Becoming Zoe 3: Self-Drafted Vest

ファイアーフライ宇宙大戦争のキャラ、ゾーイのコスプレ衣装三つ目は、ゾーイのトレードマークなベスト。

先日もちらっとお見せしましたが。もうこのベスト失敗したらゾーイじゃない、スーパーマンで言ったら彼の青いタイツぐらい、ゾーイのコスプレとしては重要なアイテムです。
そんな重要アイテムなのに、これっ！っていう型紙が見つからなくて、結局自分で型紙起こしました。カクっとまがったダーツがさ、難しいんだわ。
（ちなみにベルトはオットが毎日使っているベルトがゾーイのベルトにぴったりだったんだわ。）

The third item of my Firefly Zoe's costume is THE vest. Zoe's vest is like her uniform, like a black helmet for Darth Vader.

I could not find a good pattern so I ended up drafting a pattern from my sloper.

This is my toile #1. Someday, I will re-do my moulage to add more sway back so that I don't have to alter it when the toile is made up.

I drew in the style line change (narrower center front, wider and deeper neck opening, and narrower shoulder), and pinned the wrinkle at the back.

Toile #2. Better. Move on.

Obviously, I am not using leather for financial reason. I can't justify spending leather price for a costume that I will probably wear only once. I bought 1 meter of vinyl (because we just don't use yards in the U.K.) and I have plenty left over.

I used Bemberg rayon for lining. I wanted to top stitch the darts seams but Zoe's original vest did not have any top stitching other than the neck, side and hem, so I left it as is.

It was kind of fun to make the tiny belts for side closure. I did not know what to do with the ends that goes through the belt, so I cut it to shape and left it raw. The cut edge showed the white part of the vinyl so I colored it with a brown marker.

The seam line is basically a french dart meeting a waist dart. But Zoe's original vest has the pointy corner where the darts meet placed above and outside the bust point, which made it difficult to fit snugly like the real Zoe does. So that part does not fit perfectly.

I could not find any photos of the back of her vest, so I went the easy route and did a center back and princess seams to the shoulder.

I wore the vest all day at Comicon and it was actually pretty comfortable to wear. (The photo above, taken after the Comicon shows a belt mark at the waist) I was and I still am very excited about how the vest turned out and thinking that it was self-drafted makes me even prouder.