Fabric Notes and "Substitute" Material Options

FABRIC NOTES

Black wool gabardine (superfine or regular) is not difficult to find, but the cavalry twill/wool elastique is another matter, especially in screen-accurate colors. 

Alternatively - or, perhaps, ideally - one can purchase white or undyed wool gabardine and/or wool elastique then dye them matching gray accordingly to screen-accurate specifications.

"SUBSTITUTE" MATERIAL RECOMMENDATIONS/ALTERNATIVES

We're also aware of "vegan" sensibilities and the sometimes prohibitively expensive nature of screen-accurate materials. They may look make for a far more impressive, screen-accurate replica, but superfine wool gabardine and wool elastique/cavalry twill aren't cheap! Tack on time and cost of dyeing or buying custom-dyed materials, and expenses can add up quickly.

So, as some alternatives to the wool fabrics, we recommend:

* Black cotton twill as a substitute for black wool gabardine

* Gray corduroy or rib-knit cut at an appropriate angle (so that it appears to have a diagonal weave), or polyester cavalry twill, as a substitute for the gray wool elastique

(upper left swatch)

* Gray twill or gray wrinklease as a substitute for the gray wool gabardine

Charcoal gray cotton wrinklease from JoAnn

Charcoal gray cotton twill from JoAnn

The gray polyester cavalry twill from Marton Mills and charcoal gray wrinklease from JoAnn pictured above, in combination with black cotton twill, are what we used for the DS9/NEM "captain vest" in this tutorial. They're hardly screen-accurate, but they are fairly convincing to the untrained eye and a reasonable match for each other - and relatively inexpensive! 

The following DS9/NEM vest constructed for this tutorial was 100% and 100% polyester.
No animals were harmed in the making of this tutorial.

Now that you've been briefed on the uniform and have all of your materials gathered:

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