TNG Admiral Uniform (season 1) Tutorial – Required Materials

FABRIC

“Berry” (red) jumbo spandex = 2 yards

PLEASE DO NOT E-MAIL OR MESSAGE ME ASKING FOR FABRIC SOURCES!

ALL THE INFORMATION I CAN GIVE YOU IS RIGHT HERE:

Unfortunately, authentic division-colored jumbo spandex has thus far proven (nearly?) impossible to find. The costuming/cosplay community has simply had to make do with whatever the closest available options are.

In this case, these usually include retail jumbo spandex colors named, “wine,” “maroon,” “cranberry,” etc.

However, online retailers’ fabric inventory changes regularly, so any links here would quickly become obsolete.

The aforementioned options are fine for casual cosplaying, so if you’re not concerned with color accuracy and prefer to use a pre-dyed retail fabric, I suggest simply Googling the search terms above.

If color accuracy is important to you and you want to do your own Internet hunting, be my guest!

Costume cards with swatches of screen-used fabric are usually available on eBay, and I suggest using them for reference if color accuracy is important to you.

Possible alternative options include:

1 – Using a lightweight spandex fabric (such as milliskin spandex) and double-layering the panels, to achieve a weight more akin to the heavyweight jumbo spandex.

2 – “Super lycra” is similar to jumbo spandex and sometimes available in a slightly wider range of colors.

3 – Football spandex is also comparable in weight to the heavy jumbo spandex, but personally I detest working with it because it resists ironing, making the seam allowances all but impossible to control.

4 – Using a heavyweight knit fabric of your choice, in a color to your liking.

In lieu of existing retail sources, I’ve been developing dye recipes for the screen-used division colors on a variety of fabrics, and I’ve had some great results.

I plan to eventually post all my dye recipes on my STCG blog, for everyone interested in going the extra mile for their costumes.

If you’d like to help make this happen, please support my costuming research on Ko-Fi. I’m happy to share my results, but color-matching to develop custom dye recipes can be very costly, both in terms of materials and time.

Depending on the interest, I may also produce a fabric-dyeing course for Tailors Gone Wild.

And IF there’s enough Ko-Fi support, I’d love to be able to use some of the funds to produce custom fabric runs! 🙂

In the meantime, should I become aware of any existing (and viable) fabric sources, I will likely share them here on my blog and/or social media.

I suggest subscribing to my “Costume Guide” e-mail newsletter and following me on social media (if you haven’t already) for updates on the aforementioned, and other new costuming resources.

Black jumbo spandex = 1 yard

Fortunately, black jumbo spandex is common and easy to find online, at least in the United States.

Aside from price, the two major factors to consider when choosing a source for black jumbo spandex are color (the darker, the better) and weight (the heavier, the better).

My preferred source for heavyweight black jumbo spandex is Spandex World:

Other possible sources include (but are not limited to):

Cheaper sources are easier on the wallet, but they also tend to be lighter weight.

Heavyweight jumbo spandex tends to be more expensive, but the end result is much closer to the original uniforms.

When it comes right down to it, though, almost any black jumbo spandex is usable for this project.

And remember that you can both Google additional sources and often order swatches to assess before making your final decision. 🙂

Black lining = ¾ yard
Lightweight batting = ¼ yard
Black lightweight or mediumweight woven fabric (canvas, twill, denim, drill, target, rodeo, etc.) = ¼ yard

6 yards of 2” wide metallic gold trim

(The trim on the screen-used Admiral Jameson uniform I examined was unique and may have simply been a bias-cut woven fabric. In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to achieve a similar result using standard retail metallic gold bias tape/quilt binding.)

¼” or ⁵/₁₆” metallic gold “gimp”/”scroll” trim

ACCESSORIES, NOTIONS, SUPPLIES, etc.

Walking/quilting foot

(This technically isn’t a requirement, but it makes some parts of the construction process SO much easier!)

Zipper foot

1 spool of black thread

1 spool of maroon thread (optional)

(The screen-used Admiral Jameson uniform I examined was almost entirely sewn with black thread, but I prefer to sew with thread that closely matches the color of the fabric.)