Boobs....

No, not the salascious kind. I worked on the boob forms for my EVA foam. I had planty of fails. I watched a bajillion YouTube videos...most of which were crap. Tip...when you are making a tutorial video don't leave out any steps. Even if you think your audience already knows that part. I got the concept, but without crucial information, execution was...less than stellar.

So some of the tutorials called for forms. So I did a look around the interwebtubes, and found not very much for my size. Most metal bowls big enough for my boob size have a large flat area on the bottom. To keep them from rolling around. Because they are big. I did some guestimating, and ended up with these...a 5 inch metal bowl from Ikea, a 10 inch hampster ball, and a piece of random plastic kind of sort of in the right shape-ish.

The 10 inch hampster ball fit the best inside my bra, so I started with that. The idea was to tape my spare bra to it, cover it with plastic wrap, then cover that with tape to make the pattern. That worked up to a point.

I mean, the tape on the bra was mainly to keep it from sliding off while I worked. It fit so perfectly. I knew I was larger, but wasn't aware I was that large. :) The problems started when I began taping. See, I decided to use faux colored electrical tape I got at the dollar tree. That crap is stretchy. Stretchier than I realized. What happened is it streteched too much while I was applying it, and when I took the final product off the form it...um....deflated, for lack of a better word. It did not hold it's shape. I love this idea. And it worked ok sorta kinda ok, if I just A. used non stretchy tape and B. made sure it was loosely put on there, not tightly. Evidence of my epic failure.

So at that point I rewatched some of the videos, and regrouped a bit, and decided to try a different approach. First I cut what looked like a pacman, based on one person's video. There were no instructions on how to get the right measurements, though, so that ended in epic failure. I forgot to get pics of that attempt. So next attempt....maybe tracing the hampster ball would help. Nope and nope.

Those are all the pics I got of that step, though I wish I had more just for the comic relief. Seriously...that was a total epic over the top failure. Just the circle alone wouldn't shape. And trying to figure out how much to cut out to try to help it ended up in foam confetti. No one...I mean NO ONE...has instructions on how to get the right measurements for this step. That is so frustrating. I am not a seamstress. I can't sew, I don't get sewing. I tried, learning one on one with a master seamstress to learn how to sew for 5 fucking years. I don't get it. I am guessing the reason no one includes this info is because they assume if you are doing costumes you know how to sew, and therefore know how to make this work. How to do that part right is an important step. And not yell Evil Ted at me. That guy does not have the answers either, just already made patterns that don't fit as is, and I do not have the skill or the knowledge to alter them. They are useless for plus sized, odd shaped people. Yes, this part frustrated me.

I had tried earlier to make myself a pattern by taping myself up. That failed spectacularly, because I also have joint issues and can't reach places that need to be reached, and don't have anyone else around to help me. That is why my first pattern ended up just the bottom part. Because I COULD reach most of that. Well, I sat down and had a bit of a think, and remembered I have a roll of furniture plastic wrap on a handle dispenser for moving. I thought maybe I could use that just to get the upper part, just enough to cover my boobs, and loosely put some duct tape on it. That worked. It looked aweful, and I had to make a bunch of alterations afterwards, but I did get a general boobish shaped thing when I was done. Warning: pics of duct taped boobs next.

So that kind of sorta worked. I got something workable, but not perfect. But whatever, it was the best I got thus far. So I cut one of them down the middle to make 2 parts, and taced the bits onto white paper. Then I taped those bits of paper together and tried it on to see if that ruined the shape. It did as little, but not enough to start over. So I untaped em and traced them onto an old grocery bag to make the pieces more durable. Then...you guessed it...I traced and cut the pieces of foam. Then I taped those pieces together to check the fit.

Worked ok. Because I am not good at freehand, though, the lines were not exactly smooth. It is foam, and I was able to kind of smoosh them together, but it wasn't great nor was it ideal. But after untaping them I took out the heat gun and used the 5 inch metal bowl to kind of shape the pieces into curves. They did not end up the shape I wanted, exactly, but they are workable. I think if I do it this way again I will need to get the 7 inch bowl. This one worked barely, but it was not the right size so I had to keep rolling the foam over the surface to get the whole thing to curve. But I did it, glued it, and let it set over night. Not spectacular results, but results none the less. I can use em.

I chose not to use the second duct tape boob, but instead make two of the same one. this is because I ended up with 2 different shapes, and I decided I could just flip it and use it for the second boob instead of having 2 different shaped boob pieces.

So I let em set over night. I didn't get the seams as close as I want. They are pulling away. My guess is it is because of how unstraight the cutting lines are. They seem solid enough, though. There is a tutorial online on how to fill gaps with caulk. I think I will try that and smooth them out. I don't have a Dremmel nor do I have the budget for one, so I have some decisions to make on how to finish them. I was going to just use a heat tool to carve leaves into it. I think that they are not pretty enough for that now. If I didn't decide to put seems down the middle of the front that may have been ok. But I think that would make an obvious detraction from the overall costume now. I think I will try to figure out how to layer cut leaves onto it. I wanted them to look like leaf scales. That may not be feasable. I also have to determine how to attach them to the stomach part of the top.

So I have decided if I do this again, I am going to use the hampster ball and bra like I did in the first attempt, but I will use duct tape and the gentle technique I used on the last one. I think I will get a much better, more consistent shape that way. I may try to redo them. Hell, I may have to redo them if I fuck em up while trying to attach leaves. But I did learn a lot. So...uh....bonus?