Considering I had a large stash of Jumbo spandex ready and waiting for me I thought it be best to jump back into some Power Ranger suit remakes!

One design that I really loved is the Jungle Fury Wolf Ranger because of both the colours and the panelling on the suit itself. It’s also part of the only season of Rangers that don’t have a belt over the top to bring the waist in, so the suit itself had to fit perfectly.

Starting off with myself crafted generic bodysuit pattern, I needed to draw up the layout of panels and details. I just use cheap rolls of baking paper since its easy to trace onto and readily accessible. Because I was working with heavyweight spandex my plan was to flat seam all the panels together and use the white as a topstitched layer to hide the joins between the black and purple. The only edges that were then needed to be over-locked were the sides and crotch.

When working with stretch fabrics my go-to combination is a walking/even feed foot and the lightning bolt zigzag stitch. The stitch is thin enough to be used as a top stitch with a lot of stretch while still looking very straight.

For each panel of fabric I just trace the part off the original pattern onto more baking paper and add in overlap seam allowance. Once I have the parts all cut out then I can begin layering and arranging the pieces while using the original pattern as a positioning guide.
I use a little bit of basting spray/lightweight spray adhesive to add a little bit of grip to the back of the fabrics. This eliminates the need for pins, all I use is a few sewing clips to hold edges together temporarily.

Once the pieces had been thrown together as the solid front, and 2 back pieces then the collar and zipper could be installed. I only put the shoulder seams together before doing the collar and zip to make it easier to align the designs on the zip. Then the rear seam was tidied up and over-locked around the inner leg before closing up the side seams too.

For extra fit with ranger suits 24cm long darts are added into the back panels, usually 10cm in from the zipper. This helps accentuate a waistline.

After a test fitting the sleeves are added on, hemmed and some basic elastic stirrups are sewn onto the legs to stop the suit from riding up when worn. Still, a few minor hard armour pieces still to be added onto the suit at a later date but for now the sewing is complete and I couldn’t be happier!