#and sewing spandex that too

[marzipanandminutiae]

the fact that The Ossuary in Salem has almost no natural-fiber garments is a source of continual disappointment to me

nice staff! Gothic Victorian vibes! cool art and jewelry! really pretty clothes that are near-universally made of plastic

I weep

[toytulini]

i dont want to give in to Modern Shapewear but i really hate when im trying to have a Fun Outfit and theres fucking Distinct Lines from various under wear bands (bra, undies, maybe a pair of tights?) all at separate points? that are impossible to hide bc the outer wear is fucking form fitting spandex

[sheliesshattered]

oh yeah

it's happening

[deep-sea-anemone]

Cleaning out/consolidating my craft closet is so freeing. I've been on this earth for almost 28 years and never done it. I hoard a lot of things cause I hate to let things go to waste: scrap fabrics/foam, half-done projects I'll never finish, brushes with bristles half solid due to paint, props I'll never use. Plus glue/paints that have dried up. Low quality items (like Value Yarn) that I've grown past and it would be a waste of time/frustrating trying to use up. I can see the floor of my closet! I've thrown out 5 full trash bags of stuff and have at least 3 more to donate to goodwill. Its crazy.

Amazing. It feels so fresh. I feel like maybe I'll regret some of it (like getting rid of my jewelery and felting supplies, embroidery thread, bigger scraps of expensive fabrics but are actually too small to make anything). But I think it's worth it.

[andyoullhearitagain]

Every Starfleet Uniform Ranked By How Annoying The Sleeve Is To Sew, Part 2

Part 1

6. TOS Men's Uniform:

Here we have 1. Quite a severe curve 2. with a zipper in it 3. an invisible zipper at that 4. with pattern matching through the zipper at the collar

5. in velour (slippery). Woof.

7. Disco:

OK we've got two points of pattern matching, but they don't have to be too precise because they've got this round shiny striped piece between them. Of course that piecing means we're basically setting a sleeve in twice, but I will concede that the stretch will be more forgiving than a woven would be. Add in the piecing on the bicep and two different sticky rubber-y fabrics for further difficulty. 

8. TNG Version 2B and Voyager:

All the work of a tailored sleeve with an added inverse corner in an intersection of four seams.

PLUS two points of pattern matching, which is very tricky in an armsyce because you're trying to get the pitch right. You can see in TNG they often have trouble with it and have either a jog in the pattern matching

or too much ease in the wrong place to force the pattern to match.

They seem to have figured it out by Voyager though. I'm also fairly certain they have raglan shoulder pads in them instead of regular ones, which isn't really harder I guess but is a bit odd (no shade, they're incredibly flattering).

9. DS9/ TNG Movies:

All the difficulties of the TNG armscye and now we've added trim, meaning we really have four points of pattern matching instead of two. I could be persuaded that the contrast pieces are applied over the upper sleeve piece instead of pieced, which is easier than what TNG is doing.

10. Enterprise:

I think this is regular raglan sleeve and not some kind of half raglan/half set in sleeve like we see in TNG. Either way it's a bit easier than the TNG sleeve because the trim and yoke are applied on top and top stitched. But we've still got that mitered corner in our bias trim and our four points of pattern matching on the shoulder seam. And then we've also added like four zippers!!!

11. Picard:

What did the stitchers do to this designer? FOUR inverse corners (I guess at least it doesn't intersect a seam this time) PLUS the piecing at the cuff, PLUS all the pattern matching at the armscye, and all in stretch (I think). The only reason it's not the most difficult sleeve is because it looks fairly flat and I bet if you do a nice tight hand baste you can get everything lined up on the first try. Also this is not strictly speaking part of the sleeve but those little corners in the yoke? Good grief.

12. TNG Version 2A:

Never in my life have I seen an armscye like this. What is this even called? How do you construct it? I suppose I would sew the sleeve pieces together, set them in the armscye, then sew the raglan/yoke pieces together at the shoulder seam and then stitch them all the way across the front and then all the way across the back. But good grief. The ONLY other sleeve I could find remotely like this is this 1940s Simplicity pattern (it's on ebay if you want it).

With a few added seams you can imagine what these pattern pieces must look like.

13. TNG Version 1:

All the malarkey of 2A except you've got to do it in spandex. I'd pick wool any day. We also have a second yoke (?!) so now we have to do that little inverse corner TWICE and also add piping. Never in my life have I done an intersection of piping correctly the first time.

And then on top of all that it's ugly. Terrible sewing experience. Worst sleeve in Star Trek *bangs gavel*.

[astroboots]

Stitches and Claws

Pairing: Miguel O'Hara x female reader

Summary: You find yourself in a compromising position on your knees when you help stitch up Miguel's wounds.

Content: Blowjob, riding cock, overstimulation, fangs and claws. Miguel kind of likes his horniness with a little bit of pain? Just a smidge.

Word Count: 3.3k

Astroboot’s Masterlist | Spiderverse Masterlist

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"Miguel, can you please just relax?"

"I am relaxed," comes the sharp reply, as he glares down at you. Jaw so tense, you're surprised his molar teeth hasn't cracked under the pressure.

Your hand comes to his knee, as you spread them wider, and you can feel the plane of his thighs tense underneath your palm.

Yeah, the man is anything but relaxed.

Miguel is still in his suit. Skin covered in dark blue and red. The only part of him not covered in the fancy spandex (and if he heard you call it that he'd be livid, cause it's Unstable Molecule fabric, not spandex) is that scowling face of his and a small patch on the inside of his left thigh. An area the size of your hand that's bare, revealing his tanned skin underneath and a nasty looking injury.

You poise the needle in your hand against the gaping wound. You don't even get the chance to make skin contact with the tip before he's hissing at you like some damned feral cat.

"I haven't even touched you yet. This is going to hurt a hell of a lot more if you keep fighting me."

You probably sound more than a little bit irritated, because this position isn't exactly comfortable. The hardwood floor is digging into your knees, and with hindsight you should've taken the cushion he'd offered you before.

God, up close, that wound look really bad. Four inches in length, red and angry. You're not a doctor. You don't know why the hell you agreed to do this. For all you know you're going to get the wound infected or worse.

"Miggy, I don't know about this, don't you think it's better go to a hospital. What if it gets infected? You'll end up with gangrene and then we'll have to amputate it and then what?"

"That's not going to happen. It's a tiny cut."

