fabrics for tunic

[Ldi-Ovef Te_Azi]

i found an awsome linen at my local fabric store for 3.99 a yard, and the coloring is perfect for what i want, and it also looks a little coarse, so it will look awsome. im going to get a dark brown for the undertunic in a really soft fabric. i also am going to try to get ahold of some strong fabric for the obi so it doesnt curl, my aunt made a jedi costume for my cousin-in-law, and that is what she used.

[Kyle Skirata]

So I've already got my new tunic project started with my seamstress and I have to go get fabric. I'm totally unsatisfied with the available colors of Silk Noil from Thai Silks. They do have a lot, just not in the shades of brown I like. In person, they appear far different from what is shown on their website.

Last year, I bought what I *think* was crinkly cotton and I loved the color. I'd even go so far as to have the whole thing made from one color because I know they have a nice tan shade that suits me well. But as Seda Navilli mentioned on the last page. It's very thin (but looks great!).

For those of you who have used this fabric, did you only have to double up on the fabric? Or more?

I think I can get it for $3.50 per yard here. I just want to make sure I get enough yardage to do the job.

Any help anyone can offer would be extrememly helpful. I'd love to hit that shop on sunday and get what I need.... [crosses finger]

[Nova Darklighter]

When I've used crinkle cotton or crinkle gauze whichever you prefer to call it, I've usually lined it with a thin lt. weight cotton called lining cotton, it's similiar to china silk in weight, but is 100% cotton, china silk is good too, but costs more $$$$, the lining cotton I use is about $2-$3 a yd.

[Kyle Skirata]

So we ended up using a crinkle cotton. And after all of the planning I did for the colors, I just ended up with the standard single color tunic. It turned out great though, very lightweight and soft. Here's a photo of me, not the best, but it pretty much shows off my tunic...



I can't tell if the worst part about being a Jedi is getting guff from the clones about Order 66 or having to constantly look in the mirror to adjust the costume!

[Olos Nay]

yorrkolash said:

I can't tell if the worst part about being a Jedi is getting guff from the clones about Order 66 or having to constantly look in the mirror to adjust the costume!

I think its the fact there is never a mirror to help adjusting the costume :S

in my case, several of the clones also have a Jedi costume, so they don't bother very much, and they like that we actually can see and talk during trooping events, so they're real nice with us

Great tunic by the way

[JediKai]

Oh, very nicely done!

Yes, the obi and the tabbards are constantly askew, even with fasteners to keep the tabbards in place on the shoulders.

[Nova Darklighter]

Very nice, I like the colour too.

[Ani-Chay Pinn]

Schph posted the link to these in the robes topic, but some of these fabrics look like could work for tunics, since they're wool/silk blends and they're on sale.

But I wonder if these fabrics are suitable? They all have some obvious textured and some color patterns. Now, Mace Windu's tunic has a noticeable pattern, though it's rough and tiny; that's what makes me think that these would work.

Brown Twill Linen -- The diagonal twill weave is very prominent.

Gold/Ivory Silk/Wool -- Wonderful looking, but if you look at the large picture, you can see a very, very faint line pattern that would likely show up if you made a whole top out of it.

Copper Suiting -- mostly wool, but also blended with linen and silk, but the three colors are copper, beige and green; assuming the web picture is reasonably accurate, does it still look enough like a brown-tone for a tunic?

Rust Nailhead Suiting -- same question as the last one, but the colors are rust, natural and green.

Golden Nailhead Tweed -- the colors are gold, brown and rust, so no question that this would work, though I'm not sure it's a color that looks good on me.

This isn't Star Wars, but if I were going to make an Elven Cloak, I would make it out of THIS. And I'm giving some serious thought to it, especially since the official cloaks made from the fabric from the New Zealand sheep that were use for the film are $745 New Zealand dollars. Well, that's for a finished cloak, but even just the fabric still sky high.

[Jauhzmynn Enz]

Humm, I looed at them all, I agree about the Brown Twill Linen suiting. It's make great tabbords and Obi but not a good over tunic. The others will make great tunics reguardless of some having green threads. It's all a matter of how it looks in differant lighting. Cal's over tunic has a greenish hue to it in sunlight, but when it's photographed it appears khaki or tan. There'll be some differances. Fabric hue even appears differant to each person because of how the eyes precieve the light waves. This could be the case with these fabrics. I suggest getting swatches of them and vewiing them in sun light and photogrph them with your camera.

[Ldi-Ovef Te_Azi]

those tunics and the like look good. im hoping to put aside some time to finish off my costume maybe this upcoming weekend. i like my fabric, it is tea dyed muslin, looks good and also feels good.

[Jan-Qui Coran]

We know calcutta has many colors: would the ivory in calcutta be usable for a Jedi tunic or is that too close to white?
I know it comes in cream & that is really light beige.

[Nova Darklighter]

Ivory is very light, but should be ok, but the darker cream would be better, however my natural silk is very lt. ivory.

[Koda Vonnor]

I wasn't sure where to bring this up, and I hadn't seen it anywhere else yet.

For those that have used a crinkly type fabric that has a lot of stretch across the grain, how did you keep the shoulder points from sagging off the shoulders through time and movement. I would assume the fabric wants to stretch across the crinkles and would eventually cause a mis-alignment of the shoulder points with the edge of the tabards (does that make any sense?).

I know that Leda solved this by bringing the under-tuck of the sleeve (at the shoulder) all the way up under the shoulder almost to the neck. That way the weight of the sleeve is not pulling against the crinkle of the fabric on top of the shoulder.

Is there any other way of doing this with just a couple inches of tuck at the shoulder?

I thought of putting a yoke in at the shoulders/upper back/upper chest area using another thickness of fabric. Maybe with the yoke grain running across instead of down the body to limit the stretch (the yoke being sewn in on the underside of the tunic so it won't show). But I hesitate to do that for fear that the crinkles of the yoke may themselves bunch up over time and cause a pucker along the shoulderblades or the upper chest.

Then I'm thinking to use a full lining like in the sleeves (in lieu of a self-yoke), since the lining won't stretch across the grain, but I worry that will make it too slippery at the shoulder area, plus make it warmer overall.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Thanks!

~ Koda

[Ani-Chay Pinn]

Hmmmmmm, I haven't used any tunic fabric that has so much stretch in it that I needed to worry about it. If I did, I would likely do the things that you have mentioned, reinforcing the shoulder with a yoke or having the shoulder seam along the least stretchy direction of the fabric.

Note: the material actually used for Obi-Wan Kenobi's tunic has a lot of stretch in it, more than I would use. I wonder if the shoulder tucks serve this function? However, movie costumes are not made to last, or at least they are made to last only as long as the movie is being made.

[Kryy Jacobi]

Koda,

I'm not sure if this is what you're asking, but the shoulder tucks in my robe sort of "fell out" and didn't look as crisp, so I sewed them down a bit farther down in the back. (Didn't do it in the front b/c leaving the robe open keeps them flatter and the tucks don't "pooch out" as much.)

Maybe you could try sewing them down another inch front and back and see what happens, or even just "tack" the folds discreetly on the inside of the tunic. Otherwise reinforcing on the inside sounds like a good idea.

[Like I'm such an expert -- I'm still working on my pattern/muslin for my tunic. Can't commit to cut out my fabric yet -- chicken!! 'Twill be my "after Christmas" project. ]