Female Jedi Costume Tutorial

Star Wars! Jedi! Sith! Lightsabers! Harrison Ford!  Who thought we'd get another Star Wars movie after the *gulp* prequel trilogy?  And that it'd be good??  Well no matter what, you'd better believe I went in costume!  For this particular premiere I dressed as a jedi in shiny material.  So, without further ado, here are the important parts!

The Vest Type Dealio

I found some really cool concept art that I liked, and it could just be the drawing, but it looked like she was wearing something shiny and I found some AWESOME fabric on sale, and therefore I chose to become a shiny jedi and mix my nerd references.

(I do not own this image.)

I ended up mixing patterns on this one, and probably shouldn't have?  I use a question mark because I'm still not sure.  I should have just stuck to my favorite pattern in the world and not messed around with another one, but I did.  The new pattern seemed to lend itself a little better.  I was mostly incorrect because I hacked away at what I made anyway.  And as per usual, the "finished" product did not fit the way the package said it would.  But without further ado, here's my latest adventure in shiny, stretchy material.
I combined the following two patterns:

(Of course this pattern.  Because this pattern.)

I used two because I liked the style of the first pattern, but wanted the length of the second. Therefore, I used the second pattern as a guide to lengthen the first.

First I laid out the first pattern's pieces as instructed by the instructions.

I added about an inch and a half as seen by the pin at the bottom of the pattern because I have a long torso and often need an extra inch.  Lengthen or do not lengthen to your pleasure.  Then, I laid the corresponding pattern pieces of the second pattern over the top to see the length of the second second in relation to the first and pinned to where the second pattern piece ended as seen below.

(Clearly a few inches longer.)

Then I made a line of pins to the longer point.

(You can see the pin lines of a couple extra inches to make the finished vest longer.)

From there I cut out and sewed the pieces together as instructed except not sewing up the back or the front.

(Shown with pins in the arm hem.)

Before sewing up the back I decided how much I wanted to cut off since I wanted a deep v in the back and in the front so my shirt that I worked so hard on would show!

(View from the back so you see how far I cut down.)

I also had to take in the shoulders and back a bit.  Make sure you measure this before you put in the little cap sleeves! I did not and definitely should have! 

Lastly, just a closing on the front!  I just sewed on a few snaps.  You could also use velcro if you want.  Then I took a spare piece of fabric and tied it around as a belt.

Shirt

(Sorry for the tan on tan.)

Since jedi always seem to wear wrapping garments and I have nothing like that I was forced to make my own.  And since using as pattern has recently gotten me down, I made one up!  My best plan? Possibly not?  But it turned out looking pretty good!  Here's my process:

The fabric I used was the same as my jedi robe, it's a gauzy, thin fabric.  Get at least 2 yards.  I wanted my garment to flow a bit more than it did because I ran out of fabric.

(I found it at Joann's for about 4 dollars a yard.  Excellent.)

Lay out your fabric and grab a fitted shirt of your own and lay it down flat.

(No need to have the fabric doubled.)

Since Jedi have more of a tunic than a shirt, I allowed much more fabric at the bottom of my shirt, so it would go down to my thighs.  Cut out the around your shirt, ignoring the sleeves, and allowing for it to be longer.  This will be the back of your shirt.

(It looks like an awkward dress thing at the moment.)

Now we'll add on the front.  It's an open shirt in the front, allowing for you to wrap it around yourself, so you'll need two side pieces.  Lay the back piece on another larger piece of fabric and pin along one side as seen below.

Then, you'll want to cut from where the shoulder meets the neckhole at an angle and down.  Repeat on the other side by pinning the other shoulder and side to another piece of fabric.  My amount of fabric was not what it should have been in large pieces, so I had to add more which I'll go over in a second.  These pieces that you cut should look like large, wide strips, widening toward the bottom, like the back piece.  Sew these at the shoulder and down the side.  It should look like a weird looking vest currently.

Next you'll need to cut out some sleeves.  My sleeves are a tad short, but that's okay since I am going to wrap my forearms with leftover fabric from my robe.  Measure around the armhole to determine the top of your sleeve.  On a double layer of fabric make a bell curve of that measurement in pins.

The picture shows half the bell curve since I just folded it over in the middle to keep it even.

Then measure around your wrist or forearm to determine the width of the bottom of the sleeve.  Make a line of pins from the bell curve to the bottom of the sleeve in the correct length of the sleeve.  To find this, simply measure your arm.

(You can see where I marked the middle to fold it in half.)

