making my old tunic & tabbards better

[Sionna Trekina]

First off - the old tunic/tabbards. This set was made in 1999 and was the first clothing item I ever made on my own. I was quite proud of this (at the time), but the more I've been costuming the more I feel this needs something else.




So in that vein, I found my Jedi costume pattern (the official Ep 2 one made by Simplicity) which should make a much more accurate tunic than my original. (Considering my original was made using a "generic 'Star Wars outfit'" pattern from when Ep 1 came out...yeah, it could've been worse, lol.) I also browsed the fabrics when I was out and about for the velvet for my Naboo battlemaiden. I love the texture, look, and weight of cotton gauze, so I picked up some to make a new outer tunic. Also, when browsing, I happened across this other material in "costume leather/vinyl/pleather" section. I'm going to use it for tabbards.






I might try patterning and cutting out tonight...

[gizzmo88]

One thing to keep in mind with pleather. I live in Southern California and like Florida, We get high heat and alot of sun. I also have pleather tabarts and I have found that in the summer I have come close to heat stroke because the pleather will not allow air flow. Many times I have taken my tunic off at the end of the troop and had to let the sweat drip off. I am rethinking this now.

[Sionna Trekina]

I have dealt with that as well on other costumes (microsuede also does not breath... x.x; ), but this particular material seems to have a much lighter weight to it than other pleathers I've seen. This is part of the reason I went with a very light cotton for the tunic itself. (Although ironically, in it's current state the old costume is warmer than my black Jedi outfit...)

I still want to make a completely new design for another outfit, but that will be more for future thought as right now I have quite a bit on my WIP plate.. ^^;;

(*wonders if I can somehow incorporate my water mister into this costume...* lol)

[JediKai]

Not sure which pattern that is but one of them has tabbards that curve out at the shoulders. Many people make them that way but it's not screen accurate. Just sayin'.

[Sionna Trekina]

My original tabbard was actually thrown together as a quick addition to the original costume with no pattern at all, as the original patterns I was using back then didn't have tabbards included. The pattern I'm going to be using for the new tunic will be this one: farm5.static.flickr.com/4085/5043906622_b9c94927f4.jpg

Yeah..I can use the large of a kid's size pattern and it'll fit me fine.. *sigh* Although I know I have the adult's pattern somewhere at my mom's, too... ;D

I'm going to be making these new parts with a combination of the pattern I have and screenshot/costume studying.

[Leda EmBorr]

That looks like a good pattern... Can's see the shape of the tabbards but it does have the shoulder tucks! The one I used originally, I had to modify the armholes to make the tucks, and eventually I modified the whole thing when I switched to the circle skirt pattern. This pattern here has incorrect tabbards... they should be made as straight rectangles and tucked at the waist... not corved as they are here.

bonanzleimages.s3.amazonaws.com/afu/images/0017/4293/patterns_388.jpg

[Sionna Trekina]

Yeah, the tabbards on the kid's pattern have the same shape and I was planning to alter them anyway. ^^

[Ky-Wan Zann]

I agree the kids one seems more inline with the films. I',m currently redoing mine and will use a seperate pattern with a skirt for the bottom of the tunic. Leda do you have a pattern for that?

[Leda EmBorr]

I made a pattern for the circle skirt. I've done so many attempts at the perfect jedi costume that the pattern changes every time. So far I've made 7 of them... two were flops and I scrapped them, two are the ones I wear now, and the rest I'm probably going to sell. I'll have to go through my pattern box and figure out which pieces are the most current. I'm pretty disorganized with that, but when I do figure it out, I'll let you know. I think the circle I used was a modified 1950's skirt pattern. I shortened it, but the jedi tunic is only a circle in the back, the front is flat.

[Sionna Trekina]

Just for an update, the new tunic is about 90% complete. I need to cut out and attach the neck band/facing and do some hemming still.

[Leda EmBorr]

Looking great!

[Sionna Trekina]

Thanks! ^^

[Sionna Trekina]

Apparently I never posted my last update from this, which was after I attached the collar/facing.



I almost finished sewing the facing when I found out my bobbin had run out of thread at about the half way point (before Halloween) and in my minor frustration just put it all down and walked away. Also stopped because work had decided no costumes the weekend before like previous years had been. Since then work has kept me very busy (and then Assassin's Creed 3 came out and I got sucked into it.. ^^; lol) so I haven't done a lot.

Last night, though, I finished up a necklace I turned into a headdress by attaching some white wig hair in various spots to simulate the silver highlights of my character. (Don't mind the bad photo of me, I was really tired after a very long work day...)

EDIT: Really..Photobucket wants to play the "image no longer available" game? ....-.-;;; *grumble*

EDIT 2:

HAH! XD

[Leda EmBorr]

Nice! Good job on the collar trim!

It's time for me to make a new tunic as well... my classic Obi-Wan is getting a bit tattered and stretched out.

[Leda EmBorr]

I just repaired my tunic, yet again... the tabards have stretched out over the years and were too wide... I had to tuck them under. My costume is getting soo tattered! It's probably 6 or 7 years old!