Reach Spartan Undersuit Diary

[Karne]

Hello!

I am fairly new to this forum and fandom and building huge armors. But Reach was lots of fun and after a few sewing and Accessoires cosplays I made it’s time for something bigger. So, I want to tackle a Spartan.
Since I tend to start lots of stuff I never finish I want to start small in this topic and with just the undersuit at first. The other parts will follow in a different topic when I feel it’s time for them. Since I am bad at tutorials I named this thread what it is - kinda a building diary with ups and downs. And most likely huge breaks, because I work in a different place and am only home on weekends.


To get myself more organized I made a To Do List:

1. Gather ressources [will never be finished]
2. collect references
2.a Shopping
3. build a tape dummy
4. make a pattern
5. sew a draft
6. adjust draft and pattern
7. sew final undersuit

Step 1: Gather ressources
This was a huge part. I came across this forum very early and then left again because I was overwhelmed. After a bit of struggle with screenshots, wikis and the lots of different Spartan armors there are I came back. I needed help of people who are way more into Halo than I am right now
I will Link a few threads I found very helpful:
Kat
Undersuit
Ref pack [links will follow as soon as I am home from work]
+ the tutorials linked in the pinned forum posts.
Also thanks to the guys on discord who told me about the Halo Archive and Blender. Even as a first time user I could get very helpful screenshots from it while playing around with the program there.

Step 2: References
I saved lots of screenshots from Blender, I made some during play and also there’s this whole internet thing full of pictures. What could be nice to have is saved.

Step 2a: Shopping
Yeah this step is a bit early… but I was overly motivated! I went through my list of shops I already knew from other projects and got different kinds of fabric and a zipper. With a pattern and draft I could probably have saved on material costs, but leftovers will go into a box and could be used in different projects. I also have stuff from other projects, so for example I won’t have to buy snaps or clips or Velcro to attach armor later. I will add a picture of what materials I got once they arrive.

Step 3: Tape dummy
This is a step to follow in the next days or weeks. I have to bribe my husband to help me in lot just wrapping me, but also cutting me free later xD I’m very excited for this upcoming first physical step.
I plan to then wrap the tape dummy in different tape again and make the sewing pattern from there (I do not have a mannequin with my measurements because I’m mostly somewhere between female and male puppets and it always looks strange then. Even outside costumes I have a few „female“ pants because they simply fit me better )

 

[PlanetAlexander]

Sounds like you've got a good gameplan! Starting with the undersuit is good, because then you can design the armour to fit around it. Make sure it's a really good bribe, you want to be certain that your husband will definitely cut you free

 

[Draxes]

Reading your post makes me wish I could sew.

 

[SgtSaint]

Reading your post makes me wish I could sew.

Why can't you sew? Or do you mean "don't know how to sew **yet**"?
Its a skill to learn like any other. Plenty of YouTubes from basic to advanced.
Don't sell yourself short: Its something you can pick up.

 

[Karne]

Sounds like you've got a good gameplan! Starting with the undersuit is good, because then you can design the armour to fit around it. Make sure it's a really good bribe, you want to be certain that your husband will definitely cut you free

Thank you! I'm sure I found something, now we just need time. We spent the last days sick between bed and couch, but now we're better and I can finish the last steps of my old project I need to finish first. Otherwise I will have green fake fur all over the spartan xD

Reading your post makes me wish I could sew.

I have not visited any courses or stuff like that, just picked up an old sewing machine and started from there.
To be exact it was like "I wanna buy a sewing machine but there are so many different ones!" and my grandmother was "Wait, I have one. Your grandfather gifted it to me during his university times in the 70s and it was only used when your mother had sewing class in primary school, maybe it needs a bit oil". I started with really simple stuff like a flat plushie or some medieval tunic (I was into fantasy LARP for a few years). Then sewing is such a common hobbie, there are a million tutorials out there. You probably just have to type your problem into google and find a youtube video explaining it. At leas for me it often worked like that. You also don't need to know many vocabularies, with a short description in the search term the correct words will show up to make it easier then.
I'm also far from beingt good in sewing, but it gets better with every project. And sometimes there is stuff (like one N7-jacket I made years ago) which I can take out of my closet and still think "wow, I made that, its way to good to be made from my hands" which I am really proud of
But its all learning, research and practicing.

 

[Karne]

This are the main fabrics for the undersuit. I really liked the idea of the mesh fabric I saw in different build threads so I got some as well. Also it seemed to e a good idea to have at least parts of it made from a light fabric (its the top one on the picture).
The right one is a jersey out of a sport collection. It looks more shiny in the picture than it is in real. It was quite expensive, but is from a label which only sells ecological produced fabrics (this has eg 40% recycled polyester in it) etc, and it has a really nice touch.
Under that is fake leather for some details like the belly part, knees or ellbows. I also plan to use it later for some parts of the armor, at least in Blender many parts seem to have a leather-like texture.
And the green fake fur from my other project which I already hate XD I plan my spartan to be dark red, so no place for that fluffy stuff that gets everywhere.

 

[Karne]

Took like two weeks to finally continue because of Real Life stuff (birthdays in the family etc)... but the hype for this outfit has not slowed down!
I got tape and a single use coverall. For the Duct Tape Dummy I found this tutorial and we followed it:
https://www.schneepardicreations.com/#dtd
It is from a fursuit maker, but has pictures and a description and worked really well.
This is the current state

I thought one roll of tape (50 meters!) would be enough, as you can see, it was not xD
It was very warm and my legs hurt from standing in the same pose for 2 hours. My husband is no crafter at all and it took way longer than we both expected.
For cutting me free we used a pair of scissors from a first aid kit. That still hurt a bit while cutting the tape and coverall, but I did not get any injuries. Except for my underwear, he cut it, too XD
When I have new tape we will get my upper body into the dummy again to complete the arms. When that is done I will also make it longer at the legs to make it also cover my ankles. But for the SPARTAN the area gladly is not that important (because I'll wear boots anyway).