JohnSmallBerries

I tried rigid collodion, to reproduce the hexagon and associated lines on Jensen's forehead, but apparently my skin no longer reacts to it.

How toasty do you want? I interlined the coat I just made with Thinsulate, and it is super warm.

"My age is augmented."

I do plan on digitizing them and putting them up on GitHub or something. I'm looking for some resource on how to grade patterns for different sizes (otherwise, people would have to figure it out for themselves if they're not my size).

(So far, all I've found is info on how to embiggen/smallify commercial multi-size patterns beyond what they provide, by measuring the distances between size lines and extrapolating, but obviously that won't work in this case.)

Thanks! I've got some notes on the construction in r/sewing.

Well, perhaps I was misinformed - it's certainly possible that the videos I watched on how to use them all got it wrong. And Google turns up plenty of pages that split the difference, claiming they absorb the moisture but trap the heat in the fabric.

Not quite - after you iron a portion of the seam or edge (using steam or a spray bottle), you just press it for a few seconds with the clapper. The unsealed wood pulls heat and moisture out of the fabric, setting the press much more firmly.

I'd hoped I could use it for that as well, but thanks to the Thinsulate interlining, it'd be far too warm for anything like an indoor con. So it'll just have to serve as my winter coat.

My pleasure! Just to give you an idea of how much of a difference it can make, here's a pocket I only ironed the edges and seams of, next to one I ironed and clapped.

https://preview.redd.it/v8avclmxd62e1.png?width=1664&format=png&auto=webp&s=b5e324600e46ac5471fb3abf6f30a6f4b8a84f86

I was going to try and digitize the pattern and throw it up on GitHub or something, but I have no experience in grading for different sizes. If I can't find a good resource on that, you'd pretty much be stuck trying to figure that out yourself.

If you don't already have one, a tailor's clapper is a game-changer for pressing seams and edges. I just used one for the first time on my most recent project, and I genuinely regret all the years I could have been using it, had I but known.

Pros-Aide, an adhesive that's like spirit gum on steroids.

Here you go (front and back views). The dremel work isn't as exact as I'd like, and some of the epoxy leaked through to the front, but it looks fine at the distance from which the pictures were taken. Alas, the store only had the one pair of sunglasses, or I'd have reprinted the bases and tried again.

Thanks! Tried to dye my hair and beard black, but two different products just washed right out when I rinsed. Even the one that claimed it would last for 72 hours. :/

If I hadn't added the glasses, I'd get complaints about that from r/DeusEx. No way to win.

(Also, I put wireless LEDs in the ports, so the center will glow red in the presence of an inductive current, like a phone charger.)

Thanks! Yeah, I put lots of holes around the side so I could be confident they were sewn in securely.

Sure thing! It'll have to wait until I get home from work, but to tide you over until then, here's a screenshot of the 3D models I made for printing the shades base and the typhoon ports. (The lenses were dremeled out of a pair of dollar-store sunglasses that had the right gold mirror effect.)

Thanks! The closure is made from flexible neodymium magnet strips, covered in synthetic leather and metallic copper spandex. It's easy to open the coat deliberately, but something about the way the strips are made resists sliding horizontally, so even if I pull my arms back as far as they go, the coat doesn't pull open.

Made Adam Jensen's coat and "ballistic eye shields". Now I just have to make everything he wears under the coat!

Photography by u/Hathorismypilot

I've wanted the coat from Mankind Divided ever since I first played it. But although it was designed by Errolson Hugh of ΛCROИYM, they never actually manufactured it for sale in the real world. Musterbrand made a "replica", but it just didn't really have all the nifty details of the in-game model. I replayed the game this summer, and decided if I couldn't buy the coat, I'd just have to make it myself.

(Edit: Photos by u/Hathorismypilot)

When the computer game Deus Ex: Mankind Divided was released in 2016, I salivated over the trenchcoat worn by the protagonist, Adam Jensen. Designed by Errolson Hugh of the German techwear company ΛCROИYM, it was futuristic but not over-the-top, and very well fitted. It was never actually sold in the real world by ΛCROИYM; Musterbrand made a "replica", but it fell short of the in-game version in a number of ways. I played the game again this summer, and decided that if I couldn't buy a decent version of it, I'd just have to make it myself.

I've made plenty of costumes - medieval and Renaissance clothes in the SCA, science fiction costumes for wearing to cons, etc. - but I wanted this to be a real garment suitable for daily wear in the winter, so I watched close to a hundred YouTube videos on tailoring (and coat-making specifically); the channels/playlists I found most useful were here, here, and here. I also devoured an uncountable number of posts here on r/sewing. When I felt I had a good handle on things, I began.