"Fine, but I'm not a medical professional and I'm probably gonna make it scar to shit."

"So it'll scar. It'll be your permanent mark on me."

"I'm worried I'm going to mess this up".

"No", he says, shaking his head. "I trust you."

Your cheeks warm at the words, barely able to look him in the eyes after he's said it.

Fuck, he'd have to go and pull that card didn't he?

With a big sigh and bigger reluctance, you dip your head down as you pierce the needle through the skin, threading it across. There's a muffled pained noise from above. The leather of your armchair squeaks as he grips it tight.

A sympathetic ache tugs in your chest at his pain and your hand still against his thigh. "Do I need to stop?"

"No, keep going," he bites out through gritted teeth.

From the corner of your eyes, you catch a glimpse of the pointed edges of his corner teeth protruding against his bottom lip. It's hard to keep your hands still when your fingertips tingle at the sight of them.

Jesus, you need to get your head out of the gutter. This is hardly the time. You persevere, dipping back down for a better view, so you can sew up the gaping wound as best as you can, ignoring the warmth of his firm thighs that are caging you in at your sides.

You try to pretend you don't hear the strained noises he's making. (Noises that are much too similar to the ones he makes when he's the one between your thighs). Practically bury your head into his thigh so you can no longer see the way his broad chest heaves or how he bites down hard on his lip when you make another stitch.

"Stop, stop!" he demands.

His hand grips down hard on your shoulder, pressing you backwards, but you ignore it, because the needle is already halfway through his skin, and for a man who is constantly battling supervillains on skyscrapers with jetpacks and regularly crashes into skyscrapers, he can be such a baby sometimes.

"Miguel, stop, I need to--"

"Enough!" He growls, his hand pushes more insistently, determined to pry you off him until your ass lands on the hardwood floor behind you.

"Let me do it myself."

Let him? Let him?! As if you had forced him to make you do this? This asshole. Swear to god! He's the one who came home in this state, plonked his dumptruck ass in your chair and asked you to help him. He's the one who sweet-talked you with his: "I trust you," when you had soundly suggested he go to the hospital.

He's always like this. Running hot then cold. Asking you to help, then pushing you away in the next second. It's a miracle you don't have permanent neck injuries with the metaphorical whiplashes he keeps giving you.

You drag your eyes upwards, the way he's hunched on himself in your chair, covering his thigh. His face is turned to the side away from you.

You don't know why he's being so unhelpful about this.

Stitching up your superhero boyfriend with a $10 Amazon sewing kit isn't your idea of a perfect Saturday night. But now that you've started you need to finish up with the stitches, you can't just leave it as it is.

"I'm sorry that I went too rough. If I hurt you, I can go slower, okay?"

He doesn't answer you, just drags one large hand over his face. It's only then that you notice that his ears and bits of his cheeks are flushed a darker shade of red than the tanned tone of his hand.

"That's not the problem I'm having," he mutters.

"Well then, can you tell me what the problem is?"

No answer.

Leaning forward, you place your hand back on his knee. That finally seems to get his attention and he removes his hand.

"You said you trusted me right? So let me know what's wrong so I can take care of you. Please?"

For all his obstinate stubbornness, Miguel is just as susceptible as you are to that card. He groans dramatically, collapsing back into the chair with a defeated expression on his face.

His legs shift in the chair, spreading outwards. The arm draped across his lap falls away, and the tight fit of his supersuit does absolutely nothing to disguise the shape of his cock, hard and heavy under the clinging fabric.

Oh. oh.

Clearly you’re not the only one being affected by the forced proximity of this situation.

"See the problem?" he says.

You look up and his eyes flicker away sheepishly. If you didn't know better, and if it wasn't for the scowl still plastered on his face, you might've mistaken him for being embarrassed. If you didn't know better, you might've made the mistake of calling him cute.

You ache between your thighs at the sight of him. But even though there's nothing more you'd like than leap into his lap and fill that ache with every inch of him, there's other priorities right now.

Crawling forward, you shoulder your way back between his thighs and settle there.

"Let me finish," you insist. "If you let me finish, then I'll help you with your problem."

It's an uneven bargain to say the last. Because the reward you're offering him, is something you want more than your next breath, and you have to bite back the 'ohthankyousweetjesus' on the tip of your tongue, when he gives you a small nod to seal the deal.

Maybe it's your newfound incentive, but this time as you pinch the needle between your fingers to stitch him up, it's a swift and efficient ordeal. You refuse to allow yourself to get distracted, eyes focused on your goal, even as you hear him groan above or shift underneath you. Not until the last stitch is done.

When you finally let yourself tilt your head back up. His eyes are pinned on your face, and you can see now that the familiar brown shade replaced by a red tinge.

Your tongue is heavy in your mouth, and you try to keep your eyes fixed on his, holding the contact as you lean forward. Anticipation rides heavy on your spine, as your mouth inches forward, until your lip press against the thin fabric of his crotch, and you nuzzle against the rigid shape of him.

The leather of your chair creaks, and there's a rip. From this angle your view is a bit obscured, but you catch sight of his hands, the firm unforgiving grip he has on your poor armchair. The extended sharp talons piercing through the soft leather in his excitement.

All you hear from above, is a breathy, "Fuck", then the thin fabric separating him from your mouth disintegrates, the dark blue fabric making way for his tanned skin underneath.

Then he's right there. Bare and naked for you to touch. His cock jutting upright between his thighs. He's ruddy and flushed, the fat tip of him glistening with precome that wells from the slit that you can practically already taste on the tip of your tongue.

Your mouth salivates as you part your lips to take him.

To call Miguel thick is an understatement. It's a struggle to fit him in your mouth, your jaw strain with the effort as you slide him further down. As deep as you can, until the blunt tip nudges against the back of your throat and you have to swallow around him in a panicked fit to suppress the reflexive gag pushing back in you.

It's always the hardest the first time. Your mind and throat instinctively fighting you, as you try to swallow down the intimidating girth of him.

"Take it slow nena," Miguel rasps from somewhere above. His voice is a slow and melted hum that drips sweet and honeyed in your veins, and that helps.

You take a deep inhale from your nose, taking in the familiar musky scent of him, and feel your throat relax around him, accommodating to his thickness.

Your thighs ache with arousal. Panties wet and slick as you clench down around nothing. Everything is tightly wound inside you. Your stomach heavy with the dizzying heat as the weight of him rests so fucking perfectly on your tongue.

