Resistance Rey Cosplay

Supplies needed:

2 yards of grey herringbone wool

2 yards of interfacing

2 yards of grey flannel lining

Low loft cotton batting

2 yards ribbed knit cream colored cotton

Grey/brown pants to alter

Rit pearl grey dye

Frey Stop

Butterick B6097

Tools needed:

Permanent marker

Leather punch

UPDATE: PATTERN CAN BE PRINTED OUT HERE

After making NINE versions of this vest, I finally settled on a version I think is as close as I could come to screen accurate.  Special thanks to Ladies of the Legions, The RPF, and my friend Jenna for their help and feedback with this one!

The pattern I chose worked SO well, and I highly recommend it!  To alter it, I cut out all the pieces at the largest size, laid them out and matched the front parts together to get rid of the princess seams.  I did the same with the back, then replaced the seam line with the correct shape.  After altering my pattern to match the screen worn outfit, I cut out all my pieces, lining, interfacing, and wool.  The back pieces of the lining and interfacing do NOT have princess seams. I kept them both as one piece. Then I placed my lining on the dress form, going up a half a size, and pinned the pieces to fit correctly, then trimmed as needed. I took the those pieces off and repeated with the lining.  I did not do this with the wool as that would be dyed and formed next.

Bringing a pot of water up to very hot, I added my grey dye and dyed each piece of fabric for about 5 minutes until I got the shade I wanted.  After cooling all the pieces off in cold water and wringing them out, I placed them on my dress form and wet formed the wool,  but just for the bodice.

After wet forming it with my hair dryer, I waited for the rest or the pieces to dry.  Then I trimmed and started sewing.  I sewed my interfacing and lining together, to keep the interfacing from moving around between layers.  Then I proceeded to sew the wool together.  Now the wool was a different beast, as I had to place a layer of wool behind the princess seams and neck seam to create the "gap" between the layers.  I used some scrap wool which I quickly dyed and threw in the dryer to dry.  After placing the wool behind the seams, I folded the seams back to reveal the back piece of wool and create the gap, then I top stitching.  I repeated this for the neck line.  Next I put the whole thing together and pinned it in place.

To make the shoulder pads, I made a half circle, with about two inches seam allowance, then cut out two pieces of my low loft batting a without the seam allowance, and placed it behind it, then quilted it.  After placing and pinning, I topstitched over my quilting.

Next I did all the handwork.  The stitching in the gaps is a ladder stitch, and the whole thing is sealed with a closed blanket stitch.

The bottom of the vest was sealed up with a straight stitch with a very small seam allowance.  Then I went back by hand and frayed the bottom by hand, pulling out the threads.

Next I worked on the gauntlets.  I used a pattern I modified from my K-Stew Snow White pattern. first I made a pattern based off of screen shots for the holes in the gauntlets that makes a lacey pattern.  Then I printed it out, punched the holes out, then used a sharpie to mark where I need to punch holes with the leather punch. 

Once I punched the holes out, I put Frey Stop on the front and back of the holes, then dried the fabric in the microwave!  

After this, I cut out my flannel lining and one layer of low loft batting.  Then I created the padded area, topstitching to quilt it. Then I used the closed blanket stitch all the way around all sides but the front.  For the front, I cut a scalloped edge, then sealed it with a straight stitch right over the top of the scallops.

Now I moved on to the shirt.  I had to create a pattern for this from scratch, but once I was done, I was very happy.  Nothing crazy was done here, except adding the "swoop" detail in the back.  I'm not happy with my collar, and will be fixing that soon.  A pattern that I would recommend for this one is here.

Last I did my pants.  For those, I picked up a pair from Good Will, cut off the bottom of them and used those for my knee pads. I made a pattern for the ribbing by hand, then placed them on each piece of fabric, then put one layer of low loft batting below that and started quilting.  When I was done, I placed the pads on the pants, folded my excess fabric in, then, cutting the outside of the pants up the side, I topstitched the pads on.  Then I went back and stitched my pants back up again, leaving a small section unstitched on each side like hers.

For the belt, holster, and bag, I used EmeraldB's walk through to create them. I can't recommend it enough!  

I hope this has helped out!  I get questions on how I made my Resistance Rey daily, and I knew I had to do a write up on it.  I'm sure I missed something, so don't hesitate to ask if you have questions! 

Photos by Antler Productions

Edit by Realitysubsitutions