Mara - Boots

On Saturday I went to my local thrift store, looking for buckles for Jedi belts. As I was pursuing the racks of shoes and purses looking for interesting buckles, I spied a pair of rich dark brown leather boots with a low heel, round toe, and inside zipper. They looked like they had been worn only once or twice.

I got over my surprise at finding such a quality item and tried them on. Surprise turned to shock when they actually fit! My shoe size is 8 1/2 WIDE. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find cute shoes in a wide width? Especially when one believes that her shoes should look like this:

But I digress. I found these boots. They were $16.26. I bought them. I have Jedi boots. Done.

(I think I am going to find some skinny pants to wear with my costume and attach stirrups to the cuffs to keep them smooth. I hate it when my pants bunch up around the top of my shoes.)

Arix - Pants & Tunic

Here is the start of Arix's costume. His pants are the same as Jax's pants. They are just 1 1/2" shorter and I did better about making the elastic more snug. I love this weavers cloth. It looks so nice. It also feels pretty sturdy. I'm thinking of using it for something for myself one day. I have no idea what, but something. The inner tunic is a brown T-shirt he loves and has had for a long time.

The outer tunic is also much like Jax's tunic. I shortened the pattern in the shoulder, waist and side seams and redrew it. I left the sleeves the same. Jedi sleeves are pretty generous (and I didn't want to try redrawing those curves). I think they look really good.

I tried it without the side slits. Not only was it difficult for Arix to walk and sit, but also it was harder for him to get it on and off! I ripped out the side seams up to three inches below the waist line (about the top of his hip) and put in slits. Problem solved.

These pictures were taken during his one and only fitting, so the edges were not hemmed and the snap on the front was not sewn on. So you will just have to trust me when I say that they are hemmed now and the front of the tunic snaps shut. He looks great in it. :)

The only big difference between Jax's tunic and Arix's tunic is this one is fully lined since the papyrus cotton gauze is so light. I didn't want the brown T-shirt showing through. It is also good practice for mine and Dash's tunics since they will most likely be lined. I think it looks really nice and I am rather proud of it.

What I learned:

1. Fully lined tunics look awesome.
2. Side slits are essential for pull-over type tunics. 

Jax - Robe

Behold! Jax's robe! (Imagine fanfare here.)

For the most part I followed SithariRog's robe tutorial. I only messed up in a few ways, but we will get to that later.

I realized that the sleeves were short enough that I could cut the robe main body as one piece by folding the fabric in quarters. I did this (more on that later) and I basically had a Jedi robe shaped poncho that needed side seams.

I stitched up the sides with French seams. It looks nicer and the material I chose really likes to shred at the edges. French seams = no loose threads to cut off in the future.

Next I cut the hood. (It is too big. I need to find a good hood-to-body ratio.) In the tutorial it says to pleat the hood and robe. I'm all for pleats, but it was late and I was being impatient so I gathered the bottom edge of the hood and sewed it to the neck of the robe body.

I sewed a strip of fabric over the main body/hood seam to cover the raw edges as recommended in the tutorials. I don't think I did it quite right, probably because I did it all on my machine. No hand stitching. I'm going to have to think on this and research some more before trying it again.

Remember how the robe was like one big poncho? At this point I cut open the front of the robe. I used a 1/2" rolled hem to finish the front edge. I did it all in one seam--up the front on one side, around the hood, and down the front on the other side. Clean. Neat. Done.

I had lots of material left over for the hems on the bottom edge and the sleeves. I decided to leave the excess material to let the robe out as Jax grows, instead of cutting it. Cutting would have been easier with those A-line curves, but it is done now and it's great.

A quick word on the hems for the sleeves and bottom edge. Please, for the love of all that it good and beautiful in this world, use a blind hem stitch for hems on curves. It really isn't that hard once you know how to do it. Look it up on YouTube. Having a blind hem foot for your machine makes it just that much easier.

Now it is later. I realized that the sleeves were short enough that I could cut the robe main body as one piece by folding the fabric in quarters. That wasn't the problem. I didn't move my fold so as to leave the most amount of excess at the bottom of the material. It was late and I was not being patient. My bad. This was all fine and well for the body, but left me insufficient material for the hood. (Face palm.)

I ended up sewing two rectangles together to make a large enough piece for the hood. If I had just moved the main body pattern and the fold up instead of cutting from the exact center of the fabric, it would not have been a problem and I could have sewed the hood from one, beautiful, uninterrupted piece of fabric. Live and learn. Live and learn.

What I learned:

1. Cut from the edge of the fabric, no matter how much easier it is to cut from the middle.
2. I need to learn how to cover the main body/hood seam and make it look good on the outside of the robe.
3. Find some equations or something to get the sizing right--particularly of the hood.