Raven Uniform - Completed

I received the 80% complete and badly-fitted "pseudo-Raven" uniform in the middle of June, 2011 and for several days was stuck with a costume I wasn't completely satisfied with, and deeply unsure of what to do. As I wandered around Rock Hill for exercise and to explore the neighborhoods around Winthrop University, however, I would run into the salvation of this entire project: a little tailor shop called Mary's Alterations.

Mary Hall, the owner of the business, was an old school "Star Trek" fan who knew what the classic movie uniform was supposed to look like. She also had a very positive outlook and unlike the folks at Cosplay Sky, wasn't willing to believe that this project couldn't be fixed. We decided to work on the jacket in two stages. First, Mary added gussets to the trousers, the sleeves and the sides of the jacket itself to improve the fit, and after that, we'd discuss aesthetics.

Within two weeks, the altered jacket now fit very smoothly. I could now wear even two shirts underneath it without the under-flaps showing, or without the jacket feeling way too tight on me. The gusseted sleeves fit me much more easily and allowed better arm movement, and although there was nothing we could do about the pant legs being too tight-fitting to look nice, the gussets around the thighs allowed me to walk, run, and even throw Karate kicks without worrying about tearing the pants.

In another two weeks' work, Mary had successfully done what Cosplay Sky could not: adding a set of ironed-on "Captain Kirk" TOS braids to the cuffs, the red slash to the shoulder and sleeve band, and acquiring gold ribbon to make the all-important extra golden lining running down the right side of the coat for that "symmetrical" appearance, she finally brought the costume design full-circle. No longer just a drawing living on a sheet of white paper, the "Raven" - the black battle uniform - was complete at last.

All that was left for me to do was send it to another shop on July 15th to have the sleeve braids sewn down and the shoulder boards reinforced before I allow this costume its official debut at Otakon 2011.

Here's the costume on the coat hanger, with the proper pins attached but without the belt. Without a pair of belt loops on the front of the coat, I couldn't hang the belt on the jacket without it falling down!