XWiki

The front of the costume was the hardest part because it required the embedded roman numerals. This sort of thing has always been a difficult problem. There are a few ways to accomplish embedded parts on frabric. One way is to just cut out a shape and sew it on top of the other fabric. This requires that the edges not fray and be cut very precisely.

Another way to do it is to cut out the shape in the fabric then attach the other fabric to the back of the fabric with the hole in it. This is ok, but the edges will flop around for most cut out shapes.

The way I finally did it was to set my sewing machine to a thick zig-zag then sew along the outline of the letters on the fabric so that it attaches to black material beneat it. Then I used a scissors and cut the white material off right along the sewn edge.

This was a bit tricky and in some places I cut too far and had to resew it. But overall it looks pretty decent.

Initially I wasn't sure if I would have working clock hands. I thought about just sewing some clock hands on the front, but I really wanted them to move. I came up with this scheme. I cut out some cardboard for the hands then attached one to a pvc pipe and another to a wooden dowel. This works great! I just stick the dowel through the hollow pvc pipe and I can turn the hands independently.

I can operate the hands from inside the costume. I did this by drilling a hole in a 4-way cross pvc joint.

Here the hands are joined together.

Now you can see a close up view of the hands together. The nice thing here is that if you pull the rod backwards it sticks in place by friction. So the hands can be made to stay at a particular time.

Sadly, this stopped working as I walked around. In retrospect I wish I had added velcro which I could use to fasten the hands to the frame of the costume.