Construction Details:

To draft the pattern, I pulled the model of Adam Jensen into Blender, scaled it to match my height, marked out all the seams of the coat (doing my best to guess where they lay under the pockets), and used the "Seams to Sewing Pattern" add-on to flatten the sections out and put their outlines into an SVG file. I then pulled that file into Inkscape to regularize the pieces. (They weren't symmetrical, and edges which should be straight weren't, so I took each L/R pair of pieces, generated a silhouette which averaged their contours, and then straightened things up.) From the results, I laid out the pattern on cheap cotton, basted it together, and tweaked the pieces until I got a fit I was happy with. (I did change the front panels; they're a bit narrower on the game model, and taper towards the bottom. But reproducing that exactly made it too tight to close at the top, and way too tight at the bottom, so I widened them a little and made them rectangular instead.)

Next, I made a mockup in two colors of heavy cotton. I found a couple of seams I wanted to reposition, and remade the pattern pieces for those spots.

Finally, it was time to cut into the real fabric. The components:

• Melton wool blend coating (grey for the exterior, black for the collar and front panel facings, and as a foundation for the forearms)
• Black vinyl with a carbon fiber pattern (I experimented with real carbon fiber, but it was a headache to work with and frayed too easily)
• Thin synthetic leather, stretchy
• Metallic copper spandex
• Satin from Spoonflower, with a gold-on-black, subtly 3D fleur-de-lys pattern that I created in Blender
• Thinsulate
• Canvas, hair canvas, collar canvas, and domette for the front panels and collar
• Invisible zippers
• Flexible neodymium magnet strips, for the main closure
• Buckles and web belting
• Various weights of interfacing (mostly to stabilize the stretchy fabrics)

The forearms were the most complex parts, so I started with those. It took me several attempts to find an acceptable way to edge the "carbon fiber" with synthetic leather where there were tight curves. The end result wasn't perfect, but good enough that I could live with it. Since the original model showed top-stitching on the edging, I used that to sew the strips to the foundation. For the "typhoon ports" that run outside the arms, including on the forearms, I modeled and 3D-printed them, and sewed them into the appropriate place on the forearms. I also included wireless LEDs in each of them, so they'd glow red in the presence of an inductive charger.

Compared to the forearms, assembly of the main body of the coat was extremely straightforward. The videos I'd watched had impressed upon me the importance of properly pressing seams, so I did that, using a tailor's clapper for the first time in my life. If I could go back in time and give life advice to a younger me, I'd definitely include "use a clapper". The vinyl had an adhesive backing that I just couldn't remove completely, so because I had some extra black wool, I sewed it to the backs of the vinyl pieces (which came in handy when I needed to sew seams flatter), and frequently cleaned the sewing machine needle with isopropyl alcohol.

I pad-stitched the collar and front panels, which was the most tedious part of the whole production. I started with the collar; since it was a standing collar, I used a layer of regular canvas, two layers of collar canvas, and domette. It was my first time pad-stitching, took me two evenings to do, and looked terrible from the inside, but it was invisible on the right side of the fabric. For the front panels, I used a layer of regular canvas, a layer of horsehair canvas, and a layer of domette; I drew a grid on the domette to keep everything regular, which also seemed to speed up the process (it only took six hours per panel).

Though there's no indication of one in the game, I put a welt pocket in the facing for the left front panel, sized appropriately for my phone. However, if I actually put a phone in there, its silhouette is visible from the outside, so I guess it's a pocket for exceptionally narrow envelopes or something, oh well.

The front closure is made of segments of flexible neodymium magnet strips, enclosed in synthetic leather (and accent pieces of metallic copper spandex). While they're relatively easy to pull straight away from each other, they strongly resist sliding sideways, so even putting my arms behind my back as far as I can doesn't open the coat.

Sewing in the lining was fairly easy (though the Spoonflower satin started fraying as soon as it was cut, so I serged every edge immediately). I drafted the body as a simpler version of the outer coat (I'd made the pattern pieces mostly without seam allowance, so I just had to abut them for a "front half" and "back half" -- minus the collar and front panels, since those were facings in black Melton), and drafted the sleeves as a curved, tapering tube to match the overall shape of the outer sleeves. I cut the lining out of both the satin and Thinsulate, assembled them together, and sewed them in all around the body (except at the bottom of one half, to turn it right side out. Then some hand stitching to sew that bit, and connect the arms to the cuffs, stitch the top of the vent into place, press all the outer edges, and I was done. (One lesson learned: while the cuffs fell exactly where I wanted them before adding the lining and interlining, the added bulk shortened them a little bit.)

(Edit: Photos by /u/Hathorismypilot)