An Interview with Montgomery Gator aka keyoto_creations

TFC - Hi Monty, absolutely love your Cosplay creations from our PVC fabric. They look brilliant! Do you mind if we ask you some questions as to how you found working with the fabric to help other Cosplayers ?

Monty – Hi, yeah sure I’m cool with that, thank you for reaching out.

TFC – Thanks your work is fantastic

Monty – Thank you too, the PVC was great and deliveries came super-fast right near the end of the project I ran out of lime green but got the last metre I needed within a few days 😊

TFC – Oh that’s good to hear. Thanks

Monty – In the start I honestly didn’t know if it would work, I don’t know if this will help others but to get round odd curves, ironing it seemed to loosen up the fabric and stretch it out.

TFC – Can you iron the shiny, glossy side?

Monty – Yes but you have to put greaseproof paper in-between. It was really helpful when doing the feet, here is the before and after picture.   

TFC – Grease proof fabric? We’ve not heard that used before, that will really help other Cosplayers and creators. Any other tips you could give them?

Monty – You need hot glue on the foam object you’re gluing it too, the iron re-heats the glue under it, that’s how your able to move the fabric into the right shape, oh and it does kind of glue itself to plastic, so I used polymorph plastic beads for items and I was able to glue the claws on the hands without extra glue. The PVC fabric really clings onto it.      

Monty – It can also take a little bit of heat from a heat gun but there is a very fine window between fine and burning.

TFC – So did you sculpt your Montgomery Gator outfit with foam and then basically glue and mould the PVC fabric to the foam?

Monty – Yeah, I start with the foam pieces then I use the same pattern for the PVC too but with extra seam allowance, then glue the edges down inside.   

TFC – What’s the name of the glue that you use we can recommend it to others?

Monty – Oh just normal hot glue or super glue. Both work great.

TFC – Okay so no special glue required?

Monty – That’s right no specific expensive glues. I’m sure you could use contact cement too but I didn’t try it. Hot glue worked for most of the costume, I used super glue just in areas where I needed to attach stuff together without the glue being too thick. Sometimes hot glue can be bumpy under the fabric. Superglue is so thin I don’t have that issue.

Monty – Oh okay so one thing, the yellow PVC although the same as the lime, purple and black doesn’t like a lot of glue. You can see it under the fabric. I had to be more careful with the yellow compared to the other colours.

TFC – Oh right, it’s all from the same manufacturer but if it’s from a different batch it could be slightly different.

Monty - You can kinda see the glue in these in the lower jaw. Once I learned I could iron it, it wasn’t fully fixed but I was able to make it less visible.  

TFC – You called the fabric PVC Stretch Spandex. It doesn’t have a spandex content but the polyester backing is a loosely knitted backing so gives it a nice stretch to work with.

Monty – okay thanks for the info. The PVC Stretch is perfect as it looks like plastic but stretches making moving around in it all day super easy.

Monty – Oh I forgot one other cool thing, you can paint on it and it doesn’t come off, but only a certain brand. 

TFC – We have customers who UV and screen print on to it also.

Monty – I honestly couldn’t have made it without the PVC as Montgomery Gator has a very specific look.

TFC – Did you machine stitch or hand stitch the costume?

Monty – Machine stitch works best. Ladder stitch if your going to hand sew. It’s 99 % done on a sewing machine.

TFC -Yes it does sew really well.

Monty – Yeah, way better than I expected. I was worried about it coming apart or ripping but needn’t have as it was strong and no chance of that happening.

Monty -You have to store the areas you paint separately as they could stick together and then you’d have a mark in the wrong places. I’m keeping them all separate using old pillowcases.

TFC – That’s good to note, cover and store safely.

TFC – It’s been great talking to you and we are sure other Cosplayer and costume creators will take lots of useful information from your work.