Fabric tests on "Dressing A Galaxy" swatches

[Ani-Chay Pinn]

Well, I just posted this on the RebelLegion forum, so I'm putting it here, too. I had to look and see if I could guess what the Jedi costumes were made of. Lacking a microscope, I used the second best, primitive method of discerning the fiber type of the fabric swatches that came with the “Dressing A Galaxy” book. I pulled a few loose fibers from most of them and tested them with a barbecue lighter. This is what I got:


Darth Vader Cloak
Description: black, loose, plain weave, smooth fabric but with a fine texture to it; too smooth to be just wool, feels a bit like silk
Burn Test: slow burn, animal fiber smell
Guess: Silk? Wool-silk blend?

Obi-Wan undertunic (top left on page)
Description: brown, stretch, jersey weave, medium weight and opaque
Burn Test: fast burn, plant fiber smell; can’t see through it when held up to light
Guess: Cotton? Like heavy t-shirt material?

Obi-Wan tunic (below top left on page)
Description: cream, very loose, stretchy coarse weave that you can see through with visible, thick fibers; feels like silk
Burn Test: animal fiber smell
Guess: Silk or a blend?

Obi-wan pants (left of bottom right corner on page)
Description: medium brown, plain weave, smooth fibers, heavy, smooth dense weave; can’t see through it when held up to light
Burn Test: animal fiber smell
Guess: silk or a blend?

Obi-wan robe (bottom right corner on page)
Description: brown, twill weave, heave fabric, fibers a little fuzzy; can’t see through it when held up to light
Burn Test: animal fiber smell
Guess: wool

Anakin pants (top left on page)
Description: dark brown, very heavy, smooth fabric, tight twill weave; can’t see through it when held up to light
Burn Test: plant fiber smell
Guess: Cotton or linen or a blend?

Anakin tabard (first from top on page)
Description: dark, leather square
Burn Test: no test
Guess: leather or a very good synthetic

Anakin robe (second from top on page)
Description: dark brown and opaque, not as heavy as the pants material, but thick with visible fibers that are sometimes fuzzy, but feels a bit silky; can’t see through it when held up to light
Burn Test: animal fiber smell
Guess: Wool-silk blend?

Anakin tunic (bottom left on page)
Description: lightweight, dark, rough weave, loose, plain weave that makes the fabric pucker a bit with fine fibers, feels like silk and opaque; you can see through it when held up to a light.
Burn Test: animal fiber smell
Guess: silk

Anakin undertunic (bottom right on page)
Description: dark, tight weave with fine fibers and a crepe like texture, but lightweight and not stiff at all with a weave even finer than the tunic; feels like silk; you can see through it a bit when held up to the light, but not as much as the tunic
Burn Test: no test (no loose fibers)
Guess: silk crepe


My conclusions....I’ve enjoyed finding out about the different fabrics and fiber types and a microscope could be a nice thing to have access to.

[Schph Gochi]

Thanks for this awesome look into the fabrics....

wow!

[Leda EmBorr]

The book is out? Amazon still says it's not yet been released.

[JediKai]

The deluxe edition was available first from FIDM.

[Ani-Chay Pinn]

Makes me glad that I switched my order for the book from amazon to FIDM. The price increase was annoying, but I think it didn't have anything to do with amazon; the discount price was never real and someone should have stopped it from going out in the first place.

Y'know I did look up microscopes ....wow, I didn't know digital microscopes were so competitively priced (but still more than I want to pay). But your basic, no-frills, 400X, high-school biology class microscope is less than $200. I don't plan on getting one just to look at fiber (mostly since I don't know how much magnification I need to correctly identify them), but a small, handheld, 30x, pocket microscope is only around $30.

[Leda EmBorr]

Ah, ok thanks...

You're looking at the fabric under a microscope? lol! Now that's close scrutiny!

[Ani-Chay Pinn]

ledaemborr said:

You're looking at the fabric under a microscope? lol! Now that's close scrutiny!

Well, no....not. Alas, I don't know enough about textiles to really know what I'd be looking at. But it doesn't cost me anything to talk about it.

[Nova Darklighter]

Do all the copies come with that many swatches? Everytime I see the description it says (swatch from the D Vader cloak bolt,but if there are more, I think I will get the limited after all, it seems to have more info & photos from the publishers review sheet, perhaps I'll call abrams and ask.

[Ani-Chay Pinn]

Aside from the Darth Vader cloak swatch (which is the largest and in it's own, separate envelope) there are swatches from other costumes; generally they're only a few centimeters square. Judging from what I've read online, it looks like everyone got the same selection.

There is a separate folder that has photos and some swatches for some select costumes. There is a nice photo of each costume, plus close-ups of the fabric. But only some of these select costumes have swatches. The important thing for me is that the Obi-Wan and Anakin costumes have swatches. But there are also a few Padme, Nemodian, Organa and Palpatine swatches as well. I decided to get the special edition because I wasn't going to see the FIDM exhibit.

[Leda EmBorr]

One of Palpy's fabrics feels like insulation... or non-skid carpet backing made from recycled rubber tires! lol!

I got the book today in the mail... silly me forgot that I had placed the order way back when.

I wasn't sure if I should open it, or send it back... I still couldn't fathom that price---for a book.

But I opened it.... and boy am I glad I did! Wow! I sat there with it sprawled on the floor, gawking at it.

[Nova Darklighter]

I picked up the regular edition a couple of weeks ago and have been drooling on it alot, think I will get the limited ed. if I can afford it, but then, I sort of think I will get it even if I couldn't, and I can legitamitly tax deduct it, as it's job related for me. Abrams the publisher is here in the city.

[Leda EmBorr]

I doubt you'd be able to tax deduct it... unless you were making liscenced Jedi costumes as a business. And there's nothing in there that's instructional anyway. The deluxe edition is more of a collector's item.

[Mon-Jas Charan]

Maybe she can ... when I worked at a dinner theater, video tapes and VCR were deductible, due to research for set design and show direction.

[Primrodo]

I thought Nova was involved with halloween costume stuffs?

[Nova Darklighter]

I am, I can deduct anything that is in anyway related, films I see, books, patterns, mags, photos, etc. if I can relate it, I can deduct it as a business exp. and the book would qualify, because it's more detailed, I don't even have to actually make anything from it, just need to know how/what in case I need to know, and we sell lots of related stuff.