It's all you can take. You shove your fumbling fingers between your thighs, tugging at the edge of your panties until the obscene wetness greets you and drag it up against your clit.

Relief and pleasure surges through your head, filling your veins with the sensation and you rock into the palm of your hand seeking for more of your own touch.

"Are you touching yourself?"

Your fingers still at the question. You're not exactly embarrassed, it's not like you're doing anything wrong, but you feel sheepish all the same at being caught.

You pull off his cock, letting it slide between your lips and when you finally look back up, he's staring down at you with a dark hunger in those otherworldly crimson eyes like he wants to eat you whole.

"Fuck, come up here," he directs, but you ignore him. Tongue lapping at the tip, savouring the heady taste of him as you run the flatness of your tongue down the length of him.

"Nena," he bites off impatiently. "Up!"

He doesn't wait for your reply this time. So fucking impatient this man.

He's already lunging forward, arms circling your torso as he pulls you up and into his lap with an impressive ease. His arm comes to your thighs, rearranging you to his liking in his lap, one large hand gripping his cock as he positions you above.

"Sit on my cock, nena. Ride me."

Your eyes flit to the poorly stitched up wound on his thigh that looks flimsy to say the least.

"Won't that hurt you?"

His head tilts, brow arching with that sardonic expression of his as if he doesn't see what the problem is. "And?"

This is such a bad idea. But you'd be lying to yourself if you said you wanted to stop now. Instead you settle on a compromise to ensure that you can at least limit the potential damage on him.

"You have to stay still for me, or you'll tear the stitches," you warn.

He nods perfunctorily in agreement and you don't think he's even listening to you. No surprise there, Miguel has never been the best at listening to yours (or anyone's) instructions. He'll do what he wants as he sees fit.

But you can't find it in you to stop. Not when you wrap your hand around the base of his cock, and the velvety smoothness of it twitch in your grip. Not when you notch the tip of his cock to your slick entrance and can feel yourself dripping down his length.

The only thing you care about is to have him inside you.

You lower yourself onto him, sliding down, inch by maddening inch, as that thickness stretches you to your limits and white hot pleasure invades every one of your cells until you feel drunk on the sensation.

"That's it," he encourages, with a sharp inhale, hand gripping to the sides of your hips. The honed edge of his talons gripping into your flesh, but never breaking the skin.

Your thighs are shaking as you inch down on him until they are pressed flush to his hips, and his cock is kissing that perfect spot deep inside you that has your vision whiten. Thick and sweet.

As promised, he doesn't move. Even though you can tell from the muscle twitching in his jaw, that there's nothing more he wants than to flip you over and thrust into you hard and deep until you're screaming his name with a force that makes your lungs burn out.

You lift your hips, savoring the sweet drag of his cock against your cunt, slow and unhurried until only the blunt tip of him rests inside you and stay there.

"Nena," Miguel says, and the nickname on his tongue sounds like a warning.

He's not a fan of the slow pace you're giving him apparently.

But you've never been one to heed his warnings. Instead you slide down on him, just as slowly, letting his cock fill you at a leisurely pace and it is fucking heaven.

You still as he bottoms up inside you, before you do it all over again. And again. Then again. To each grumpy groan of his that's mixed with pleasure and impatience. Then you do it again.

It's only a matter of time before his short-spanned patience snap. You can practically see it in the furrowed line of his thick brows, as you raise yourself up on his knees. His sharp canines bites down on his bottom lip, breaking the skin and that is all the warning you get before his arms wraps tight around your ribs, knocking the very breath out of your lungs.

Miguel's arms pushes you down flush on his cock, it's strong and demanding. A stubborn grip until he makes sure you've taken all of him to the root. It's blinding you with the force of it, and all you can do as he buries his face, sharp teeth poised at your shoulders, is whine.

Good, it feels so fucking good. The sweet ache of his cock filling every inch of you. You can't think anymore.

You try to raise yourself again on his cock but you wobble, the muscles in your thighs screaming in protest and gives under, unable to lift yourself back up again.

Fuck, you don't know if you can move anymore.

In a split of a second, Miguel straightens up and pulls you into his chest. "So pretty, nena," he groans into your skin, while he ruts up and into you, fucking his cock deeper.

You should probably scold him. Try to stop him somehow, so that he doesn't rip the tenuous stitches on his wound. But you can't bring yourself to open your mouth. Not when it feels this good. Not when aching pleasure is pulling you down under and robbing you of your breath and every word in your vocabulary.

"You feel so fucking good. Stretched so tight around me. Just so fucking pretty when you take my cock."

The sharp edge of his fangs skirts gently across the soft flesh of your throat, and sets every nerve in you alight. Every part of you tingles. From the tip of your fingers to the curl of your toes. That telltale warmth and heat coiling in your stomach and spreads outwards ratcheting up to a fever pitch.

Your orgasm breaks. It rushes over you, hard and punishing. Your body shakes, thighs tensing and your heart is beating hard and fast into a gallop in your chest. You shake and tremble in his lap as it courses through your veins. Lungs squeezed painfully tight as the sweet bliss of it invades your ribs and you struggle to catch your breath.

You still feel it, rushing and pulsing from your stomach down your thighs, it doesn't even have a moment to properly subside.

Miguel doesn't stop. His hands are already on your waist, lifting you up and almost off his still hard cock and you gasp at the shift in pressure inside you. You're clenching down around the fat tip of him reflexively, and there's no time to adjust, no time to think, next thing you know, he lifts his hips while pushing you down on the length of his cock. All in one swift, and harsh, unforgiving motion.

It's so much, too much. You whimper at the next thrust, the whole of your body wracked in shivers as the sensation overfloods your brain. As good as if it feels, you don't know if you can't take much more.

"Keep going, don't stop. I know it's hard nena. I know you're sensitive." he coos, his hands are gentle on your hips, guiding your movements, but for all his sweet cajoling words, and for all that you're struggling he's not easing up.

"Keep going. Keep squeezing my cock like that and I'll fill you up. I'll fill you up with every drop of me."

He keeps encouraging you, as if you have any other choice but to take his demanding thrusts. As if there is anywhere for you to go with how firmly he's holding you to him.

Fuck you can't, you can't-- oh fuck, you're--

Your arms scramble to grab onto something, anything, fingers digging deep into the firm muscles underneath.

It's chaos.

He thrusts up again. Deep and demanding and your brain shortcircuits.

