New Project- Advice Appreciated
Posted: Sat Feb 28, 2015 5:14:02 pmHey everyone! I'm currently working on a project that involves a ton of sewing/pattern-making which I have basically no experience with. I'm posting about it here since it's a nice craft project I've been working on for a while (planning for it since October) and thought it would be fun to share, and I'm sure there are people here who have much more sewing/pattern-making advice than I do, so tips on how to finish it up or just sewing/pattern-making in general would be awesome.
I recently bought an Aibo ERS-31L (aha, a robot dog) that I'm customizing to both look and act like the character Densuke from the anime Dennou Coil. I'm doing this by making a costume for the robot and editing a freeware program to make it act more like the character. Once the project is finished, I'll be bringing him with me to any conventions that I attend.
Here's how he looked before I started:
Here he is so far:
The whole thing is a removable costume, so it's not a permanent customization and I can always change pieces that I'm not satisfied with. All pieces clip on with Velcro, except for the ear covers which I need to remove the whole ear to take off. All light gray fabric is fleece and all dark gray is thick felt. The collar is a regular dog collar that I bought and I made the lock charm out of clay and painted it. None of the parts get in the way of his motion when he is operating, but I am a bit worried that some (like the collar) may be too heavy to keep on him long term.
What I don't have complete plans for so far is how I'm going to make the costume parts for the head/body since that will be a lot more difficult than the legs/ears were. I have some vague ideas for the head (I'm going to see if I can make it in two parts and have the first be held on by the ear clips and then Velcro the second to the first), but no clear outline yet. I also plan to sew on fabric strips with a small of stuffing to get the proper face shape, but I will also need to cut out holes for the mouth and nose which are a camera and a distance sensor. I've finished the eyes already and they have Velcro on them so they can be swapped out to change the expression (they're just not on the robot yet). I do have a sewing machine, but I've been sewing by hand since I'm still really inexperienced with using it. Any suggestions on how to make patterns for the head/body would definitely be appreciated since I'm really unsure about all of that.
Here are some other work in progress pictures:
I recently bought an Aibo ERS-31L (aha, a robot dog) that I'm customizing to both look and act like the character Densuke from the anime Dennou Coil. I'm doing this by making a costume for the robot and editing a freeware program to make it act more like the character. Once the project is finished, I'll be bringing him with me to any conventions that I attend.
Here's how he looked before I started:
Here he is so far:
The whole thing is a removable costume, so it's not a permanent customization and I can always change pieces that I'm not satisfied with. All pieces clip on with Velcro, except for the ear covers which I need to remove the whole ear to take off. All light gray fabric is fleece and all dark gray is thick felt. The collar is a regular dog collar that I bought and I made the lock charm out of clay and painted it. None of the parts get in the way of his motion when he is operating, but I am a bit worried that some (like the collar) may be too heavy to keep on him long term.
What I don't have complete plans for so far is how I'm going to make the costume parts for the head/body since that will be a lot more difficult than the legs/ears were. I have some vague ideas for the head (I'm going to see if I can make it in two parts and have the first be held on by the ear clips and then Velcro the second to the first), but no clear outline yet. I also plan to sew on fabric strips with a small of stuffing to get the proper face shape, but I will also need to cut out holes for the mouth and nose which are a camera and a distance sensor. I've finished the eyes already and they have Velcro on them so they can be swapped out to change the expression (they're just not on the robot yet). I do have a sewing machine, but I've been sewing by hand since I'm still really inexperienced with using it. Any suggestions on how to make patterns for the head/body would definitely be appreciated since I'm really unsure about all of that.
Here are some other work in progress pictures:
