Destro has several pieces:
Boots
Leather pants
That red and black jacket
Ruby necklace
Arm gauntlets
Oh, yeah, and that darn mask. The mask is going to be the topic of several blog posts, simply because it is so darn hard to make. Here I am going to look at the parts that aren't the mask.
Boots. Not just any combat boots will do. These need to be special, and comfortable. Destro is a Scottish Laird after all, and you know he has style. Just look at that jacket! I spent quite a while looking over different boots. Doc Martens were my first choice, but honestly, they seem to have gotten lame in my old age. Then it hit me. Thanks to The Devils Panties, I had learned about New Rock Boots. Handmade Spanish and Italian leather boots. If you know me, you know I am a shoe snob, so these fit right in. It took a while, but I found the perfect pair. They look great with the pants and oh, are they comfortable. I just need to wear them a little more to break them in. I did wear them on a recent work trip to Herndon. They are surprisingly TSA friendly and it was a nice little secret wearing a pair of sh!t kickers in the office.
Pants. So, this was during the time where I was really doubting if I could actually sew. I had many failures with Melinda's costume, so I chickened out and took the pants project to my Mom. Oh, why didn't I just go out and buy a pair of leather pants? Have you ever tried to look for leather pants in the summer time? I could find them at bike shops, but they would have Harley Davidson or other logos all over them. Plus they are expensive. I could buy a lot of vinyl material for the cost of one pair of pants. They turned out great after some tailoring. The best comment was when my Mom first showed them to me "Crap! Is my butt that BIG!?" Apparently it is.
Jacket. After the first fitting of the pants, I spent some time looking online for a black leather jacket that I could add that red collar too. I wasn't having a lot of luck. I had found a few, but they were a couple of hundred bucks each, and I kept getting this nagging thing about keeping the cost down. So, I had a lot of material left over from the pants and I could either keep the material around and keep moving it from place to place, or try one more time to sew. This time a jacket. I really had nothing to lose. If it worked, I had a jacket. If it didn't, I didn't have to keep up with all the material. I took an old costume shirt to use as a basic pattern (arm holes are NOT straight). Cut out the pieces and started sewing and customizing. I updated the jacket a little, but kept the black and red. I like how it turned out. An updated look that keeps the heart of the old school jacket.
See, I kept the red collar. The pin is one that I found and really liked. I think it goes great on the jacket.
Ruby necklace. I have some ideas for this one and it may or may not make it to the final cut. I'm personally not that big on the old pimp medallion anyway.
Arm gauntlets. These unfortunately got scrapped due to time and I didn't think they would work with the redesign on the jacket. I did make the rockets and grenades and I love the grenades, so they may make the costume in some way. I took three racket balls, cut a hole in the top, inserted a piece of PVC pipe and cut to length. The add a piece of card stock for the pin, paint red and poof, you have grenades.
It's now August 18th. I've got 15 days to Dragon*Con. Melinda's costume is done. Mine is 90%. That mask is just kicking my butt, but I've got too much invested in it to give up now. I WILL make it one way or another.
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