Cut out your sleeves and sew up the sides and into the armholes of your vest/almost shirt.

Now for me, I grossly underestimated the amount of fabric I need in the front (I recommend actually measuring instead of guessing), so I had to add a strip to one side.

(I added a few inch wide strip to the right side.)

(You can easily see the strip I added.)

Make sure you add enough to actually wrap around yourself.

And that's it!  I added snaps in two places so that the shirt would stay in place under my vest.

(Aw snap!)

I know, I'm not funny.

Leave the bottom of the shirt a bit open so it can wrap nicely around you.

Pants

Now here it totally depends on the look you're going for.  Loose pants to go with your loose fitting jerkin and robe?  Great, basically make pajama pants.  Did you instead find some concept art you liked and are attempting to follow but not really?  Great, buy some pants or make some pants.  I made some pants!  I used the same pattern I've used in the past for my Black Widow costume, but attempted to make them a bit bigger since they were very tight last time.  Well, they're still very tight. But they'll still work!

(I used the simple I-am-leggings version.)

This pattern is super easy.  It's two pieces.  That's it.  Sew 'em, add some elastic.  Put them on.

Robe

Every good Jedi has their robe because frankly, they're super comfy and flow-y, which I like.  The robe is the first thing I made, and you can find a ton of tutorials online.  You can find mine here: Jedi Robe Tutorial. I made mine in an afternoon.  I also made a tiny one for a 4 month old baby, but that's another story entirely.

Boots

Oh hooray, the shoes.  So often the easiest part!  Grab some brown boots.  Boom.

Lightsaber

Okay THIS is the best and most important part!  A Jedi needs his or her weapon!  My lightsaber that I'll be carrying to the premiere is an ultrasaber that I bought at comic con this past May and I adore it. If you don't have an ultrasaber or don't want to buy one, don't sweat it, there are tons of cheaper options at toy stores.  But if you want one you can actually duel with, and let's be honest, that's the whole point, then I suggest an ultrasaber, or making one out of similar materials.  Here's the method I used for a second lightsaber that I made: maglite lightsaber build.

(My ultrasaber.  The color is arctic blue.)

(My homemade one for comparison.  It's actually red, but it turned out orange in the picture.)

Hair

Good lord just pull it back!  I hate long hair that's always in the way in a fight scene.  Or should be and somehow never seems to impede fighting capabilities.  We all know that would not be true unless you were whipping your hair all over the place.  One day a superheroine is going to wear her hair back in a ponytail and I'm going to cheer.  Yeah I'm looking at you, every female superhero ever. Sorry, end rant.  I attempted to do hair like Leia's on Endor.  But I quickly learned that my hair is not nearly long enough or think enough for that nonsense.

All Done!

Hurrah!! You're a jedi now! Below I've included some other pictures of my finished costume.

Hurrah!

Supernatural Hunter Costume Tutuorial

Happy Halloween!  This year I went as a generic hunter from the show Supernatural.  Though with my blonde hair and tank top, most people thought I was Jo Harvelle.  Which is fine, she's pretty cool.  The costuming itself was pretty simple, just stuff I already had.  The props were the important part.

The important parts are a pair of beat up jeans and a jacket.  You never seem to see a hunter without a jacket.  I just wore a brown tank under my leather jacket.  Then add some boots and you're set.

Now the fun part!  Props!  The Winchesters have no shortage of fun stuff to use when killing monsters.

My boyfriend and I put together an arsenal for pictures.

The important ones are salt (for dispelling ghosts etc), holy water, and a toy gun of some sort.  We had a toy handgun that I found for $.90 at goodwill and a toy replica of the Colt.  Check out my Supernatural Colt Tutorial. We also had lighters, flasks (filled with holy water), a leather journal, a rosary, a hex bag (made out of a ball of burlap with a hunk of fabric wrapped around it), Dean's amulet (found online for 5 dollars), a ninja star, and very fake IDs if you're so inclined. Put them on your person and you're ready!  I tried to talk my boyfriend into carrying a pie, but that didn't go over as well.  If we ever do these costumes for a con, there will be pie.

Lastly, you'll need an anti-demon possession tattoo.  Google image search and draw it on with sharpie.  Now leave your house listening to Carry On My Wayward Son.  You'll never feel more like a badass.  I promise.

All Done!

Hunters ready for action!

