Orville – The Jacket

I started my Orville costume in the Before Times. Then came Covid, and everything changed. My Orville costume went into a plastic tub and sat for a few years.

Finally in July of 2021 the Sewing Expo was on! Admission was FREE on Saturday if you wore a costume. An opportunity to wear a costume and free admission? I am there!

It was time to finish my Orville costume.

I used Kwik-Sew as the base pattern for the jacket, because it was designed for knits, had a center front zip, the right kind of collar (but not the right shape) and contrast side panels. My version came out passable and easily identifiable as a character from the show, but it is not an exact replica. I took some, well, Con Crunch liberties.

I knew the sleeves would be the hardest part, so I cut the body out first. The turquoise blue honeycomb knit and metallic silver knit (as close as I could get to the actual fabric) were both soft and kind of thin. So I used a black polyester double knit for the entire body, front, back, side panels and yokes, and used those pieces to back the blue front and back and silver yokes. This gave the whole thing structure.

Now I had two reasons – pants and body – to tackle the sleeves. I started by tracing the jacket sleeve pattern. I pinned the sleeve to my arm, and drew a line more or less where I wanted the piping and inset pleated panel to go. I unpinned myself from the pattern, laid it out flat, and redrew neat lines for cutting. To make things easier, I added an extra seam from back shoulder down to the topmost corner of the pleat insert, giving me a vertical seam from shoulder to hem.

I tackled the pleated sleeve panels next. I knew they’d be the hardest thing to make, and I wanted them ready to go when I needed them. Using the same black polyester double knit, I made some experimental pleats. When I made one I liked, I cut a big (I thought it was big enough!) piece of the black double knit, and pleated the entire piece. Because this stuff doesn’t crease I stitched the pleats down vertically every few inches.

Time to pipe. I didn’t know what filler I used in the piping on the pants. The filler I chose for the sleeves is slightly smaller, so the texture of the blue fabric is slightly more visible than on the pants, but that’s Ok. You have to look close to notice they are different.

Next I laid the cut pattern pieces on the black knit and cut them out. Unfortunately, I forgot to add seam allowances. Fortunately, one of the differences between the Kwik-Sew pattern and the Orville uniforms is that the Kwik-Sew sleeves are really full, almost puffy. The Orville sleeves are trim. So what I initially thought was a mistake was actually helpful, by eliminating some of the excess fullness. In fact, I had to take the sleeves in even more in the end!

But first the task of assembling and piping the pieces. Because the first leg of the pants was easy and the second was a nightmare, I decided to do both sleeves at once. I piped the front sleeve, mostly to test how the piping would go. Then I took the final sleeve pattern piece – the pleated inset – and laid it out on my pleated fabric.

It didn’t fit. The odd shape took up more space than I thought. I had to twist and tweak. Did I really want to make another pleated piece? No! So each sleeve has a different number of pleats because that’s the only way it would fit.

Even with the pleats stitched along the edges, it was really hard to sew the pleated fabric in. I ended up stitching the pleated fabric to a solid piece of black double knit.

Finally, both sleeves were assembled. I pinned them into the body. I tried the jacket on. And that’s when I realized the sleeves were still on the puffy side, a little too “sports” and not enough “uniform”. I took the sleeves in on the inside seam, it was the only one without piping!

The collar was next. But, I couldn’t remember the exact shape. So I looked at some photos on the internet and realized I’d made a mistake on the bodice. The actual uniforms had a much larger side contrast panel. The panel was pleated, like the sleeve, and had no side seam but it did have a zippered pocket hidden in a pleat.

Mine did not look like that. It was smaller, had a seam, no pleats in sight. I decided to worry about that later.

I returned to the collar. I traced the Kwick-Sew pattern piece, and recut the tracing to match the uniform collar. I interfaced both inside and outside collar pieces to help the silver knit stand up. I added blue piping and turned the collar inside out.

I pinned it in place right sides together. I stitched it, trimmed the seam allowance, and stitched in the ditch. Next I added the zip. I think mine is longer than the “official” ones. Finally, I turned up the hem on the body and on the sleeves.

The last step was adding the embellishments – the shoulder pad rank insignia, the round department badge, the little thingy on the left sleeve. I could not find this thingy anywhere, and have no clue what it is called. Luckily I was able to find a 3-d printer pattern for it, and my nephew 3-d printed it. Then I spray painted it silver, filled in the hollow backside with temporary stick putty, and pressed in two high powered disc magnets. I used the other half of the magnet to hold the thingy in place on a pleat.

