Cloud City (Bespin) Leia

Supplies:
A water soluble marker
McCall's M7003 (for pants)
Simplicity 1609 (for tunic)

Butterick 6097 (for sleeves)Spoonflower's Princess of the clouds print 3 yards crepe de chine

Silky Rayon Crepe Fabric from Joann in Cabernet (5 yards)

Chiffon or sheer fabric to match your tunic fabric (the crepe) 3 yards

half a yard of matching crepe de chine in white for yoke

Foam or thick interfacing for belt (1 Yard)

Gold/copper braided trim (at least 5 yards I believe)Two large belt snaps
Red button

Cotton batting for yokeNeedles with wide eyes

Matching red ballet flats (I found these at Kohls that matched in wine)Medium size embroidery hoop

Embroidery floss in the following colors (start with ten skeins):
Yellow: 745
Buttercream: 746
Rust red: 221
Dark burgundy: 814
Dark brown: 938
Dusty rose: 223

Notes before starting:

I created this costume on a very tight budget. It can be done for under $200 if you are savvy! I cut costs in the following ways: Used patterns I had on hand and Frankensteined them, found a sheer curtain at a thrift store for my cape lining, bought my fabric and foam on sale at Joann's on Black Friday, got my extra crepe at a scrap store, bought all my embroidery floss at Walmart (they had the cheapest), hand braided my trim from a single corded trim at Hobby Lobby, and bought my shoes on sale.

My first step was ordering my Spoonflower fabric. I went with the regular version and not the embroidery version, even though I planned on embroidering it, because I felt I could not do the shadow stitch required. Could I do it all over again, I would have ordered the embroidery version available and either tried harder at the shadow stitch or painted the flower petals ahead of time to look correct. I ordered the short version of the fabric because I am 5'2".  Now for Rebel Legion, you do NOT have to embroider this to get approved, but if you are going to do it, I highly recommend embroidering it if you can. It makes the drape SO nice and really makes this costume pop.

I got all my embroidery floss in the listed colors above and a medium size embroidery hoop. I used this incredible chart to go by from Antoa on the forums. Her build was very helpful!

Now the screen worn version used a stem stitch for the yellow and most of the other places used either a back stitch or a shadow stitch. I stem stitched my whole cape.

You can see here some great shots of the stitching found in the Star Wars Costumes book. By the way, that book has a TON of info on the original costumes and how they were constructed.  Her original cape was hand embroidered, too!

This part took me seven months total to do. I spent all my free time at night or when the kids were at school on this (I did take two months off in the middle cause it was driving me crazy, so believe me it's okay if it takes you a long time!) I would say that it took me a little over two weeks per motif when I was working steadily on it.

For the lining, I found a sheer curtain from a thrift store, and took the end of it apart so that it would be long enough.  The nice part about this was the bottom was finished already, so that saved me from having to hem it.

After trimming the cape correctly I sewed the lining to the cape right sides together. The original cape cut off part of the top white flowers, so that the whole cape falls at an angle. I killed me to cut off the flowers I had sewn, but it had to be done. 

For the trim which goes on the edges of the cape and tunic, I picked up five rolls of single gold/copper trim cord of 5 yards each and hand braided it.  Now this was NOT enough. I would say you need 10. I ended up having to go back and get an alternative for the back of the tunic and bottom of the cape. I hand sewed all the trim to the costume with a very tiny whip stitch using a matching gold thread, working from the inside of the garments.

To make the yoke, I used Alce-Rey's pattern available on the Bun Squad group on Facebook. Now, if you are in the US, the paper size she used is not the same. However, you can still print it out and piece it together, though you will have to approximate some of the clipped off spots.  I traced on to my fabric and used a straight edge to mark my quilting lines.  At this point, I had already made my tunic, pants and belt, so I used the left over red crepe to line the yoke. I used a red thread for my quilting lines. Then I once again added the braided trim by hand.

Next, I placed my cape on to the yoke and placed the pleats in place and pinned them down.

Then I carefully removed the pins off the yoke and put them back in place to keep the pleats where the needed to be and basted them in place. Next I cut my arm hole. This killed me again, cause I had to cut into the spires in the middle of the under arms I had SO carefully made! The I reattached the cape with pins and hand sewed the lining in with a backstitch.

