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Costume Build

thebigblackbat

17 February 2020

Second attempt at the Ultimate Cowl.

The time had come for BatCowl version 2.0. For some time now I'd been studying the rubber version of The Batman Returns cowl and had and I'd hit on the idea of trying to recreate the exact same version using a stretch fabric. I watched a few YouTube video's of cosplayers that was using the idea of creating a 'kind' of mould by covering my existing cowl in 'tin foil', something that can be moulded around all the various curves and then covering the foil with 'gaffa' tape, then once enough tape had been applied, marking various lines to outline the curves and lines of where the material would be cut. The taped 'mould' would then be cut off and the pieces would become the pattern for cutting the cloth.

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    So as not to destroy the material and to test that the idea would work I first used an ordinary white cotton to create a 'Mock-Up' or as it's correctly called a 'toile' (pronounced twal) or a muslin, a run-through, or fitting test garment. The purpose is to do a test run of the pattern for sewing errors and also to fine-tune the fit to a body. Amazingly the initial 'toile' worked out quite well and I was able to iron out a few kinks here and there, including finding a way to piece together the protruding eyebrows and bringing the cowl up under the chin not unlike the cowl is drawn in the comics. Some of the sewing of certain seams was, let's say... interesting.

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      I experimented with a few ideas using elastic in the sides of the chin trying to make it so the lower face area could somehow expand so the cowl could be pulled open to allow the cowl to be pulled on or off over my head and fall down my shoulders, again just like in the comics. Unfortunately no matter how hard I tried, just couldn't make it open wide enough and be able to return to it's normal form when it was back on my face. So I just went with the 'pulling the cowl over my head' theory. Not the best and NOT what I really wanted but for now that would work!

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        Once the main head part and ears were finished, the next part was the collar, using the same pattern from the previous cowl. Hopefully you'll agree that the finished 'toile' has worked pretty well.

        Published in: Costume articles category

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