Sharp electricity surges through your spine and it is blinding. All you can do is hold on to him, to claw on and hold for dear life, or you're pretty sure you're gonna fall off the edge of the earth into oblivion if you lose your grip.

Distantly, you hear him hiss in your ear, feel his hips stutter up against yours, cock pulsing inside of you, but you're too far gone to piece it all together.

All you know is that you're coming again or maybe you never stopped and this is that first orgasm still wreaking havoc on your body. Maybe it'll never stop. The sensation feels like a punch to your gut, consuming and all at once. Your eyes must cross behind your head, because your vision goes dark and blank, wiped clean of thoughts. The room seems to tilt, and crash then disappear. There's no weight to your limbs, and your thighs are so numb, you're not even sure they are there anymore. Your body is not your own.

When you come to, you're still perched on his lap. You feel like wrung out and boneless, body spent and broken. His arms wrapped around your torso the only thing that's keeping you upright.

The arms of your leather chair have been scratched up to hell. Long claw marks brandishing each side.

He looks like an absolute mess. Brown curl a deranged mop on the top of his head, sheen of sweat over his tanned skin. But he looks good, messy. Looks fucking beautiful in a way that has your chest squeeze tight when you gaze at him.

Miraculously, the stitches on his thigh has held up somehow and you feel more than a little ounce of pride of your own sewing skills at the feat.

Your hands slide off of him from where they're still gripping on tight onto him and Miguel's eyes follow the motion to his biceps where your nails have broken through skin. The tiny crescent marks looks red and raw and painful.

"Shit, Miggy I'm sorry."

He blinks up at you, eyes a little bit dazed before he breaks out into a smile. He raises his arm and looks at the mark with a pleased and admiring expression one filled with pride.

"I hope it leaves a scar," he says.

Dedication & Credits:

For @thirstworldproblemss who had to listen to me figure this one out, I'm still trying to find my voice for Miguel so sorry if this is a bit clunky for you.

Also dedicated to @guruan whose artwork literally inspires me to write/think/breathe smut 24-7 like a 7-eleven store. It's always open for slut business here. This artpiece with the spread thighs definitely inspired this oneshot.

I don’t have a tag list but please follow me on astroboots-writes and turn on notifications to be notified when I post something new!

[balkanradfem]

I keep thinking everyone knows the exact same information as me, but since I'm about to make more posts about textiles and clothing, as I'm reading the book on them, I'm going to write down some basic information, just in case it's not very common, because a lot of this I only gathered recently. If I get something wrong please correct me in a kind way!

So where does the clothing come from, and how do we make it? During most of the history, textiles were made by women, from natural materials; flax, wool, cotton, silk, jute. Recently we started using more synthetic materials, like acrylic, polyester, nylon, spandex. If you want to make clothing from the natural materials, like wool or cotton, they first need to be processed, cleaned and combed, then spun into yarn, or thread. Spinning is the process where women manage to pull a thin part of the material and spin the fibres into one consistent, firm thread. It's super impressive to watch them do it and I have no idea how they manage to make it consistent, I've not yet tried to do it myself.

Once the thread is done, it can be made into a textile by knitting, crochet, or weaving. There are also other more complex, decorative methods, like tatting or lacing.

For knitting, you need two needles, or a special circular needle, or, there are also knitting machines, which you can use to make woolen fabric. For weaving, you need a loom. For crochet, you need a crochet hook. While knitting and weaving can be done by a machine, crochet can only be done by hand. Woven fabrics are firm, sturdy, durable, and not stretchy, while knit fabric is the most stretchy and soft. I'm not sure about crochet since I only have one crochet garment, but mine is very sturdy!

All of these methods were historically done by women; families were able to grow flax plants close to their homes, and women would then create linens, woven textiles made from processed flax, which was used to make sheets and clothing. Linen was specifically useful in keeping people clean, since it's very good at absorbing moisture. Used as an under-garment, it was capable of absorbing sweat, and protecting the outer layers, which were not washed. Experiments have shown that frequently changing into clean linen was more effective at keeping clean than showering and then putting on the same clothing back on.

Women's ability to create clothing was sadly exploited, and women were even banned to sell it commercially, or from competing at the commercial market, but their husbands were allowed to profit off of their craft.

In the USA, cotton was the most produced material, however for this too people were enslaved and exploited; cotton took human labour to grow, harvest and process, it also required a lot of water, and caused destruction of environment, because of the chemicals used in it's growth, and the unsustainability of monocrops.

Creating a piece of clothing out of textiles, or sewing, is a process that still cannot be completely automated; while you can use a sewing machine, you cannot make a machine that would produce a whole garment out of textiles. No mass-produced piece of clothing was sewn by a machine, it always has to be made by a human being. This is why a lot of the sewing labour is currently outsourced to third-world countries and companies use modern slavery in order to create fast fashion; there is no machine that can do it, so by the rules of capitalism, the companies are trying to get that labour as cheap as possible, often at the cost of human lives.

We didn't use to have as many garments as we do today, in the 18th century people would have two outfits, one for normal days of the week, and one for Sunday. The clothing they owned was usually made to fit them exactly, either by a female member of the family, or a seamstress, and these garments were made to last them for decades. As clothing became cheaper to buy than to make at home, and more of it became mass-produced, people started acquiring more of it, but also using it for lesser period of time. This would eventually grow into a bigger problem, due to the amount of chemicals and labour used to grow, process, dye and sew the garments, and the amount of waste we were starting to accumulate.

Introduction of synthetic materials, like acrylic, made the yarn and the textiles much cheaper, however it lacks the important properties natural materials have. Do you ever notice how synthetic garments sometimes continue smelling bad even after you wash them? That is because they'll absorb sweat, but become hydrophobic when wet, meaning they will take in your sweat, but refuse to let it go once they're in the water. This means that the longer you have them, the worst their stink becomes. This, of course, can be hidden by the generous use of scented fabric softener, but it won't exactly make the garment clean. This information I've learned recently, but it helped me identify what were the most synthetic pieces of clothing I had. Acrylic clothing had also proven to shed 1.5 more microplastics than any other polyester when put into the washing machine.

