Livewire (Swimsuit)
- Character Name:
- Livewire (Swimsuit)
- Source:
- DC Comics
- Costume Variation(s):
- Superman Adventures / Swimsuit
- Debuted At:
- YetiCon 2016
Reference
Costumes Notes
While Livewire in a swim suit makes no logical sense in regards to comic canon and her powers and weaknesses, I figured it would be easy costume since I could base it off her regular outfit, which I had already patterned out. Boy was I wrong.
To make the pattern, I tossed on the on the normal Livewire bodysuit and used pins to denote where I wanted the swimsuit armscyes and back seams to be. I then very carefully took off the old bodysuit and transferred those measurements onto a paper pattern of the swimsuit and went about using that new pattern to cut the fabric.
Since I wasn't about to paint myself white and then wander into a pool, I needed to substitute a skin-tone fabric for the white of her lightning bolt. I had some mesh that's often used on skating and dance costumes to mimic bare skin, so I went with that.
After general assembly and first try-on, I realized my grave mistakes:
- The fleshtone mesh has a much greater ease of stretch than the white and black spandex. What on paper was a realitively narrow lightning bolt cut-out turned out to be a very daring wider bolt spread across most of my chest. I was a minor shift away from a clothing malfuntion.
- With the sleeve help pull the fabric upwards, the armscyes of the swimsuit cut much lower and towards the front than planned.
- With most of the fabric missing from the back of the costume (including a center zipper), the shoulder straps of the swimsuit didn't want to stay on my shoulders and would rather fall down, leading to the entirety of the front fo the swimsuit to fall down.
Thankfully, these were all realatively easy to solve. To keep the front of the costume from gaping wider or shifting, I use a lot of double sided tape to keep it from shifting and paired that with a pair of fleshtone pasties for extra protection. The armscyes were augmented with a long rectangular strip of spandex sewn to the outside edge and then darted to better conform to my shape and curves. And finally, to keep the straps on my shoulders, and flattened tube of fabric was added in joining the straps together along the back to created a quasi-racerback swimsuit.
Technically, it debuted at YetiCon 2016, but only for a quick photoshoot with MissMessyMia. The general public didn't get to see this for another year when I rewore it at YetiCon 2017, where I forgot to get decent photos.