Back to the side pleats. What to do? I made two pleated bands. I opened up the side front and side back seams just enough to slip the bands into the seams, then sewed them down. From a distance, if you don’t look too closely, the look like pleats on the side of the jacket.

Orville – The Pants

I love The Orville! I love the humor and the way it captures a positive attitude towards the future. I’m so tired of dreary, dystopian sci-fi futures. I like the uniforms, they are both futuristic and practical.

But, there’s a lot of little things that go into these uniforms. I know it’s going to take a lot of time. I’m starting with the pants. The under T-shirt is simple, just a black T with appropriate color binding, in my case, blue. The jacket has lots of complex parts including box pleating on the sleeves and sides. So the pants seemed like a good place to start.

I began with the Style Arc Elle pant. I made a mock up using some freebie fabric from a Fabric Mart bundle. It’s a lovely synthetic double knit (maybe a ponte) in a rich rusty brick color. A color I just can not wear well at all. So using it to make a mock up and pattern for my Orville pants seemed like a good idea.

One key to pants is to make absolutely sure the grainline lines up exactly on the pattern and the fabric. If the grain is off just a little bit, the pant leg will twist to one side. When the centerline of the pant leg is highlighted with bright blue piping, this kind of mistake will be painfully obvious! So, I made very sure the grainline was correct.

I skipped the waistband for this step. I figured I’d worry about it later. I cut out and assembled the pants minus the waistband. I tried them on and tweaked the fit. I have skinny thighs and have to take in most slim leg pants patterns.

Then, with the pants on and looking in a mirror, I marked where I thought the piping should go. I knelt down, to figure out where the knee gap should sit. I took the pants off and compared the markings with the grainline. They were off quite a bit! I redrew the lines with chalk and a French curve. I tried the pants on again. I liked the look.

The side seam of the pants are going away, so I finished that seam with a line of zig zag stitching. I trimmed away the seam allowance right up to the zig zag to reduce bulk, and carefully pressed the seam open.

The moment of truth!! Time to cut out the pants pattern. I sliced down the front and around the knee to the side seam. Then I started at the hem and slit up to the knee, then over to the side seam. Finally, I cut carefully as close to the side seam as I could.

I could have stopped here and cut the legs as one big piece. But, I wanted the inseam, just in case I needed to make any fitting adjustments. So I disassembled that half of the pants, giving me one very narrow front/inside section and a rather wide back/side section.

I laid the orange ponte pattern onto the black fabric and cut my pants pieces. Then I realized I’d made a mistake!!! The inseam had a seam allowance. The hem did not! And the pipped front seam had a seam allowance on one side only!!

Well, the hem is easy enough to fix with a facing. I decided to just go ahead with the pipped legs, and, if necessary, take a narrower seam allowance from the inseam.

I thought I’d apply the knee pads to the inside of the leg first. I positioned the first one and stitched around the edge. It was difficult and completely unnoticeable on the front. So I took it out and skipped the knee pads. After all, it is just a costume.

I stitched the piping to the skinny leg piece using the sewing machine. Then I sewed the larger leg piece onto the piping, on the sewing machine. It came out perfectly the first time on the first leg. It did not come out right the first time on the second leg. And it did not come out right on the second attempt. I was tempted to quit and move on — it was a costume, after all. But I didn’t want people to think that’s the best I could do, so I tried again. The third time it looks acceptable.

Getting the piping to lie neatly around the sharp curves meant trimming and snipping the seam allowance. The idea of serge finishing the front pipped seam didn’t sound fun, so I left it as it is,

I stitched the crotch seam on the machine and tried them on. They fit! The blue pipping looks good! They are the perfect length! Which means they will be about 1/2 – 3/8 inch too short after hemming with a facing. Oh well, it is just a costume…

Next is the waistband. Pieced from scraps it went on easily, and I added elastic inside it. I don’t think the authentic pants are pull on, but comfort is important to me, and the piping is the key element, I think. I know the waistband will be hidden beneath the jacket.

The last step was threading elastic through the waist band. The pants are pinned on the dress dummy, because it’s difficult to put pants on her