And now for a little Cosplay - Part one

*Note: I have posted this a little late, as I actually wrote it a couple of weeks ago, but have been so busy, I forgot to post it*

What do you do when you have a friend that sews and you need a crazy costume for your daughter's school play? That's right, you see if they will make said crazy costume for you!

Ahsoka Tano

Ahsoka Tano

I probably should have said no, but I'm a pushover I guess. The play is not until August, so we figured we had until about a few weeks before that to get it made, so no worries.... Then at the end of April (when I had so many other projects going on) I find out they need it in a few weeks........

So of course I get to work.

For the headdress I decided to use this Youtube tutorial as the base, with a few tweaks of my own. I found the tutorial helpful, as it gives you a shot of the pattern pieces this girl used, so I could draft my own, based on hers. There are plenty more ways to make this headdress/wig thing out there, but I liked this one as it was sewn (my comfort zone) and the pattern pieces were reasonably simple. I chose to use a stretchy knit fabric, instead of a thick cotton like this video recommends, as I thought it would give a better shape overall.

After I measured nearly every part of Bogface, I started drafting up a pattern for both the headdress and the tunic. Once that was done, I began on the headdress. I used some plain off white stretch fabric that I had in my stash, and tried to make it so that it would be comfortable to wear, especially while prancing about fighting on-stage.

Pattern pieces

Once all the pieces were cut out, it sewed together reasonably quickly, but did take a bit of thinking to work out the order to sew the seams in.

Skull cap pieces

All headdress pieces cut out

Here is what it looked like without the skull cap sewn it and stuffing added.

Main part of the headdress together

skull cap sewn together

Then I put some stuffing in and tried it on. as this was for someone with a much smaller head than mine, I knew it would not fit me once the cap was sewn in.

Me  wearing the headdress with a bit of stuffing

So once the cap was sewn in, I looked around my house for a suitable model. My Husband suggested using his Terminator head, and it fit quite well.

Terminator wearing the headdress

I then began work on the tunic. When we were looking for a brown stretch fabric at spotlight, we were only able to find one type, and it was $17.99 per meter. That seemed like a bit much to be paying for a kids costume. But luckily, before we went to the register to pay, we had a lookie through the remnant bin, and I found a remnant of the exact fabric we were about to buy (among other things) for only $2! Yes Please!!!

It ended up being an 80cm length of fabric, and we wanted to make the tunic around 80cm in length, so it was the perfect size for what we needed (with a bit left over to make the arm bands later) So I started by cutting out the front of the dress. I then used the same pattern piece for the back, I just made the neckline a bit higher and left out the darts.

I then marked the cut out locations on both the back and front. I didn't cut them out at this point, as I wanted to double check to placement first.

I sewed the shoulder seams together, before realising I had forgotten to mark and sew the front darts, so I did that next.

After the side seams were sewn, I had something that looked like this.

I used a long thin rectangle of fabric, sewn into a loop and folded over as the collar, which I sewed to the neckline with a zigzag stitch, to allow it to stretch so the dress can be taken on and off. I finished the armholes with bias facing, but due to a lack of brown facing in my stash (and nowhere to buy it in town) I decided to use grey bias binding. I will also use the same grey bias binding to finish the edges of the cut-outs when I get around to them. Here is what the tunic looked like now. At this point I took it for a fitting.

At the fitting, we found the skull cap I made for the headdress was a little small, but when I unpicked some of the stitching inside it, it fit very well. So I will be adding an extra panel in there to make some more room. When she tried the tunic on, the cut outs sat exactly where I wanted them, but unfortunately the darts were a bit high. Her Nan told me not to worry fixing them, as when she is on stage no-one will notice, so I guess that will come down to how much time I have. We also held the belt straps that I had cut out of a vinyl scrap, up to her to see how they looked with the tunic, and everything is looking pretty good so far. As I thought, the neckline was a little bit tight. She said she could get it on easy enough, but taking it off was a bit difficult. Seeing as she will be covered in orange face/body paint I may have to cut through the center back and add a fastening instead.

I have since fixed the darts, by lowering them about 1.5 inches.

Anyway, That's where we are up to at the moment with her costume, as she had to take it in to school to show her teacher. When I have some more time, I will get back into it and make the belt/pouch/loincloth thingy, arm bands, boot spats and finish off the headdress.

Anyone else making any crazy costumes lately?

Dixie