DIY Planet of the Apes tunic

Steve Lodefink, one of the most creative and versatile DIYers I know, made this beautiful Planet of the Apes tunic from scratch. He's posting his build notes on his Finkbuilt blog.

I started working on the costume shortly after last Halloween, by making a paper pattern, but I set the project aside for the following 9 months or so. But with Halloween creeping up, I thought that I’d better haul it out and work on it again.

I got some fabric on sale at Wall-Mart for $1/yard and dyed it green. Then I cut out and stitched together the front and back panels to form the torso. I sliced the sleeve pattern into 3 strips in order to form the 3 panel sleeves that are customary for chimpanzees. I spaced out the 3 pattern pieces to account for seam allowances before I traced and cut out the 3 sleeve pieces.

POTA Chimp Costume Update

• [keggsy]

  Could we just be done with initials now? If you don’t have time to type Do It Yourself, what’s the point?

• [klaradox]

  why is it fun for you people to spend time finding something to complain about regarding something such as a peice of clothing? I mean this person actually spent time doing this..I think the difference between you who talk about buying things at walmart or any other shitty place and this guy is that you are just thinking about it and can produce philosophical reasons why not to make a costume like this (for example that the cheapest place to buy the things needed is walmart and you are boycotting it) while he was thinking about how to make this spending the least amount of money and hey..if he needed to go to walmart to buy it, he went there…
  I am actually the kind of person who won’t sit down and make anything unless when in a really creative surroundings, but I don’t spit all over someone who did do something just coz it opposes my ideals…

• [CptNemo]

  Is that some kinda of advanced woman repelling suit?

  I’m looking forward to seeing what the trousers will look like!

• [OM]

  “Could we just be done with initials now? If you don’t have time to type Do It Yourself, what’s the point?”

  …Oh, FOAD :-P

• [Secret_Life_of_Plants]

  Is “Wall-Mart” a kind of “Walmart” for conscientious DIY’ers who care about human rights and a living wage for people who work at such places?

  Seriously I don’t know. I am rather un-hip.

  I imagine that this Bizarro-world “Wall-Mart” might exist, only because I cannot imagine anyone who is a “creative and versatile DIYer” publicizing that they shopped at Walmart even if they secretly did.

• [Takuan]

  how to subvert Walmart? Legal monkeywrenching. How to take more from them than they get?

• [Frank_in_Virginia]

  You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

• [jfrancis]

  I want to know more about the raised latex glyphs.

  And it’s usually Wal-Mart, with a star in the logo in place of the hyphen.

• [Steve Lodefink]

  JFrancis -

  The Glyphs were made for me by a guy named Matt Sotis. Matt has a mold that was cast from an original set of screen-used glyphs (which were also cast rubber). The color is mixed into the casting material.

  I have another set of glyphs in the works that I am making out of leather. I am carving a block of hardwood into a stamp, which I am planning to press into wet, foam-backed leather by putting the whole thing into a vise and letting it dry.

  But Matt’s looked so good, I had to use them before my own were ready.

• [lava]

  What I’m looking forward to, after the sewing is done, is the latex prosthetics..!

• [Jake0748]

  Wal mart sucks.

  You damn, dirty apes!

• [OM]

  …Bah. I’m an intellectual. I want a Dr. Zaius version.

• [dancentury]

  Greatness.

  I’m happy to see a POTA homage instead of the endless Star Wars masturbation.