With the gauntlets made, the remainder of the costume was next. My original plan was to do a full-body costume, with trousers and boot-covers. However with looming time constraints I had to prioritise, which meant focusing on the upper body first. The upper body would be broken down into three main pieces: The sleeves, to be attached to a plain black sweater; the vest to be worn over the sleeves (and attached if time allowed) and the collar to be worn over the vest.

The Sleeves

Measuring the black sweater as a template, I marked the rough location of my elbows while wearing the sweatshirt in order to estimate where on the pattern to place the elbow pad, and to work the design out around there. The design would involve sections of metallic red spandex as “plates” of armour separated by strips of gold spandex sewn underneath.

The Vest

With limited knowledge of sewing patterns, I used the sweater again as a guide, combined with rough measurements of myself to get the sizing right. Knowing the limitations of my experience, I added some margin to these measurements, but in the end the vest still ended up very tight to wear. It involved two pieces, a front and back, with the red spandex as an underlayer and strips of gold spandex for a bottom border and vertical “seams” across the front.

Even with the walking foot sewing machine head (which was such a worthwhile purchase when dealing with the spandex) over longer seams and a greater number of thread breaks the alignment between the two base layers drifted noticeably, but not beyond the excess material I had left around the template. The rear section was similar to the first, lacking the V-shaped extension at the bottom and only featuring the lower horizontal border of gold.

The Collar

I created the collar using a darker metallic red fabric I had managed to find online. To create the gold “pips” I cut pieces of 3mm foam into circles and sewed a layer of gold spandex around them.

The collar was made from two pieces, with an outer border of gold spandex and eight coins/pips sewed on.

The Necklace

An additional component was the Dungeon Master’s pendant or necklace. Lacking the time to design/print a more 3D version, I resorted to trusty old 3mm foam and hot glue to create a makeshift version.

Creating the corresponding right-hand gauntlet for DMos was, predictably, a much easier and quicker process. With no circuit or inner layer and the templates for the outer design already crafted, the only real task was modifying the design to remove the dice mounts. This would be achieved by replacing the knuckle-mounted dice with a simple “bar” of metallic red spandex, and replacing the larger oval d20 mount on the back of the hand with a flat oval piece of gold spandex.

To help give the gold oval its shape, I used 3mm foam to cut an insert around which the material would be sewed. As with the other gauntlet, a base of black cotton was used, with an initial layer of gold spandex.

As with the other gauntlet, the red and gold spandex had to be layered to achieve the desired design. Unlike the other gauntlet the outer layer was attached directly to the inner glove.

With the pieces of the gauntlet assembled, they just needed attaching to the inner glove in the same manner as before. The gauntlets were by far the more intricate aspects of the overall cosplay, but the remainder of the costume would be considerably larger and, with a temperamental thread all to happy to snap in the sewing machine, considerably more annoying to put together.

With the lighting circuit and dice mounts successfully attached to the base layer, the final stage of creating the Infinite dGauntlet was to create the outer wrapping layer. For the design I took primary inspiration from the Nano-gauntlet in Avengers: Endgame, as this was closest to the Iron Man red/gold colour scheme that would fit best with Dungeon Master.

I used the same template I had created for the base layer, but added around 1cm of depth in order to add space for the circuit board and wiring, and added cut-out sections through which the dice mounts would protrude. Using the same black cotton fabric as a base, I used metallic red and gold spandex to build up the required design, using metallic thread which did not play well with the sewing machine at all.

The fingers were similarly designed, essentially creating short tubes of fabric to be attached to a simple black glove that would be sewn inside the base layer.

All that was left was to slip the outer layer wrist/palm section over the top and hand-sew the seams.

The dice were then secured in their mounts using superglue to complete the Gauntlet.

With the lighting circuit, dice mounts and base layer complete, it was time to bring them together. The first thing to do was to superglue the d4 into its mount, to avoid having to glue the two halves together later. Then I attached each mount to the relevant pad using superglue.

Attaching the circuit itself involved inserting the LEDs and sewing their cables in place. The tactile switches were sewn into their respective pockets, then the wires were fixed in position by sewing loops of thread.

I threaded the power socket through a button hole so it could be accessed from the inside of the wrap-around.

Gloves can be complicated, and my clothing design and manufacturing skills are limited. I had to work within what I could feasibly achieve, and having made a variation on an infinity gauntlet before (don’t ask) I decided to go with the approach I took last time: Use a standard glove to sew fingers onto, then sew that glove inside a wrap-around for the palm, which would essentially be a tube with an extra bit on the side for the thumb.

The wrap-around would consist of two layers:

• An inner base layer, onto which the dice mounts would be glued and the circuit would be mounted (with hand sewing)
• An outer layer, consisting of the actual visual design, with holes through which the mounts would protrude.

My approach to coming up with a pattern is very geometric, essentially approximate with a boxy design and hope the fabric’s tendency to curve will round it out. It’s also easier to think of a polyhedral net of flat faces rather than a more complex curved topology. The first step was, of course, to get measurements.

Pretty simple, trace around my left hand and use a ruler to roughly measure the notable lengths. Mark off where my knuckles and wrist were (roughly). Add a bit for ease of putting on/taking off, then create cardboard templates.

I also intended to add patches for the dice mounts, so I could be more exact when eventually attaching them.

I transferred the templates to black cotton using chalk, which is a rather inaccurate method. I later got some wax pencils which worked a lot better.

The first version was a little too tight to put on and take off, so a revised layer was made. I also decided to go with a single “bar” across the knuckles, with dividers sewn on top, instead of the individual stone pads I had originally used. This saved on complexity, and also supported the edges better which were a little wider than the finished glove layer.

To the underside (where the palm will be) I added six miniature “pockets” for the tactile switches, each approximately 12x12x6mm in size.

I had actually made this prior to fabricating the circuit, so once I had a finalised size for the circuit board the last thing to do prior to assembly was to sew on a “sleeve” into which the circuit board would be secured.

Simply a piece of fabric slightly larger than the board, with a notch sewn halfway across the top. Three of the LEDs would feed through either side, and the notch would prevent the board itself sliding through. Once inserted, I planned to sew a second notch in the bottom edge to hold the circuit board in place.