Captain America Cosplay - Revamped Suit Beginnings

Well, you haven't heard about my fem Cap cosplay in a while, but now you're going to hear a lot. Well, now and in the next month leading up to Avengers: Age of Ultron. Because, in case you didn't know, that's the reason behind this costume. Well, the real reason is because I love Steve Rogers and his costumes and I have been wanting to take a stab at doing a feminine cosplay of Cap for a very long time (ever since the months before Winter Soldier!)... but regardless... ;D

So, the midnight premiere for Age of Ultron was the perfect opportunity to finally branch out from Middle-earth cosplays and try my hand at creating a superhero suit. :D I'm just going to through a bunch of pics at you and explain as we go. Starting with altered costume design all the way up to the recent sewing. Don't worry; future posts will be more coherent. Okay, that's only a "maybe." ;D

First, my original fabrics and plans for a costume based on his Avengers costume. I got as far as the striped stomach panel and the pants...

I even sewed in a fly in these pants, which was something I had never done before (as well as making pants!).  It didn't help that I didn't use a pattern, but I got it done. ;)

...Before these plans were scrapped about a month ago, after I realized...

1) I hated the fabric (the blue stuff had absolutely no stretch, which meant a very uncomfortable suit and not at all conducive to fighting Ultron and stuff like that).
2) I loved his new updated costume design in AoU.
and 3) I realized it made no sense to make his Avengers suit when I could make the epic new Avengers 2 suit, duh!

SO time to hit the thrift stores and get some awesome new fabrics worthy of AoU suit!! (This part is *always* fun. :D)

I'm not kidding, just btw - I went out to my favorite thrift store (that always has tons and tons of fabric) and came home only FOUR DOLLARS POORER and with FOUR YARDS of surprisingly perfect, 60" wide fabric. Thrift stores for the WIN, am I right??? ;)

New blue fabric: It's some type of athletic fabric, with great breath-ability, gorgeous navy/midnight shade, just enough stretch to keep its shape but still give a bit, easy to work with, aaand it's got a sweet looking weave going on:

New red fabric: a nice bold red, sturdy and heavy weight, perfect for the angular accents it's being used for. My original red fabric was thin and stretchy and very slippery, which made for a lot of head and heart-ache while making all the angles in the stripes. The new fabric fixed that issue completely.

To reinforce the stripes, I sewed the fabric to upholstery leather (left over from my Tauriel cosplay! ;D). This made achieving the right shape SO much easier, plus added some sweet 3D detail similar to the real costume.

Oh, and just btw, I'm not trying to make this 100% screen accurate. I've found that goal to be rather stifling, not to mention depressing for a budget cosplayer like me, and I find it MUCH more fun to add some personal design elements to the costumes. ;)

Now the front of the upper bodice. Fairly simple; I just drafted it and did some experimenting/pinning until I was happy with the fit and the look. This is just the general base, which will be getting plenty of modifications later on in the process as I add the star, red accents, back, sleeves, turtle neck, etc. I'm planning on adding reinforcement underneath this to help achieve the really sharp, clean-cut look that always makes a huge difference in making costumes look like a million bucks.

Next, the two side red stripes. Originally they looked like this, very simple, not screen accurate at all:

I wasn't happy with them, so after some reference-picture-studying and careful scissor work:

After top stitching these two pieces, they're ready to be sewn to the rest of the bodice!

And here is what my fem costume is looking like so far:

Next up: pants, further bodice work, accessories, and moooooore.... ;D

Also, guys, only 37 days left in the Age of Ultron countdown. Get excited. This is going to be awesome.

OH OH OH! Are any of you guys planning/working on a costume to wear to the Age of Ultron premiere??? If not... who would you like to cosplay from le movie?? Let me know in the comments!!

Btw... I've been so bad at replying to comments lately, but just know that I read and love every single one!!! :)