Having our clothing grown, processed, spun, woven/knit, and then sewn far out of sight, it's possible to lose the sight of where it came from, or how it's made. Only by trying to do it yourself, or learning closely about the process can one learn to appreciate what a monumental task it is, to create fabric, or a garment. Other than the synthetic textiles, of which I still know very little of, all of the natural clothing is a product of plants and animals, it takes land, farming, agriculture and water to grow the plants, raise the animals, and then labour to process and spin the fibres. It's also something people used to do in their gardens, inside of their homes, something that was normal for women to do, and to trade for anything else they needed, saving them from having to work for wages. Women making fabric was always to the benefit of everyone around them, while m*n taking over the industry and doing it commercially, ultimately brought slave labour to a lot of people, cheap and low quality garments to the select few, and money to the hands of the exploiters.

Being curious about clothing and what becomes of it, is a big benefit to the environment and the future of the earth! Knowing what the textile industry is doing, and how does it affect the planet, can be a great motivator to try and sew, or upcycle and mend clothing, or create garments. It's presented to us as something women were forced to do in the past, and it's connected to 'feminine hobbies', but in actuality, it is power to create something humans cannot do without. Women in the past used it's power too, whenever they could. And we are the only ones who ever used this power for good.

[a-minke-whales-tale]

Whale Pyjama

I think I may need to make myself a new whale pyjama. The one I have currently are quite comfortable but has a number of problems.

The flukes are floppy and do not fit well against the side of my feet as I have to split my tail with some force to have them slightly less floppy, which is not comfortable.

The zipper on the front has particularly large segments and so is quite uncomfortable against my stomach and chest (and in the case of the current material it is stretchy enough it really is not even needed and frankly did not sew on well)

The flippers are too big, particularly too thick. It is nice when laying on my back, but on my stomach, how I like to lay, with my flippers pressed against my sides it really is not possible to lay like that.

The pyjama is a bit too loose and especially in the case of the flippers feels very much like something attached to me rather than part of me (granted my arms and legs also feel that way but in a less obvious manner).

What this means is that despite them being a pyjama, I really cannot wear them to sleep. One of the issues I have in particular in the evenings is I remove my clothing to sleep and in this see my body, and particularly see my hands attached to the rest. This can cause quite a lot of distress and often leads to spirals and unfortunately the mittens I made are not sufficient.

I think what I want to try to do to improve it is to make it almost more like a bathing suit material, that it is tight to my body for the most part as I can forget I am wearing a bathing suit because of how it holds to my skin. That material is also preferable as a blanket should not stick to it in the way it does to the fuzzy textures should I need to use a blanket. But also it is stretchy and should be able to be pulled up over my body without needing something like a zipper and for my side it does not need to fully cover me, just where I can easily see.

Having flukes that have some stiffness would also be good. I do not know if I should use something like a silicone I slot my foot into/against or instead make almost like a plastic monofin which would just have the shape but my feet in a lycra/spandex sock. Having them in something silicone would fix it better to my feet, but it would likely increase the heat inside which could be uncomfortable.

Flippers, the last aspect is flippers. My current thought is to use silicone. There are a number of things I would like to have happen with the flippers, first off to not be overly warm, however it would be nice to have some ability to bend my flippers. Whales cannot do this in reality, but I will be on a human couch or bed and not in the water so being able to bend my flippers would be really useful to not be entirely beached. Ideally I would also like to be able to have something in the tip of the flipper that would let me me interact with touch screens or touch pads so that way I can still interact with others while wearing the flippers, or interact with human technology and watch youtube or whatever while whaling about. Making something solid silicone seems like it would really impede that movement as there will have to be a substantial amount of material behind my arm in the flipper, and probably some bit before due to the airfoil shape and hiding my thumbs. One possibility would be to put air gaps in the mould which would also allow it to be lighter, but also bend easier and likely conform to my arm easier.

The last major external feature is a dorsal fin and I am uncertain if I should even include this. It is on my back so inherently I cannot see it, it would likely sit around my thighs and so giving it some integrity so it stands up would probably be difficult and noticeable of it being there and not a part of me, and from a practical point it would make being on my back, or rolling over through my back probably relatively uncomfortable which might take from the desired function of the pyjama.

[hoardlikegoldenirises]

after drawing the sparkly bider-man i wanted to make one for my AU... purely self-indulgent...

I doubt Peter would really take the time and expense to make a special pride suit he would only wear once or twice unless Johnny convinced him or smth so it's mostly hypothetical but still fun —

I was looking through my timeline trying to figure out when would make the most sense for this (which also included: has Johnny outed himself yet) and I ended up deciding 2014 makes the most sense because well, in 2012 Peter will be locked in a basement during June, and in 2013 he would be busy with Electro and finishing grad school, but 2014 is like... right after he and Flash get married so I can easily imagine Johnny being like "c'moooon Spidey, let's dress up together, you just got gay*-married" etc. and, well, peter does like to dress up... (otherwise he wouldn't be in spandex all the time 😂)

normally I avoid metallic or shiny spandex like the plague for suit designs cause I think it looks cheap but I made an exception for this 😂 it probably IS cheap...

closeups:

posing for pictures... johnny's idea, naturally. in my timeline i think johnny outs himself in like 2011 or so after a very messy divorce (from lyja) but I'm not spending too much time on the F4 stuff in this aside from just having a general idea so if they appear in a fic I know what's going on 😅 anyway by 2014 johnny is def way more comfortable with being publicly gay, since the cat's long out of the bag, though he's still got a lot of issues... but he's good at pretending to be okay :)

but also he still has a crush on peter 😂 tfw you have the hots for your superhero friend who just got married

peter actually already knows how johnny feels about him by the time he gets married, i just thought the dialogue was funny

I thought it would be fun if the lens frames were sparkly... normally I have his frames out of vulcanized black rubber (like car tire rubber) (...like might actually be carved from old tires) just cause I prefer the matte and slightly soft look compared to plastic... I figure something like sparkly firm silicone or sparkly plastic is probably pretty achievable for Peter to make. And the lenses would just be his normal bulletproof lenses but with an iridescent film on the outside to make them a little rainbowy...

and I think in 2014 irl holographic glitter spandex was like... something that existed that you could buy lol so i figure he can very carefully sew a holographic spider on.... so the spiders are like, that silvery white rainbow glitter kind of look

no webbing because there's a limit to how much labor and time peter would be willing to put into a flashy, kind of useless costume that he wouldn't be able to/want to wear very often... (and i wasn't a fan of how it looked)

bisexual fingers. there's a dirty joke in there somewhere.

it's difficult to come up with body-covering outfits that are suitable for summer weather as-is but the fact that he's wearing polyester spandex underneath really adds a layer of "i'm going to get heatstroke and die" to this outfit. lots of linen though. at least the armpits are athletic mesh.

also yeah the spidey shirt is a leotard with a snap crotch so. he's really just hoping that doesn't unroll under his clothes cause it would absolutely hang down very visibly from under his shirt if it were to fall. (maybe he can use his electrostatic sticking powers to just. hold it in place...)

he also can't roll down the waistband of his tights because it's more rigid than the rest of his costume on account of that's where he keeps all his spare web cartridges and it would suck if they all fell out LOL

hm i just noticed i accidentally gave peter a purple happy trail oops just pretend that's black

anyway

that's AU bider-man

oh

i also drew this which is much more corny/embarrassing but i thought it was a cute idea — by necessity has to be after flash is public and transitioning etc… so 2016 at the earliest but i drew this more like 2017 or 2018, after she's been on hrt and stuff and is probably more confident

i don't think there's a worry of accidentally spotlighting her/outing her because, well, she probably doesn't pass in a lot of people's eyes… broad shoulders, sideburns, etc. but… peter thinks she's pretty ❤️

i was gonna draw more of the gang but then the list kept expanding like, oh should i include X, what about Y? and it was. too many people. so then i just decided to only draw flash and peter 😂

they should have stickers on their shirts though... like a polyamory sticker... or pins...

*as of most recent plot updates in 2024, Flash starts living publicly as a woman around the time she and Peter get married, but it's probably still legally a gay marriage (at first) even if Flash is like, "Actually, I'm a girl. Surprise!" lmao

[catpotato347]

Sewing doll clothes

Tight skirt

A tight skirt pattern!! I recommend reading through the whole post before starting!!

(TW: pins/needles)

You need:

-a doll (I have an ever after high doll)

-Knit/jersey fabric (any 4 way stretch fabric)

-paper

-marker/pen/pencil

-sewing machine (with thread!!)

-scissors

-pins

First, grab your doll!! I have an ever after high doll, but this works for any doll. Then, draw around your dolls hips just like in the picture. You can then make you skirt any length you want

Move your doll away, and add 1/8th” seam allowance to the top and bottom of the pattern

Cut your pattern out!!!

Find your fabric!! It needs to stretch up and down and left to right!! Jersey/knit/spandex is good

Fold your fabric over and pin your pattern to your fabric

Cut your fabric and you will have 2 pieces!

Next, take the top of one of the pieces and fold the fabric over a bit (look at the picture above)

Then pin. Do that to the bottom and the second piece of fabric too (hopefully it will look like the photo)

Use paper under your sewing so your pieces don’t get eaten by the sewing machine!!

Sew!! Sew both the top and bottom folded parts on both pieces!!

Pt. 2 !! Hit the photo limit :((

If something doesn’t make sense, ask!!

[sydmarch]

due to the sensory agonies I've never been able to tolerate wearing an actual binder & find wearing a sports bra really annoying but generally manageable until recently I was like wait I can sew im sure I can come up with something better. diy "sports bra" made from some thick spandex that has a slight stretch in one direction & a lot of stretch on the other. stretch horizontal on the back piece & vertical on the front piece for combined tit compression + not being too tight on your back & making your muscles sore. 10/10 would recommend

[poppetsisters]

How did the Fantastic Four cosplay get made?

It started with an idea: to create the most comic accurate fantastic four costume possible. Already I'm hit with the question "but there's so many suits in the comics, so which suit will you choose?" I decided the easiest answer would be "The First One"

Okay I meant "The Second One."

There we go.

Now this costume is not the same as the the costume they wear for the majority of the Kirby run. By issue 6, the costume above was phased out for one without a turtleneck, a blue ring around the 4, a thinner belt, and no drop shadow on the 4. The only change I prefer is that Susan is no longer wearing high heels.

I like the first design better for its distribution of color. The thicker belt just reads nicer to my eyes, and the blue ring around the 4 makes no sense to me. Blue on blue? I also just really like turtlenecks.

Tangent aside, once I decided on a costume, it was time to get to work on the design. Part of the reason I made a Fantastic Four costume retrospective was in preparation for this project. Using the combined lore of the F4 costumes, I could synthesize the most accurate design possible, and my findings can be found below.

I've seen a lot of cosplays too, and part of my secondary goal was to avoid a lot of their shortcomings. I didn't want any bad materials, so I did my research and found materials that best fit my autism texture preferences. I also wanted to be very precise about where the gloves, belt, boots, and turtleneck were placed, hence why I decided to sew them all on, rather than be separate pieces. In an ideal world, there would've been no zipper, but what good is a suit you can't put on?

My brightest idea was separating the leotard from the trousers, instead of having one body suit. This was done as a practical measure to prevent tearing (which is exactly why real strong men in the circus wore them, which in turn inspired Superman's design, and the rest is history. For the F4, I interpreted Jack's artwork as a leotard, or maybe just underpants on the outside. As far as I'm aware, no cosplayer has noticed or applied this to their suit.

Next was a matter of finding someone to make this. I'm an artist, not a tailor after all. Twitter bots flooded my DMs, but what didn't disappoint me was Etsy. I DM'd a few sellers, gauging their personality and their previous work. I settled on PingPing, who you can find here: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/PingPing

Their portfolio was exactly what I was looking for, and they were wonderful to work with. They asked for additional measurements, were up-front about materials, and were very fast!

Here's the catch. Their page says they use polyester spandex, which was what I wanted, but when they got back to me about materials, they gave me a nylon spandex blend. This made me nervous because I didn't know how this material felt, but every website I read told me it was ideal for sportswear and moving around as it was comfy and good at keeping sweat in, which was what I was looking for regardless.

The real issue was that nylon and spandex is one of the worst fabrics for printing. Nylon/Spandex doesn't do well with a heat press, either melting the fabric or causing shrinkage. In addition, the tight weave makes it really hard to allow flex in printed elements, not to mention adherence.

Their solution to this was to stitch on the logo, but I watched the 1994 Fantastic Four movie where they did just that, and it looked like crap! I took a big risk and told them that I would do the printing myself. I live in Toronto after all, surely there's at least one shop in the city that had the ability to do this.

Right?

That was a problem for Future Penny to solve, so I sent the payment and waited eagerly for my california-based commissionee to finish... and finish they did!