The tunic was very simple to make. I wanted to save some money, so I raided my patterns stash for stuff. I keep a lot of base patterns I can use for multiple projects on hand, and this has been very helpful over the years. Now there are a lot of other great patterns out there others have used and if you don't have patterns on hand that you can use, I would definitely use those suggestions! I saw a few girls use PJ pants as their base for their pants and then added a cuff to the ends and I think that is a fabulous way to do it!  My base patterns were a dress, which I did not sew the side up to completely, and sleeves from a blouse, which I added the point to, and took in where needed. Then I added the copper trim to by hand. I also chose to do a keyhole back, which I was very happy with! I used some of the matching embroidery floss for the loop and a matching red button I had on hand

My original belt you can see in the picture above was far too wide. It should be about 5 inches wide at rhombus/diamond. Mine was twice that! Anyways on to construction for that! I measured out my diamond shape on paper first. When I was happy with the dimensions, I measured for the band, which was about 2 inches wide. Then I laid this out on my foam interfacing and cut that out. Next I laid this out on my belt fabric, traced with a sharpie, then left about a half an inch all the way around when I cut. Then I sewed on my tracing marks, to ensure my fabric would be tight around the belt. Don't forget to clip your edges! I fed the foam into the belt after turning it right side out and sealed the ends with the machine. Last, I added the snaps in the back!

All that was left was the shoes, which I found to match at Kohls, but I know other gals hand dye theirs to match which also works!

                            

This was one of my most time consuming builds yet because of all the handwork, but so worth it!

Jedi Leia: Marvel Comics

Supplies:

A water soluble marker

McCall's M4419

Simplicity 1036 

White knit fabric (see pattern)

Half yard grey suede fabric

Three sets of white hook and eyes
White, grey, and black fabric

Low loft batting

Invisible zipper in white
Needle

Leather for belt

Silver enamel paint by Folk Art

brush

8 silver conchoes

Metal sheeting

E6000

White Velcro

A lot of girls have wanted to keep Carrie's memory alive with this costume and I have been loving seeing more and more gals tackle it!

To start out, I found a HUGE roll of white knit fabric at a local Scrap Exchange I snagged for $5.  Turns out it was a knit leftover from Spoonflower which they donated!

Patterns I chose

The McCall's pattern I had from my Kahlan Amnell dress from 2009, and is no longer carried in stores, but they pop up on Etsy and Ebay all the time. It has the correct princess seams in the front, and the front panel can be made to be split on both sides or one (depending on the comic reference you choose to base yours on.)  I used just the sleeves from the Simplicity pattern.

Double side split front

Right side split

I laid out my pattern and marked my fabric with my water soluble marker, then cut. This fabric was similar to the Walmart fabric I used for my Senatorial gown, so it is delicate can can snag easily, but the drape is perfect! Very similar to the Joann's Jet Set.  After cutting, I pinned and put it on my dress form to make it fitted. I kept the opening meant for corset lacing from the original pattern for where my invisible zipper would be placed.

When I was ready, I sewed all my seams closed save the sides, so that I could attach the yolk and sleeves later. Then I folded my princess seams down, pinned and top stitched those down and trimmed my excess fabric from them, so it created nice lines.  At this point, I debated on weather I wanted the double split panel in the front, or just the right side. When all as done, I went with the right side, as that is more accurate to the issue I was basing my dress off of.  I also did a rolled hem at the split. I did NOT hem the bottom so it hung properly, as this fabric is SOOOO thin, but you totally can. I might not have done the rolled hem at the split, but I knew I would be doing a lot of kneeling at troops for pictures, so I added it to fight wear. I doesn't hang the way I want, but it works.

Next I mocked up the yolk in scrap fabric. Now this one is up to you as well. The triangle sections change from panel to panel, sometimes they connect, sometimes they do not. I opted to connect mine because I really liked that look, it felt more rebel!  Mine ended up having shoulder seams when I was done so that it laid correctly.

I transferred my pattern to the grey suede, allowing for seams.  I stitched the shoulder seams together, then laid out the whole thing on my low loft batting for the quilting and cut.  This reduces bulk at the seams. I wish I had taken pics here! I was on a roll at the time! Next I plotted out my quilting. there are 12 to 14 lines of quilting, depending on the panel. I went with the 14.  I used my black thread to make the quilting lines stand out more. When I was done with my quilting, I placed it on the dress and folded my edges under and pinned. I allowed room at the neck for the collar which I would add later.  I top stitched ONLY the bottom of the yolk in my matching grey thread. I would do the top when I had the hood done.

Now I patterned out the grey hexagons for the sleeves. Instead of pinning them on to sew, I used my fabric glue, as I KNEW that pinning would make them move as I worked on them. After they dried for 20 minutes, I top stitched the edges in my grey thread.  After hemming my sleeves I attached them to the gown and closed the sides of the dress.

Using the same pattern as I used for my Senatorial dress, I made my collar and hood. I just made the neck opening wider for more gathers, as this is a larger opening.  I attached my collar, then used my rolled hem foot for the edges of the hood. I gathered the hood on the ends using a long stay stitch on my machine and pulling to gather. Now I tucked in my hood ends under the grey yolk, pinned the yolk edges under and top stitched in the grey again.


The last step for the dress was to add the invisible zipper! Super straight forward and easy, followed by tacking on the three sets of hooks and eyes at the back of the collar exactly like Senatorial gown.

