Now that the torso section of my Daredevil suit is complete, it's time to turn my attention to the trousers!
I actually drafted the front patterns a couple of weeks ago, when I was still waiting for the canvas fabric to arrive, but I wanted to keep these blog posts semi-organised without jumping back and forth between the top half of the suit and the bottom. It was really hard to get any clear shots of the legs so some creative license was involved here (particularly on the inside and backs of the shins.) However, where reference material was available, I made my patterns as accurate as possible.
The top half of the trousers were actually relatively straightforward to assemble, since they're mainly made up of large panels (unlike the torso and sleeves, which had lots and lots of smaller panels with even more edges that I had to finish up), although the shins were pretty complex with 10 pieces each! I sewed together the front of each leg, followed by the backs.
Just as a fun little extra, I also added a hidden pocket to the right leg to store my phone and wallet, etc. at conventions. It opens and closes using an 8-inch invisible zipper, which will be hidden underneath the thigh strap (making it doubley invisible!!) First of all, I marked out where the pocket will open and cut a slit in the thigh to accommodate it. For the pocket itself, I cut a piece of cotton fabric measuring 8 inches by 14.5 inches (plus the seam allowance). I finished up the edges, folded it in half (with an extra half an inch on one half to attach the zip later) and sewed the sides - giving me an 8 x 7 inch pocket.
I layered one half of the zip behind the top of the thigh opening, with the slightly taller side of the pocket behind that, and sewed everything into place. I then repeated this for the bottom of the opening and the other half of the zip. And voila! A hidden pocket that opens and closes with an invisible zip!
Following this, I sewed the front and back halves of each leg together using the side seams, before adding the red straps that wrap around the outside of the thighs. Each end of the strap tucks into a slot that I cut in the trouser leg, before being secured with a few hand-sewn stitches.
Putting together the front of the trousers took some figuring out, as I had to incorporate the crotch zipper. The first thing I did was cut out 2 pieces of black fabric and sew one half of the zipper onto each piece. One half was then sewn onto the back of the right leg, making sure it sticks out by half an inch. The second half was sewn onto the back of the left leg, half an inch from the edge of the fabric, with the distinctive J-shaped stitching that is present on pretty much every pair of trousers you'll ever buy.
After all of this, the back of the legs were really straightforward to sew together; they're connected by a simple seam that runs down the centre.
And finally, I added an 8-inch invisible zip to each ankle to make suiting up easier.
In terms of boots, I'm just going to wear the ones that I bought for my Daredevil season 1 and 3 cosplay/ I know the original season 2 suit used a different pair of boots, but since mine aren't the screen accurate brand it really doesn't matter. 🤷♂️
I'm going to tackle the knee pads later, just because I want to finish all of the sewing work before I move onto the non-fabric parts. Overall though, I'm super proud of the progress that I'm making so far! The top half of the suit took about a month to complete, so I honestly expected the trousers to take at least 2-3 weeks - instead, I finished them in 6 days!!
In the next part, I'll be turning my attention to the suit's smaller pieces. Stay tuned!
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