable. The shirt became a two-piece shirt. There’s a charcoal grey undershirt, with a colored shirt worn over this piece. The colors: red, gold, blue, determine what department the person works for, as it did in the original series. We used a jumbo spandex fabric on the dull side for the uniforms. I wanted the pants to be very utilitarian, to function like a futuristic blue jean. They’re in a different fabric than the shirts; they’re more of rough work denim that we dyed a charcoal grey.”

Kirk is first seen in this charcoal grey undershirt and pants before he receives a formal position on the crew. So his costume is included in this discussion of the Crew Uniform as the "undershirt" and "pants".

( Continued in great detail behind the cut. )