I threw my senatorial belt on just to see how it was looking. I stared at the dress for days. At this point, I wasn't sure about the double splits I did in the front. So I fixed it and made it only one side split.

I honestly wasn't confident on my belt making skills, so I was gonna commission it. But was had a con coming up and I really did want to wear it, so I pulled out my left over leather from my Rey belt and I traced my Senatorial belt out on it and painted the leather with two coats of enamel paint by Folk Art. Then I cut out the belt.

Next I got metal sheeting from Hobby lobby and used the pattern for the plates from P & S Costume Creations to make my plates. This metal is VERY thin, and you can easily cut it, BUT it also dings up fast. Make sure you round out all your edges when you cut.  Then I glued all my conchoes on with E6000 and let them dry. I eyeballed all my placements. I don't recommend that, unless you are comfortable doing it (or crazy like me). Measure all your placements. lol. Then I glued the plates down.  If you are using leather, I would actually seal the back of your belt before you do this, with some leather protector or some other method. It will flatten down the rough side of your leather so it doesn't rub on your dress. Also, if you can bevel or smooth over the edges of your leather, do that before gluing as well.  I was in a rush and did it afterwards. I was lucky I didn't wreck my plates!!!

Make sure ALL your edges are smooth to the belt when gluing.  Otherwise the metal could catch the dress. I found some wear to my sleeves after my first troop because one of my plates had a TINY edge up.  Last, I glued on my Velcro. You could opt for snaps, too! I wanted Velcro cause I was not comfortable doing snaps and I wanted that back plate like in the comic.  With Rebel Legion, the back plate is optional I believe.  I let dry and I was done!!!

Here is the belt with the gown finished!

I bought a pair of white jeggings from Walmart with a side zip which works great with this! I also wear my Senatorial boots with this costume.  Now this costume can be unforgiving. I chose not to line it as the fabric was SO thin. If you use a different fabric, you definitely could line it.  But, as it is not lined, you need to wear shape wear with this. I chose a nude body suit with a shelf bra, and I wear this over a padded sports bra. I also wear spanks with this, to keep all my lines clean.  If you have any questions at all on this build, let me know! It was super fun and very recognizable still at cons!

Bespin Escape Leia

I needed to have this costume done during a time when I just didn't have a ton of time to do a big build, and honestly, the jumpsuit intimidated me! So I searched the web and came across this seller on Ebay that actually makes the base jumpsuit that needed few alterations to be correct! When I ordered, I made sure to measure wearing VERY loose fleece PJ pants for the inseams. I also requested to have this made in cotton with thin batting (Don't tell them low loft, the words don't translate well to Chinese for them for some reason). So here is step by step what I did to alter this jumpsuit for Rebel Legion.

Happy me when the jumpsuit arrived!!!

Supplies:

A water soluble marker
Medium sized embroidery hoop

Two sets of pants hook and eyes

Three sets of white hook and eyes
White thread
Needle

Scissors 

Seam ripper

The first thing you will need to do is move the lower arm patches over to line up with the top arm patches. Seam tip them off carefully, and then move them over and hand stitch them back on, using the previous holes from the stitches as a guide.

Mark out your zig zag patterns on all the pads and princess seams (front and back) of the jumpsuit.

Using your embroidery hoop just use a simple back stitch by hand with your thread doubled and hand quilt your pads.

OPTIONAL SUGGESTION:
You can also remove all the pads and do this through your sewing machine if you a have a quilting foot. Then hand stitch the pads back on. And then run the princess seam quilting through the machine as well.

Use the marker and mark out four rows of lines at the middle of the sleeves. Back stitch all around the rows.

Once you have all your quilting done, you will need to fix your placket. It needs to be flat at the top and bottom and and about one third to one half as wide. Seam rip the outside of the placket. Trim. Fold your raw edges back in. When you fold the top in, make it as straight as possible, and not angled. Do the same for the bottom of the placket. Top stitch with your machine.

For the yoke in the back, it is not straight, but a slightly inverted V shape. Pin tuck with your machine, then blind stitch that down by hand. I used pins to help me with the placement of my pin tuck.

For your belt, hop into the jumpsuit. Measure your waist with the belt fairly tightly. Mark the end of the belt with the buckle with your marker. Take off the belt and mark about three inches or so, enough so that you can let out the belt if needed. Trim. Fold the raw edges about 1/4th inch away from where you marked your waist. This will allow for overlap with the hook and eyes. Attach the pant hook and eyes.

Note: This was taken before I fixed the placket

OPTIONAL
I pulled my collar down about a fourth of an inch, but you may not need to.

Now add your white hook and eye sets to your collar. Make sure you tack them down well, or you will have bad gapping at the neck.


Below are close ups of all my pads and embroidery.

And that is it! Here are some shots of me in it! Next up will be the Hoth Vest!