I was so excited seeing this. Even without the logo, it was already exactly how I envisioned it! It even wrinkled the same way around the belly that it does in the comics. I was floored! I was a little shocked that they shipped it before I was able to give notes, but then again, if I had requested any changes, they'd likely have to start all over. Thank goodness it's perfect.

It arrived at my apartment shortly after. I put it on, and it was the most comfortable thing I've ever worn in my life. Because it was tailor made, it hugged my body so well, I was quoting Ned Flanders in his ski outfit! I showed my girlfriend and she was a blushing mess (it was perhaps too revealing).

But there was still the matter of the logo. I called up several places across the city, got into email correspondence with them, and discussed what could be done. Unfortunately, out of the seven places that got back to me, none of them felt comfortable with the material.

I was stuck, if the city of Toronto couldn't do it, who could? That's when I realized how stupid I was:

"Don't I attend an arts school?"

With a tote bag in hand carrying the suit, I made my way to the campus, marching toward the textiles department. I had lied to them saying this was for a school project, but I think they all knew what this was really about. Despite this, they were fully on-board to help me.

The first thing that had to be done was make the screen layers. Their process of printing on fabric was to make stencils of the logo that represented each color (in this case, black and white. The blue was just the fabric itself). I hopped onto photoshop and whipped up the layers pretty fast.

Now it could've been printed that day, but there was a request. They wanted a swatch to print on to make sure printing on this tricky fabric wouldn't damage anything. In hindsight, it was really funny having to buy a $1 swatch with $20 shipping and handling. The swatch arrived quick, and I immediately set up an appointment to print the suit the next day.

It was raining hard, the thunder was so loud I thought it was right above my head, and Passover had begun. I was greeted by two wonderful students named Mya and Nicole. They brought my stencils into the dark room and had them imprinted on a screen like so:

They started out on a white canvas fabric, just to make sure it printed well.

Success! The next test was for the pigments themselves.

Uh oh, what happened? Well the black they were using was a transparent black, which was overlayed on the white dye, making it more see through than we wanted. The fabric itself shifted as well, so it was grossly misaligned. Always tighten your fabric with pins, folks. Another student who I can't remember the name of was able to search the storage area for better black dye.

Don't be fooled by the yellow lighting, that's a black print on blue fabric, not a gold print on a white fabric. Regardless, the black worked! The final test then... was the nylon/spandex swatch.

I couldn't believe it! It actually looked really great! The colors are really crisp, and it even allowed for a bit of stretching (an accidental benefit of the blue part being just the fabric is that it creates less strain on the print itself).

The big problem was that, during the drying phase when the white was applied, they used a hair dryer, which due to the heat, caused warping, hence the misalignment. That meant that when it came time to print on the suit for real, it had to air dry in a dry environment.

Through the leg holes, a block of wood with foam attached covered by a canvas fabric is placed inside (wasn't expecting to get any wood thrust in the suit, feels violating). Euphemisms aside, this was to steady the sheet used to print, as well as to hold the fabric and place and prevent the bumps created by the zipper on the back.

We must've spent 5-10 getting the logo to center and at a right angle. The entire time we were applying paint, we were nervous as hell. I had made the mistake of telling them this suit cost me $600, and there was no going back.

We watched with baited breath.

ALRIGHT IT'S GOOD IT LOOKS GOOD OKAY IT'S HAPPENING IT'S REALLY HAPPENING!! We waited for it to dry for about 45 minutes I think. I got something from the café and sat there thinking about how I was doing this on Passover. Jack Kirby's faith meant a lot to him, and it felt fitting that I brought to life one of his creations during a holiday he would celebrate. I think about my own faith sometimes... I'll leave it at that for now.

I got back into the studio, and they were waiting for me to put on the black coat. We spent another 5-10 minutes lining up the logo with the other logo so it would be the cleanest possible.

The last step was now.

And there it was. Words failed me, I admit. All I could do was look in stunned amazement that this was REAL!

We let it dry for another 45 minutes, where then they took out the pins and presented the fabric to me. They told me not to wash it for a whole month, which I then asked them what settings I should use for the washer. They told me to machine wash cold and delicate, and hang dry, which is thankfully exactly what PingPing told me to do. I walked home with the costume, hung it up in my closet, and joined my roommate for the seder meal.

Thank you for reading.

[jingycakes]

Jock Week 2024 - Day 6: Genderbend

They’re not soulmates, they’re SWOLEMATES

Gym mirror-selfie with Brooke and Joe - Brooke sewed her sports bra and leggings from some spandex she got, and she’s begging Joe to let her make/buy him a new workout shirt since the one he has on is getting too small, but he wants to be able to rip it when he flexes like the Incredible Hulk lol.

Sorry this is late, today was busy - my bestie graduated university! Super proud of her!

I just realized I unintentionally made Brooke resemble Safiya Nygaard

[cordcorvid]

hi! i hope this doesnt come off as a bother or anything . but do you have any mask making tips or tutorials you could reccomend ?? (like for materials, jaw movement, and how to see out of there) im planning to do a raven named Goose :D

ive been finding some resources here and there, but i thought it wouldnt hurt to ask !!!

Absolutely not! I'd love to answer all your questions. :D I have not looked at that many tutorials, I mostly looked at pinterest pictures of raven costumes to see what I can come up with. One that really inspired me to get things going is actually another Tumblr user I found on there who has posted some helpful tips that I followed along with! They too have a raven costume and they got their resin base from the same manufacturer (Crystumes, they have a website where you can shop for their blanks) Since this post is awfully long, I'll do a read more from here on:

The tutorials I followed the most is this one by Rah-Bop:

Rah-Bop has some tips about adding feathers, making foam-feathers, adding claws to your gloves, making gloves or feet. In terms of material: I used the hinged resin base by Crystumes which by itself cost me +/- 200USD, they sent me a pair of customizeable glass eyes and a tongue.

