Halloween Costume: Star Wars Sabe Decoy - Part 5

Here is the full Star Wars Sabe Battle Decoy costume with all the parts and the full makeup.

Makeup

Headdress

Full Costume

This is a picture of me at the office with the full costume... except I left the belt at home, which was a bummer.  But it was still a fun day.  I will be glad to start sewing things that have nothing to do with Halloween until next year.

Sabe Costume Part 1  Dress
Sabe Costume Part 2  Vest
Sabe Costume Part 3 Headdress
Sabe Costume Part 4 Headdress
Sabe Costume Part 5 All Together Now

Halloween Crafts: Building a Death Star-Part Two

After many weeks of waiting for layer after layer of paper mache and paint to dry, I have finished the Death Star.  It took about 10 pounds of white flour, two Sunday newspapers, a roll of wallpaper, 20 sheets of grey foam and about 1/4 gallon of grey paint, but it is done.  It is going to be used in the Halloween celebration at my office.  I made

I did about 5 layers of paper mache with newspaper, then one with wallpaper, and another couple of layers of newspaper.

After painting it grey with matte wall paint, I cut pieces of craft foam and punched holes in them to mimic windows.

I drew lines around the ball at different points.  I used a string with two knots to do this.  One end had a push-pin pinned to a spot on the ball, the other had a pencil.  It worked like a giant compass.

Then, I glued on the foam pieces, making sure to make them wider at the center of the ball, where the width of the ball is the greatest.

For the indentation, I used a plastic bowl to trace a circle onto the Death Star, then cut a hole in the Death Star with a dremmel that was slightly smaller than the bowl. I removed the beach ball through the hole, then placed a spray-painted plastic bowl in the hole.

I drilled holes into the ball where the holes are punched in the foam, then put a string of white Christmas lights in the ball and put a line of black electrical tape around the center.




Next,  I made an armature out of clothes hangers and foam to support the weight of the ball evenly and cut holes at the top.





Here it is all finished and hanging at the office with the lights. 

Halloween Costume: Star Wars Sabe Decoy - Part 4

This is the second part of the construction of the headdress for the Sabe Battle Decoy costume.  Now time for the metal cage around the base of the headdress.

I decided to use polymer clay for the cage. It will look a little like metal, but is pretty easy to work with.







I kneaded the clay (I used Sculpey), then put it in an extruder with a small round shape.  Since it is REALLY hard to push the plunger on the extruder by hand, I used a caulking gun to help.







I covered the base with aluminum foil since I didn't know if the Sculpey would stick to the paper mache when it bakes.

Then, I extruded long snakes of the clay, then arranged it on the foil-covered base and used a gold powder on the raw clay.

I baked the cage on the base in a 275 degree oven for 15 minutes.

After the cage was out of the oven and cooled (it is REALLY pliable while warm), I took off the cage and covered the base with a red micro-fiber.  I used a hot glue gun to attach it and approached it like an upholstery project.

I glued the cage on upholstered base and then used a matte Sculpey gloss to set the metallic powder.

For the post-like structures, I ran the Sculpey through a pasta machine and baked it, so I had flat sheets to cut into strips.  I glued the strips to the fabric to make boxes, then glued the boxes to the sides of the middle section.  I had to cut the bottom of the posts at an angle to make them fit on without gaps.

 Now for the crescent shaped wings.  After several test muslins, I got a working pattern and cut out four pieces of fabric.  I sewed the right sides together, clipped, notched and then stuffed each one.  I sewed the ends closed.

The hardest part of this was figuring out how to attach the hair to wrap around the crescents.  It was a lot of trial and error.  In the end, I cut the hair from a wig into sections and glued it into fabric strips using obscene amount of hot glue.  After it was cooled, I shoved the strips into a slit in the crescent.  One of the tricks is to make the hair strips the right length so that you don't have to shove too much hair into the crescent.

Blister on Finger... hot glue is hot.

 Lesson of the week: Hot glue it hot.  You can see one of the blisters on my index finger in the photo above.  I am sad to report I had to learn that lesson on three different fingers.

After both ends were in the slots, I used another obscene amount of hot glue to close the slit.I also used spray adhesive to tack down any stray hairs.


