Tali Bodysuit Evolution

From right to left, Tali's bodysuit evolved from paper tracing pattern, to practice suit (aka Christmas Tali) #1 which received hexagon treatment and ripped apart again, practice suit #2 with improved fit and finally the actual Tali bodysuit.

This isn't my first bodysuit project. This was:


There were improvements I wanted to make from the Harley bodysuit (better fit through the butt/crotch area) and obviously I needed to change up the fabrics and fabric division to become Tali'Zorah.



I've already previewed the hexagons painted on matte stretch vinyl fabric. I found the other fabric at my local fabric store for her hood/jacket.

Things I learned about the Tali bodysuit:
- Stretch vinyl has a high spring force. Its stretch characteristic is similar to the red Harley fabric from a pure length dimension but the amount of force it takes to get it to stretch the same amount is easily quadrupled. As a result, getting the suit on up to my knees requires some warm ups and calisthenics in addition to taking a break between each leg for endurance. I will be adjusting the assumed stretch for the jacket sleeves accordingly.
- The master pattern is drawn for the whole bodysuit. I subdivided for the fabric on the same master and traced off of it for each fabric type. Having the master pattern intact allowed me to adjust the pattern without having to recreate it every time.
- The seam allowance edges on each fabric creates a huge mismatch between edge lengths particularly through the U shapes on the legs and back. This made the U shapes very fiddly to sew. Thankfully both fabrics are stretchy and accommodated the mismatch.
- The zipper is only attached to one type of fabric instead of bridging the gap to both. This let me install the zipper onto the lycra fabric before attaching the whole assembly to the vinyl. Once I was working with the hexagoned vinyl fabric, I wanted do that attachment only once because any seam ripping on the stretch vinyl would show the holes made by the sewing needle. It came in handy because I did manage to mess up the zipper attachment the first time around.

Things I like about the Tali bodysuit:
- I'm happy with the fit through butt/crotch region. I even made sure to match up the hexagon across the seam. The saddle design seems to help with this fit. I used a pair of bike pants to model the flat pattern shape for it.
- The pre-work with the hexagon test suit paid off. The hexagons are largely vertical even through the back curvy bits.

Things I don't like about the Tali bodysuit:
- I messed up the zipper fit through my upper back. I think it's because the pattern was originally designed to include sleeves which would provide tension across the upper back and not allow it to bunch up. I've rationalized this away because that portion should be hidden underneath the Tali jacket. (And I'm not doing the hexagon fabric again)
- I messed up on the collar. Again, this should be hidden underneath the Tali jacket so I'm not going to fix it.

On to the Tali jacket + hood.