Crystumes has some additional tutorials specifically regarding their masks on their website! Crystumes also lists some of the materials on their website that I used and where to get them (Like the apoxie clay to do the eyelids, the glass eyes etc.) I did mess the eyes up though the first time I did it so I had to order them from delviesplastics.com (As suggested by Crystumes) Since I ordered the base with hinges I'm not sure how to do them myself but I will have to figure it out for the second fursuit I'm cooking! In terms of other material I bought some long rooster feathers and hair jewelry off of Etsy. I bought a pair of long faux leather gloves from Ricardo (which is a swiss second hand online shop) but you can buy the gloves anywhere else or even sew them yourself by tracing your arm and hand on a piece of paper, then trace the pattern twice on any somewhat stretchy material like faux leather or spandex and sew those two together for one glove each. I bought black fur in another Swiss textile / sewing shop named Alja (not sure if it's actually Swiss) since it's cheaper (around 60$ for 4 yards) than to ship fur from America to Switzerland (Which amounts to 100-200 for the same amount). But if you can afford it: Take a look at Howl's Fabrics or Big Z Fabric. Both websites offer samples! I personally don't buy from them as the shipping costs for me are devastating. I suggest looking at general "furring" tutorials or "how to fur a fursuit head" tutorials on youtube. Most of them will tell you to make a duct tape pattern on your base, draw on the patterns then cut those patterns out on fur, sew the fur together then glue to the base. Crystumes once made a twitter post about it as well I think but I'm not sure I'll find it. When cutting fur in general just make sure you keep the scissors as close to the backing as possible to avoid cutting any fur fibers in the process, it will be visible otherwise. I made a fur top / shirt by tracing one of my long sleeve t-shirts onto the fur I bought and went with that. For the back of the head I used an 80s Mullet/Rockstar wig I bought from another Swiss online store. Other fursuit makers mostly sew fur even to the back of the head but my personal Raven fursuit is literally just a mask with a wig to cover the back. Which in turn makes the whole mask less hot. To keep the mask ON my face and to keep it from slipping down I used the adjusteable part of a biking helmet or climbing helmet. and attached it to the mask by using a lot of hot glue, I eventually had to use some stronger glue as it kept falling off. Since the mask was fairly big when I bought it and rather uncomfortable I used thick felt sheets and glued them inside the head as padding material! Foam works as well, whatever floats your boat. I went with felt since I could easily cut some feather patterns into them as a nice easter egg. Not sure anymore what exactly I used to cover the holes by the beak that I see out of, but it was some kind of very fine dark and flexible grid that I bought from the swiss equivalent of home depot. In terms of being able to see: The crystume base has holes between the beak and the eyes that you can look out of or you can even look through the mouth, both works pretty well and the mask allows for a lot of visibility from within- Out of all my fellow furry friends I'm the only one that doesn't necessarily need a spotter since I can see pretty well. In terms of clothing I pretty much sewed nothing by myself and only assembled a bunch of my own outfits that would fit the raven costume. Sometimes I did buy some costume specific stuff from online clothing stores or went into the thrift shop to buy some costume specific clothing pieces. In general, for your first raven costume just go with the flow and try to keep it budget friendly, as your first will unlikely be perfect. And that's about it! Not sure if I missed something but I tried to cover everything as much in detail as I could. Hope it helps!

[cosplaytutorial]

Ulala from space channel 5, her classic white crop top and skirt outfit? I’m new to sewing and idk how I should do it

Hello there!

This is a very timely ask because I've been off and on considering remaking my own Ulala cosplay (RIP to the one that I wore so much the fabric disintegrated) and might finally do it.

My first piece of advice is: this costume is somewhat advanced just because of the materials involved, but if you don't mind using different materials, it's not TOO bad.

I'll start with the shapes and types of patterns you should look for, because thankfully the shapes of this are easy. The top should have princess seams, likely armhole princess seams. This will get you that tightly fitted look over the bust, and you can take in the side seams and the princess seams just under the bust for a tighter underbust fit. The collar is probably a quarter or half circle -- mess with shapes on paper scale mockups until you get one that looks right.

The skirt looks like a half circle to me, but again, play around with paper patterns to get the right shape. Use a circle skirt calculator to get the measurements you need for the skirt and for your collar. (Be sure to use the waist measurement where the skirt sits, not your true waist!) These are used by taking a string or measuring tape and drawing a circle using the radius it tells you -- the waist radius is the inside of the donut and the full radius is the full length.

I'd recommend getting a pattern for gloves that have finger gussets, and basting the gussets in by hand before machine sewing. Since you're doing the white version, you can probably purchase boots rather than making bootcovers, and use a paint like Angelus leather paint for the platform.

The 5 logo can be painted on with fabric paint or ironed on with HTV. If you don't have an HTV cutter, you can do it by hand or find a friend with a die cutting machine (Cricut, etc.) to do it. If you choose to stencil, I'd recommend the freezer paper method.

Fabric is the hard part.

The way the costume is drawn makes it look like shiny PVC vinyl type fabric. This fabric is what makes it a bit advanced -- vinyl type fabrics (I'm including shiny, smooth stretch pleathers here that have the same look even if they're PU or a material other than vinyl) require some different techniques -- but switching the fabric to something less perfect for the look but easier to sew would greatly help. A shiny spandex would work if you added structure to the skirt, but you may find it difficult to sew.

I'd go with a slightly shiny but still structured woven material for a beginner sewist. A bottomweight cotton sateen would work quite well. If you don't mind something a bit more slippery but that is shinier, I'd go with a peu de soie (a type of heavy satin).

If you choose PVC, I'd personally go with something more structured than a thin stretch one, but not TOO thick because of the gloves. Order swatches when ordering online. The official costumes from the promo events when the game came out seem to be made of a similar material. (Look at those for reference!) If you go with PVC, you need to use a teflon foot or a walking foot for your sewing machine, otherwise the fabric will stick, and you need to be VERY careful about sewing and pinning because needle and pin holes will not close back up like with most fabric. I'd invest in some cheap sewing clips.

Regardless, the skirt and collar will need some added structure -- I'm looking at using fusible foam (like Pellon Flex Foam) for mine, as I just did a cosplay with fusible foam in the skirt and the shape was great. Just make sure you test it ahead of time to be sure it plays nicely with your chosen fabric.

I hope that helps! Good luck :]

—Fabrickind / Q&A Staff / Twitter

[leafnincosplay]

I'm finally free of making bangles! A week and a half of hand sewing was worth it, though.

Figuring out how to make Yui's floating bangles was definitely a challenge and took so much trial and error. I had to be able to bend my elbows and keep the spirals up when I moved. I wanted it to look metallic, too.

After brainstorming with my cosplay discord, I tried so many solutions until I remembered these giant pipe cleaners I bought probably 10 years ago and never used for any project despite several attempts to do so.

So now I'm wearing bangles made of yellow sequin fabric, giant pipe cleaners wrapped in metallic spandex, invisible snaps, and clear elastic. Weird cosplay is my favorite!