Low-Budget Spider-Woman Jacket

 I love pregnant Spider-Woman. She is just too awesome, and just like me she hates letting that bump slow her down. I totally related to her, so it only made sense to become her this fall when I would be ready-to-pop pregnant. I began with her rough and tough motorcycle jacket which, can I just add, I love her new biker chick look?

Anyway I knew that when I started this I wanted to be true to the motorcycle look. Bikers wear tough leather to protect themselves from wind and wipe-outs. I wanted that leathery texture, but I don't have a ton of money to dish out for leather or even imitation leather, so I got a couch.Taking the imitation leather off an old couch someone was going to throw away is not only thrifty, but also recycling. I then bought some old curtains and some black imitation leather leggings from the Goodwill for a dollar each. The black leggings became my sleeves.

 So just for fabric, I spent a total of $2. I bought the snaps, studs, and zippers from Joann fabrics, which all together cost about $26. Much less than the $50-$130 it would cost to buy a jacket online.

My next consideration was the shape of the jacket, which is a unique design, so I would have to make my own pattern. Also tough leather is not stretchy, so even though the cover art shows her jacket somehow zipped up over a bulging baby bump, in the story she actually keeps it unzipped and I decided I would do the same. Now when I am no longer quite so round I could still wear my jacket. I measured halfway around my back to get my non-pregnant proportions even while my middle stuck out, and did bust measurements normally. I used a baseball tee shit I  had to figure out the shape of the sleeves, and measurements plus images from the comics to figure out everything else.

 I made a mock-up out of  some cotton fabric I had lying around and made a few adjustments to the pattern as needed. When I was happy with how it looked I began to use the "leather" I had sourced. Instead of using pins to attach my pattern pieces to the fabric I used tape, because the pin holes can stick around and look icky.The couch had a grid-like design on the cushions which I left intact to get the cris-cross detail on the back of the jacket.

For the spider symbol I used the back of my red leather just painted with a few layers of yellow acrylic paint. I used a pallet knife to spread and texture the paint to make it look like leather. I then glued it down using a fabric glue before changing the settings of my sewing machine to get an embroidered look for the outline and legs. I did this by using a zig-zag stitch at the highest width, and shortening the stitch length as much as possible.

 After cutting everything I simply assembled the jacket. I love how it turned out!

The above photo shows how I used the snap itself to indent the fabric below so I knew where to place the other snap piece.

Click Here to see what I did with the leftover stretch pants fabric, and the next step in creating this cosplay. 

Click Here to see how I made the boots

Click Here to see how I completed the jacket with the triangle piece at the collar and made the accessories

Click Here to see how the cosplay all came together