Jill Valentine - Shirt

This version of Jill wears a blue and grey/black shirt/athletic top. There's different ways to go about putting this together but I went with the method this person came up with:

 Like she mentions, the two tops that are spiced together are called "Women's Glacier Half-Zip" and can be found at 5.11 Tactical or Amazon in the colors 'Atlantis' and 'Black' (dark grey). As also mentioned above, the seams that run along the sides match making it easy to trade one section out for the other color. As for the rest of the shirt, it's more difficult. Actually, one of the most difficult costume pieces I've done. I had started it and than had to start over because the way I was putting all the different parts on was too complicated. The second time around was easier although still very time-consuming and in the future I think I'd make another one just because I'm picky. But for now, this one works.

I started with the sides because they were the easiest. I did a ton of taking out the stitches rather than cutting to save material. (These shirts are a little pricey so I used every bit I could.) Here are the two side by side before beginning:

After removing one side, I hemmed the sides but left the bottom edge alone. When I did this the first time my plan was to fully replace each part- so remove the blue and put in the grey. This time I just sewed each part over top. Maybe by my third try, if I attempt this again, I will get it right!

And I did the same for the other side.

 Next up was the sections that led from the armpits to the shoulder. Again, I tried to do this as one big solid piece but it proved easier to break it down into two parts: first, the one you see below and the second, going across the collarbone from the shoulder to the collar. For this first part, I made sure I had the right shape of fabric I needed and then hemmed, pinned and sewed.

 

 I used references pictures to get the design as close as I could. Although it's not exact I'm still happy with how it turned out.

 The back section that crosses from the armpit over up to the shoulder/trap/collar was a little harder because I did want to keep this in one solid piece to have a smoother effect. After multiple tries, I got the shape I wanted and then pinned and sewed.

This was my reference image for most of it. It appears to go over the one horizontal seam of the shirt along the back and connect to the collar

 This is one rendition of her outfit where you can see the dark grey pattern follows up the sleeve across the collarbone to the collar. I assumed the back would match the same way.

 Then I took the section off of the dark grey shirt that sits at the collarbone and shaped it, hemmed, and then sewed it onto the collarbone of the blue. For the bottom and side edges, I took out the stitching but I cut a line across the top (leaving a little extra to hem). Before completing this step, I removed the collar and zipper so that when I replaced the collar, I would be sewing over the edges of the grey material that meet the collar, hiding those seams.

 The blue collar, I switched out for the grey one. I kept the zipper attached to the collar and only removed the grey material of the shirt from along the sides of the zipper. I removed the small square blue portion of the zipper from the blue collar's zipper and sewed it on the grey one.

 

I folded over the edges and pinned it so the collar would line up appropriately. Then I proceeded to sew on the collar to the shirt. There is a second layer to the collar once the stitches have been removed. The inside layer and the outside layer were hemmed inward towards each other with the rest of the shirt collar going between them. Kind of like a sandwich.

After finishing the collar, next is the sleeves. This isn't the order it has to be done in but for me, the sleeves were the hardest part. Jill's sleeves are 3/4 sleeves ending at about mid forearm. I probably made this harder than it needed to be but I had never altered sleeves before. I would definitely do it differently next time which is why you should probably not do what I did. If I do this again (because I'm picky and am not satisfied until I get it right, at least to a certain standard), there are already things I'd do differently. But. What I did was, I cut the sleeves off of the blue at about the right length, keeping some extra for hemming. I then took the ends off the grey sleeves to shape them and sew them onto the blue. This was so that the 3/4 sleeves wouldn't be loose but fit the arm well as the came towards the hand. I had to go back and modify this a bit afterwards as they were a little too small.

 I then had to shape the ends so the grey pattern would flow well from the armpit down the arm. Even after fidgeting and modifying there is still part of the material that bunches up but like I said, next time it will be better. I used many of the previously posted pictures as reference pictures and all in all, it fits well and is comfortable.

For the two stripes down the back, it was tricky but I finally got them where I wanted. I cut two long strips from the back of the grey top, folded in half and measured about 1cm from the folded edge. I sewed a line along the length of it and then unfolded and refolded the strip, so that the seam was underneath and hidden. This gave me a uniform thickness for the stripes.

For the ends, I had cut out the shape but I had to fight with it a little to get it to curve the way I wanted. It was not the right shape to go with but I was running out of material!

After I had the right shape, I pinned it to the back. The distance from the grey sides to the stripes varied but overall they should be straight and then curve slightly towards the top, with the ends curving into the back of the shoulders along the horizontal seam line.

Lastly, the chest pockets. Totally unnecessary but I though I might as well. These "Glacier Half-Zip" shirts only come with one chest picket on the left side. And Jill has two. Although hers are both black zippers I decided to keep mine in blue. I know when to settle. I started by removing the chest pocket from the grey top.

*(I had had to buy a second blue top due to my initial failure. This is where I got the extra blue rectangle chest pocket piece and zipper from. JoAnn fabrics or Michaels should have these or something similar.)

After removing the mesh back of the pocket I flipped it and sewed the blue rectangle piece onto the front. (When the pocket opens, this blue rectangle piece shows. Deeper in to the pocket is see through through the mesh. Before sewing on the pocket, I sewed on the zipper*, getting its position as close to the other as possible. I sewed the mesh onto the shirt so that, on the outside, the seam that runs horizontally across the ribs would mirror the one that was already in place.

After putting on the mesh pocket, I carefully cut a slit on the front of the shirt that mirrored the other one over top of the zipper. Make sure not to cut through the pocket. I opened the zipper, hemmed the blue material on each side and made a little zipper stop at the top like the other side. I sewed the right side (facing it) all the way through the pocket because that's not the direction items would go inside. The left side of the zipper gets sewn to the outside of the shirt but not to the pocket. This is the way the sipper attaches and allows items to pass. But you know that.

 All in all I'm happy with how it came out. Obviously, there are many things I will do differently next time. This is a warmer outfit so it's better for a winter Con. But there are other ways to do it (and much easier ways at that) and other materials to use! Do what works for you!

Next up we will tackle her harness!

{WarriorClassStudios}