Supernatural: The Colt

So I'm a little late to the party, but I've discovered the show Supernatural.  And I love it.  I went as a hunter for Halloween and created the special gun Sam and Dean use, the Colt, as a prop.  I'm quite pleased with how it turned out!

I found my toy gun at a thrift store for a dollar.  Technically it's a little short, but it was very close for a very cheap price.  After you have a piece, tape off your first section for painting.

I started by taping off the bottom so I could paint over the green and get a nice silvery grey color.

Before actually spraying it, I scratched in the writing on the barrel.  I did this with the hope that the letting would show through post painting.  It nearly worked.

Post painting, I determined that it was just too shiny and silvery, so I added a light coat of black.

There! Much better! Now the hard part of letting it dry.  Seriously, just let it dry.

Now unwrap the bottom part and carve the pentagram into the handle and tape up the already painted part.  I taped up as much as I needed and then covered the rest with newspaper.

Paint the handle and again, let it dry.  A sunny day is best.

Looks pretty good!  Some of the etching might need some touching up.

A little extra scratching and it looks pretty nice.

Last steps are the designs.  I looked up a good reference shot from the show for the designs and the gold stripes.  I started taping off for the lines, but it started to take paint off, so the second line I did by hand.  It's not as straight but still okay.

And it's done! (Add a little orange tip if you're going out!)  Hooray!

Jedi Robe Tutorial

I, like every other good nerd, am more than a little excited for The Force Awakens this December!!! Naturally I will be going on opening night in costume.  But as I always seem to procrastinate on my costumes, I'm getting a jump on this one!  Perhaps I can wear it for Halloween as well.  So without further ado, the first part of my Jedi costume, the robe.

(Just four pieces, really)

To begin with I looked up what other people had done to make their Jedi robes and just about everything I found claimed that you needed between 7 and 10 yards of fabric.  That right there was inspiration enough to do my own thing because hello, I cannot afford 10 yards of fabric.  I did mine with about 4.5 yards.  Although, I must say if you want it to flow a bit more and do ginormous sleeves, you will need more fabric.  Mine is still pretty large on me, but the sleeves and such could be bigger, but being poor trumped bigger sleeves.  Apparently Simplicity used to make a really cool Jedi costume pattern but not it's obsolete and you can only buy it on ebay for $120.  Which just made me laugh hysterically.  So let's start!  Get yourself some lunch (very important) and put on the Star Wars soundtrack or a movie on in the background.  No prequels.

(Close up of my material)

Fabric: I used a cotton gauze type material that I found on sale at Joann's in a dark brown.
Alterations: Since I started with nothing I suppose the whole thing is an alteration...

Measurements

First, we do lots of measurements of yourself!  As someone who has been fit in a costume shop many times, I used my memories of what numbers they had taken to craft a basic pattern.  I recommend writing it down on a diagram so you recall which number was which.

(longest piece being the left half of the front of the robe, we'll call it figure 1, the parallelogram being the sleeve, let's call it figure 2, and the last one is the hood, or figure 3)

The diagram shows what number corresponds to each measurement and what you'll need it for.

(For reference sake, with my measurements added on)

1. Measure from where the top of you shoulder meets the base of your neck to the floor, or a bit below where you'd like the robe to end.
2. Measure from just below your armpit (Or where you'd like the bottom of the armhole to be) to the floor or the same place as the above measurement.
3. Measure the length of your shoulder from the neck to the edge of your arm.  (This one should be easy if you're wearing a shirt when you're measuring. No judgement either way.)
4. Measure around your arm from the edge of the shoulder/arm, under the armpit and back to the shoulder.  Cut this measurement in half.
5. Measure your arm from the end of the shoulder seam to just past where you'd like the sleeve to end. Longer for a Jedi sleeve than a normal robe sleeve.
6. Measure from your armpit to the same place as the last measurement.
7. Measure loosely around your neck and divide by 4.
8. Measure from the base of your neck over your head to the other base of your neck.
Whew! Done!  Lots of measurements, but I promise it makes life easier.

Base of the Robe

For the base of the robe without sleeves or a hood start with measurement 1.  This is length you want for your robe.  Take that length and double it for the length of fabric.  Take that rather long piece of fabric and fold it in half so you have you measurement of 1.

