Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Challenge Lois sewing the Superm suits challenge

After having recently watched "Don't Tug on Superman's Cape" I was thinking about how Clark goes to Smallville to get his mom to redo his uniforms after the helicopter sent to kill him destroys them.

This brought up to questions. Well three. 1-if Clark has all these super abilities, why can't he sew his own super suits?

However mainly:
2-Can Lois sew?
3-When will he ask Lois to sew his Super suits?

I guess she does put together something for alt-Clark, so maybe she can sew. Hmm.

However I am guessing she is not as good at it as Martha. Still, after they get married, I can see her wanting to be the one who sews his suits, sort of like how she insists on making dinner, even though she does poorly at it.

So I was thinking it would be fun to have a story where Lois tries to fix up Clark's super suits, and see what she actually does with them and how he reacts.

Well, in alt-verse (Tempus, Anyone?) Lois *buys* a ski suit and dyes a pair of leather boots. Not quite the same effort that Martha puts in during the Pilot. How she duplicated the S-crest on alt-Clark's cape, I have no idea. Basically, she can sew, because she makes alt-Clark's cape (or alters a cape she bought for him to use). Maybe the only sewing she actually did was attaching the S-crest onto the ski suit. I could see that taking her all night.

I could see the argument that ensues between Clark and Lois though, should she ever volunteer (insist) that she sew (fix) one of his suits. I'm covering my eyes already for the train wreck that will happen.

This sounds like fun! I can see Lois enjoying measuring him up for size.

And if she decided to mess with him, how long would Clark take before he had to 'hurt her feelings' and refuse to wear her efforts.

"Sorry hon, the store was all out of red spandex this week. I hope you don't mind hot pink for your undies..."

When in the military I had the thrilling opportunity many years ago to make extensive repairs to canvas truck bed covers. New ones were going to take months to arrive and they had to be pristine since they were for the mess hall truck. Threats of not eating are a sure motivator! I was good at making strong repairs and got good canvas for almost all of the trucks.

Seeing promise and needing one last cover, they asked me to "sew the front of this one to the back of that one" after the torn portions were cut removed. The canvas that I had was undamaged and all I had to do was make a straight seam all the way across but it was the hardest project I had--by far.

I couldn't imagine someone successfully making something to wear without many hours of practice and educating themselves on the mechanics of assembling clothes from a pattern. Unlike cooking, sewing isn't a day to day activity. After basic techniques are learned, taste and recipes can guide. I don't think anything but an experienced teacher or trial and error is going to tell you how material is going to fray, unravel near a seam or how it will wear once it's put together.

I could see Clark eventually getting it right. Lois? Some tailor on the outskirts of Singapore or Santiago or Cairo is going to have a small sign in his window advertising he makes Superman's suits first.

Usually practice makes perfect and sewing is no different. While I have absolutely no experience sewing by machine I do have some mending skills brought on by my grandma teaching me some embroidery (the embroidery skills have mostly fallen by the wayside but the mending skills have not). As a result I can do a fairly decent running stitch (I've had my mother-in-law compliment me on my stitch, saying it was better than hers) but that's about it. Recently I've attempted to make a version of the UltraWoman costume and found myself stuck on sewing the heavily-weighted fabric of the cape. All of the suggestions I see for make the cape were machine oriented when I have neither the experience nor the equipment to do that! Like Lois and Alt-Clark I didn't really need to do much for the base/unitard portion (theirs was the ski suit, mine a unitard) but the cape? That's a whole different matter. Remember that Martha went through a few iterations before arriving at the version that's used throughout the series.

With all that said, Lois WILL need to learn how to make the suit eventually. While it's likely Martha will live a fair amount of time naturally (my grandma and my husband's grandma are almost to their 90s for example) they'll either need to find someone to make the suits or Lois will need to learn (and who better from the official Superman tailor??) Can you imagine the hilarity of Lois snarking about the suits while she's making them?

Um... There is a third possibility. Why can't Clark learn to make his own cape? (Admittedly, that would probably not result in as humorous a story.)

Joy,
Lynn

Or Clark could make his own. Guys can sew, too. I know he's busy with the superhero thing, but it'd probably only take Clark a few seconds to do the job, once he mastered it.

Maybe Martha could teach a grandchild...

Why would this become *Lois's* problem? If Clark ever brought Lois a damaged uniform and asked her to mend it, I could see her doing to the suit, what my mom did to my dad's socks when he gave her one with a hole in it and told her to "darn it". She dropped it in the trash and told him to "damn it". He'd be lucky with that response and not a Kryptonite laced brass knuckle to the jaw. Just because Lois is Clark's wife, it doesn't make it her "job" to become his seamstress.

The only way I could see Lois fixing or re-creating Clark's suit (as she did in alt-dimension) would be if she *volunteered* and I doubt Clark would want to wear such an outfit. Personally, I think alt-Clark was darn lucky his cape and shorts didn't fall apart during their test run.

It would take Clark only a few seconds, if he was sewing it by hand. By sewing machine, he would be limited by that machine's ability and speed.

In 'Wrong Clark' (even though I can't find the reference off-hand, it might have been in an earlier draft that got cut from the final), Clark saved a tailor and his family during a fire, and that tailor is the one who make alt-Clark's uniform suits for him without advertising the fact. Even Cat, who used to make her own clothes in college, told him it was a one-time deal when he asked if she could help him mend his cape.

I believe it was KenJ's Matchmaker Chronicles where Clark has his suits made by STAR Labs because they came up with a better fabric than Spandex.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, maybe that tailor idea wasn't mine. Maybe I read about it in another story. Everything is starting to blur together. I'd focus only on my story, but then I'd miss out on so much great fanfic.

I won't dispute that guys can't sew too. I remember one time when my mom was stressed out trying to finish a ballet outfit in time for a performance (I forgot to tell her it needed to be done until the day of...oops ). Maybe it's her way of helping him (I still kind of cringe at the stereotypical nature of that statement, but it's the primary image I can think of at this time.)

I don't know about that. Him sewing his own costumes and making dumb mistakes could be hilarious. Throw in his mother's exasperation and you've got one funny story.

CLARK: Lois, what's taking so long? This is getting uncomfortable...

LOIS: Pipe down and quit fidgetting. I haven't quite gotten your inseam yet...

^^I can see Lois doing the job for that reason alone. Would love to see a fic on this, though (Sewing, I mean. Geez, people... )

I guess I was thinking Clark going and asking his mom to sew up his Super-suits, was still him depending on his parents, and Lois might want more focus on her.

However on the other hand, he depends on his mother maybe more because he can't just go and ask anyone to do it, so maybe that would not play into her mind.

OK, maybe it also helps that DTOSMC starts off with the "I Love Lois" (well, it has to be that, it does have Lois) scene, and that is something I can see being done there. Still, I think Lois does have this "I can do anything" vibe some of the time, so I can see her trying to make a suit, even if she is not that good. I can also see her starting it, getting a hot tip on a story, and leaving it out in the living room, where it will be when Jimmy comes to visit and asks "why are you making a Superman suit, Lois."

Or ever worse, it is sitting there for the paparatzi to photo in "Sex, Lies, and Videotapes".

Dirt Digger Headline "Lois puts on, as well as takes off, Superman's suits."