Jedi Knight Costume

First, this is an outfit to be worn to a dance, and to be made cheaply and with materials I could get ahold of easily. As Randy kept telling me as I was creating it, “you know, I’m not a real Jedi, right?” Yes, yes. And so I let go of my urges to be 100% accurate, and went for “accurate enough.” (Plus, actual Jedi don’t have quite the girth that my Jedi does.)

Actual Jedi:

My Jedi:

Modifications I made:

• The actual Jedi inner tunic seems to have more form-fitted sleeves. As I was using cotton that was nonstretchy, but I needed a lot of ease of movement, I went with wider sleeves.
• Actual Jedi pants seem to be more form-fitting, as well, but we went with baggy for a few reasons. 1) dancing. 2) my husband’s, uh, girth..
• The actual Jedi robe doesn’t have as many seams as mine does. Because I was about a yard short on fabric, I had to have shoulder seams and also a seam down the middle of the hood.

I used weaver’s cloth in a cream color for the inner tunic and pants, starting with a Karate uniform pattern and making a few modifications. I used weaver’s cloth in a tan color for the outer tunic, starting with Simplicity 5840 and making a few modifications (including a tuck at the shoulder). The tabbards and obi I made just from strips of fabric, about 7 inches wide. The robe took the longest, which is strange since it’s the simplest of all the pieces. I spent at least 4 hours staring at the fabric and trying to work out how to cut it. The robe is made from a really nice 100% wool suiting from Jo-Ann. It’s really nice and heavy.

I will be continuing to improve this costume as I have time. I actually plan to wait until DH has lost some weight, to help the whole thing hang better. Then I will re-do the inner tunic, to make it from some sort of T-shirt material, to allow the sleeves to bunch up and be more form-fitting at the wrist. I will be making a better belt, and devising some sort of way for the belt, obi, and tabbards to stay in place better.
These websites were very useful to me while working on this costume:

http://www.rmff.net/costumes/tut/jedi/index.html

http://www.thejediassembly.com/tutorials.php?id=sh5

http://www.rebellegion.com/jedigarb/robe.html

http://www.jedi-academy.com/ep1_kenobi_tips.html

http://www.padawansguide.com/basic.shtml

http://kincharbamin.com/Look-Like-A-Jedi.html

More pictures of my Jedi Here, here, and here.

Advertisement

Completed: 1950s Wrap Dress

And my entry for Sew Retro‘s bimonthly theme: A Little Summer Something.

It’s a 1950s wrap dress, made from a lime green and blue printed linen and lined with a nice yellow linen. I’m making a blouse, as well, from the same pattern, out of a light yellow linen, but as you can see, the dress can be worn without a blouse.

The dress also has little matching shorts, which feel like they go practically up to my armpits in comparison to where today’s waistlines are.

Completed: Stencil Shirts

Randy had some plain Tshirts that he wanted me to dress up for him. I made him some practical ones with the Swing Des Moines logo and the Second Sunday Swingout logo. Then another swing-dance related one using some art I found online.

Then I made him two that are strictly for fun – The man with the yellow hat from Curious George and an octopus.

While I was at it, I also made myself a shark shirt (I picked this red shirt up for 99 cents at Goodwill a while back) and a Curious George shirt.

Then, what the heck, Wally got a Curious George shirt, too.

awww, aren’t we cute.

Completed: Laptop cases

I finished up Case #3 yesterday, and also put the finishing touches on Case #1. Suffice it to say, I will NOT be making these for sale any time soon! I still have enough foam left for one more case, but I’m going to store it away for a few months. Something tells me I’ll be desperate enough for something new and fun come January that making another of these will seem like fun.

For case #3, I made it a cube like case #1, but I sewed it with the seams on the outside, then covered the seams with bias tape. It doesn’t look altogether bad, though if you look at it closely, you can see that it’s kind of rough in places. The perfectionist in me wants to fix it, but most of me wants to just be done and call it good enough. So – it’s good enough.

I liked the fabric a lot, but I think I’d like it better on something else. It kind of made this project look a little old-lady-ish. Ah, well, it’s not altogether bad.

And here is case #1, finished. Just added bias tape around the top edges.

Completed: Skirt

Well, the two summer skirts from my to-do list became one summer skirt, with an option to complete another if I have time early this next week.

I really like this skirt. I’s fuller than most of the A-line skirts I make, fun and lightweight. I used a skirt I already own as a template. The template skirt is made from a heavier material, which I guess pulls the side seams down enough that the extra allowance made for the hips is not noticeable. But on this lightweight fabric – super noticeable. So I went down and removed the extra hip fullness as soon as I took this photo!

I got the idea for the hem detail from a skirt I already own – one that was purchased from one of the expensive mall stores (on clearance for 1.50!). My skirt is not an exact copy, but it’s definitely similar!