(Note the fold)

Because I was not entirely sure I'd have the right amount of fabric (I did!), I pinned the whole outline before cutting anything out.  Now, to transfer figure 1, the half of the front of the rob onto the fabric. Find the dead center of the fabric along the fold and mark this.  Mark a straight line from dead center along the fold to dead center on the bottom.  I made the line with pins.  This is NOT measurement 1.  1 is merely a guide and does not need to be pinned out.  Now, using center along the fold as a guide, pin out measurement 7, or what will be the neck hole.  From the top edge of the neck hole, mark out measurement 3, or the shoulder seam.  Then make your curved line which will be the arm hole using measurement 4.  Lastly, from the bottom of the line made by 4, take an angled line down to the edge of the fabric using measurement 2.

(Since I wanted my robe as wide as possible, I pinned the line (measurement 2) to the very left corner of my fabric even if the number of inches wasn't exact.)

Okay! Done with the pinning for now!

(You should have the exact outline that you drew on paper with your measurements)

Then along the dead center line that you marked, fold the fabric in half.  You should then have 4 layers of fabric on top of each other.  Cut along the pinned edges that are not on the folds except the neck hole, do cut that out.

(You should end up with something that looks like this!)

Take out all the pins and you'll have an ugly brown shroud attached at the shoulders so you can put it over your head.  Pretty ugly so far.  Put it on and admire it in a mirror.  Now sew up the sides.  You should now have a very ugly jumper of sorts.  Also put that on just to check.  And now onto the sleeves!

Sleeves

The sleeves are a bit harder and I did break my "I don't need no pattern!" frame of mind a little bit. Because sleeves are a bit of a pain, I dug out one of my old patterns and used the "upper sleeve" piece as a guide.  I know, I know.  Honestly you really don't need to, but I wanted to get the shape right.  

(my pattern on the fabric)

Double your fabric over for a start so that you are making two sleeves, one on top of the other and they are the exact same size.

Whether you are using a pattern or making it up as you go, measurements are back!  If you're not using a pattern, you'll need to freehand that nice pleasing arc that my has.  Make sure that the arc is equal to measurement 4, which you will recall, is the arm hole, but adding in a little for seam allowance.  My pattern piece was a little to short so I added about half an inch on each side of the edge of the curve. Now for the length of the sleeve.  Take measurement 5 and draw a line straight down from the top of your curve and mark the end of that line with a pin.  Boom, half done.  Now you'll need two measurements to work together and here you can change things if you want.  First take measurement 6 and pin that line on both sides of the sleeve from the edge of the curved top of the sleeve in an angled out line down the fabric.  (See figure below)  Take your measuring tape and make a loop around your arm in the size that you think you'd like your sleeve.  If that happens to be the length between your two angled lines, you're golden.  If not, play around with how wide you truly want you sleeve and make a curve between the two angled lines.

(My angled lines go as far as the fabric allows)

Now cut out both layers so that you have two almost sleeves!

(Never leave your scissors on the floor)

Now hem up what will be the edge of the sleeves.  Then sew up the angled lines so that you new do indeed have sleeves!  Right sides together, pin and sew the curved edge side to the armholes of the weird looking jumper/not quite a robe.  Now you're left with a very large looking dress.

(Just a shroud at the moment)

I now suggest putting it on to decide which way you want to be the front.  Once you have determined, cut a slit up the front from bottom center to top center.  Hem the front slit and all the way around the bottom.  It's finally a robe!

Hood

Almost there, I promise!  To make the hood, start with a piece of fabric folded in half so that the fold is at the top.  First take the measurement number 8 and double check that this is the size of the hood you want.  Keep in mind that Jedi hoods are ginormous.  In hindsight I wish I'd made mine a bit bigger.  When you've for certain decided on your hood length, measure out that number from the top of the fold down the left side of the fabric.  I just pinned mine for a marking place.  Now double check what the measurement is for the neck hole.  That measurement plus seam allowance is the length of the bottom of the hood.  Perpendicular from the line you just made, pin that line straight across the fabric.  It should be parallel to the fold of the fabric.  The last line you have to make is not measured per say.  It should be a curved line starting at the back of the hood and going up towards the fold and then joining the fold.  This makes it so that your hood does not have a seam going all the way to the front.  Pin this in as well.  See image below.

(Hood opening to the left, hood back to the right, hood edge to be sewed to the neck opening, on the bottom edge)

Cut out along the bottom pin line and the curved pin line.  Sew along the curved pin line and open up your hood!  Now hem along the front edge of the hood and try it on for size.

Lastly, right sides together, pin the non hemmed edge of the hood to the neck opening and sew that sucker up.  Now put it on, grab your lightsaber, and frolic about your house!  A picture of my frolicking can be seen below.

(Not a complete costume, but I'm getting there!)