May be attempting fantasy/sci-fi mascot costume

[Aiacha]

I have been asked by a friend of mine to see if I could put together a mascot costume for a convention coming up.  I've sketched it out and I have vague ideas about how I would need to make it, but I have a few quick questions that I thought people here might be able to help me with.

1) the shoulders on the top come to high points over the shoulders, like sleeve caps only pointing stiffly up.  What can I use to keep the shape?  The fabric for the top itself I've not decided on yet, but it may be a silver lamee with a lining of batting.

2) I will be making boot tops out of vinyl.  How do I sew vinyl?

No pics yet as I don't want to put it out on the intarwebs until I get an OK... Thanks for any advice you can give me.

[LadyShadow]

Maybe some type of wire to help keep the shape and point of the shoulder things?  I know in some patterns I have seen the use of craft wire at different size gauges to help with those.

[amy]

I have made a few simply things out of vinyl.  Nothing I plan to use over and over but "disposable" itmes.  I used what I got at the fabric store which I believe was meant for table cloths.   I just recommend that you use really long stitches as the stuff wants to perforate where you poke the holes.   So stich on a basting length, 8 or so. 

[Elennare]

I've a friend who has used superglue in place of sewing for vinyl.  Not sure how well it holds up in the long run, but it seemed to work pretty well for the duration of the event she wore the costume for.

[operafantomet]

1) the shoulders on the top come to high points over the shoulders, like sleeve caps only pointing stiffly up.  What can I use to keep the shape?  The fabric for the top itself I've not decided on yet, but it may be a silver lamee with a lining of batting.

What about the brim of a caps? It's usually made of a stiff plastic covered with fabric, and you're free to dress it with whatever fabric you need. Not sure it's the shape you want, but if it is it could be a handy and cheap solution.

[Dinobabe]

I always used hot glue on vinyl.  Held really well but fairly easy to peel apart if you need to and wouldn't damage the vinyl.

[LadyStitch]

1) the shoulders on the top come to high points over the shoulders, like sleeve caps only pointing stiffly up.  What can I use to keep the shape?  The fabric for the top itself I've not decided on yet, but it may be a silver lamee with a lining of batting.
2) I will be making boot tops out of vinyl.  How do I sew vinyl?
No pics yet as I don't want to put it out on the intarwebs until I get an OK... Thanks for any advice you can give me.

1) How sturdy does the costume need to be?  I ask because you can make the shoulders out of fabric covered paper mache, or even use plastic canvas to make the shoulders.  Then lay a layer of batting over it then stitch/glue the fabric on top of it.   Also you might try rigaline boning. That has helped me get "anime" style shoulder decals for some of my fantasy doublets.
2) Just finished working with pleather, so I can offer some advise with that.  A)  Use "sharps" needles for medium weight pleather, and then the sharpest leather needles you can get for anything thicker.  The idea is if they are sharp they will make a smaller hole.   B)  You can not pin pleather/vinyl. Each time you poke a hole in it (sewing or pin) it doesn't recover. It is there forever.  I used  painter's tape to hold my pieces together. C) Use 3.5-4.0 stitch length.  This will prevent what I call the "dotted line cut".   That is when you poke so many small holes  close together that  it easily tears. D)  If you need to top stitch on it, put tissue paper between the pleather and the sewing machine foot.  That way it slips. OR you can get a Teflon foot.  It costs about $35 bucks for my machine.  Also I was told to NOT use any lubricants on the pleather.  It causes major damage to the machine as you go along.  A repair guy said it was NOT a pretty or cheap fix to repair it.

http://forum.cosplay.co.nz/index.htm  This is a cos play group some friends of mine are on.  If you are trying to to do a fantasy style item,  this type of group is a great  help.  Just like we can help people with Ren style stuff, they are good at that kind of stuff.

Hope that helps.

[Lady L]

For the shoulders, you could zig zag wire to craft foam and then cover that with fabric. That's what I used for the French hoods I made. It's lightweight, easy to sew through and pretty darn cheap. You can shape the wire to hold the shoulders the way you want.

[Becky10]

Theres this stuff called Stiffy that is suppose to, well, make things stiff. I have a bottle of it but haven't anything to use it on but it was highly recommended by a friend. Don't know if this will help with the shoulders. http://www.plaidonline.com/productDetail.asp?itemID=1550

[Aiacha]

Thank you, everyone, for the ideas.  I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to go for yet, but it helps to have the ideas in front of me.

To answer some questions---

I'm figuring the costume will be worn for two long weekends, for several hours a day.  This is not intended to be the final costume, as we would really like to make it out of vacuformed plastic (think stormtrooper).

I shouldn't have to top stitch the vinyl/pleather, but I may take the tissue paper idea into consideration. 

I think I like the rigaline idea (figure it might be good for something ;-) )

I have a friend who is going to brainstorm this with me (as well as help assemble it, if she's feeling up to it) so I'll be sure to bring these ideas in front of her.