The f-suit that I made for the Vanilla Gallery show was designed to be shown suspended from the ceiling, so I needed to make something to go inside of the suit so it would look good while on display.
The gallery asked how they could show it, and at first I thought I could just send them the suit and let them stuff it with packing peanuts or newspapers or something... But I figured it might not look very good - it could end up being misshaped or lumpy.
Next my idea was to make a simplified pattern for a stuffed "pillow" form, but I was running out of time to develop a whole new pattern...
So, I ended up just making the same pattern as the leather version but in cloth, and stuffing it with polyester fiberfill. A large part of the time in making the suit in leather is managing and gluing down all the seam allowances - something I wouldn't need to worry about with the cloth version.
I wanted to use enough fill to give the body a good shape, but not so much that shipping it to Japan would cost a fortune. My hope was to use a vacuum-seal storage bag to reduce the "pillow" to manageable size for mailing.
The good thing is the pillow came out pretty cool. It had a good shape, and filled the f-suit nicely. Once I had it stuffed, I could use it to figure out the proper dimensions for the hanging frame...
I knew it'll make a good pillow! Albeit being bizarre-looking, it's 100% huggable!
ReplyDeleteIt actually was pretty cute on it's own...
ReplyDeleteI'm obsessed with your work! Nothing else compares! Much praise Christopher, keep em comin :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, -thirteen-, I'm glad I'm not the only one (who's obsessed!)... More in the works!
DeleteHello Chris,
ReplyDeleteplease, tell me, do you have anything ( like patterns ), what would help us to create this f-suit? We have already upper part done ( butterfly jacket ), but bottom part looks harder to figure out.
You are very experienced man, we love your works! I can share images of our manufacturing :)
Hi Zlad,
DeleteI don't have that pattern digitized, and have no plans to do so any time soon. I don't share pattens until I consider them bulletproof, and in the case of the f-suit there were modifications made along the way. I'd suggest you make your own pattern using a wrap, and glean what clues you can from the progress shots I've posted. Good luck!