 

Last, I hot glued the top of the crescents to the posts and sewed the bottom parts to the fabric on bottom of the base for support.  I think it would rip off of the posts if it had to rely on that for the only support.

Here is the finished headdress.  If I had it to do again, I would put more hair on it, but I didn't have another wig, so it doesn't have as much as I would like.

Sabe Costume Part 1  Dress
Sabe Costume Part 2  Vest
Sabe Costume Part 3 Headdress
Sabe Costume Part 4 Headdress
Sabe Costume Part 5 All Together Now

Halloween Costume: Star Wars Sabe Decoy - Part 3

Time for the next part of my Halloween costume... the Sabe Battle Decoy from Episode 1 of Star Wars.  Now, I tackle the headdress.  It has what looks like a metal frame, leather crescents with hair wrapped around.  Here is what I am doing, step-by-step.










Warning: This is where I admit that I am totally winging it. I have never made anything like this, so there could be some steps in here that are not efficient, but I just plodded along hoping it all would turn out.  This is less of a tutorial than a description of an experiment.

The plan: paper mache (or papier mâché, if you want to be all fancy). I ordered a styrofoam head online - they are surprisingly cheap - and used a plastic shopping bag and duct-taped it to the shape of the head. So the paper mache wouldn't stick to the styrofoam.

I put on three layers of a white flour and water paper mache with newspaper.
Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the base, but it is oval shaped and flat.

After that dried, I peeled off the plastic bag and got rid of it.  Then, I made the part that sticks up out of card stock and taped it to the paper mache base.

I curled around the top part.  It was hard to tell exactly but it looks like that is what the original looks like.



For the next layer, I used a paper mache pulp called Fast Mache.  I covered the base and cardstock in a fairly thick layer.







After letting it dry for about a week, I used an electric sander to make it smooth.  Next step: gold cage and fabric.

Fast Mache on cardstock

After sanding

Sabe Costume Part 1  Dress
Sabe Costume Part 2  Vest
Sabe Costume Part 3 Headdress
Sabe Costume Part 4 Headdress
Sabe Costume Part 5 All Together Now

Halloween Costume: Star Wars Sabe Decoy - Part 2

I have finished the dress for my Halloween costume.  I started with merging two patterns for the dress (Star Wars Sabe Decoy - Part 1).  The dress turned out fairly close to the picture from the movie, but the hard part is the sleeves and the vest.


 The fabric in the vest seems to be striped with uneven stripes.  I searched all over, but couldn't find anything close to it.  I decided to make use of the serger and make my own.


I cut strips of a stretch mesh and a stretch crush velvet type fabric and serge them together in stripes.






I like the result and it was fun to do since I didn't really have to pay close attention to the width of the stripes.  They look like they ares slightly different widths.




I sewed two rows of it to each sleeve before sewing them together, then attached them to the dress.













Next, I made a pattern for the vest by pinning and cutting tissue paper to the dress form.















Once I got the pieces the way I wanted, I cut a layer of black netting a little bigger than the pattern piece (to allow for seam allowances), then attached the rows of striped fabric to it.

I cleaned up all edges with a serger and sewed the pieces together.








Next, the belt.  I made a pattern piece in the shape I wanted, then cut heavy-weight pellon the same size.  I ironed it on the back of a piece of pleather larger than the pellon.










I wrapped the edges around the pleather and duct taped it.

Next, I cut two pieces of cotton a little larger than pattern, sewed them right sides together, then turned them right side out.

I sewed the cotton piece to the back of the belt, going around the edges.  Then, I turned the edges of the ends in and attached velcro for the closure.









This is the finished dress.  I think it looks a lot like the photo of the costume.  The belt is a little thick and I need to iron it more, but it is pretty close.

Next step: the headdress.

Sabe Costume Part 1  Dress
Sabe Costume Part 2  Vest
Sabe Costume Part 3 Headdress
Sabe Costume Part 4 Headdress
Sabe Costume Part 5 All Together Now

Halloween Costume: Star Wars Sabe Decoy - Part 1

Sabe Battle Decoy, Episode One

This year for Halloween, I am making my own Star Wars costume.  I am going with the battle costume worn by Sabe, the decoy in Episode One. 

I am making the red dress first, then doing the overcoat/vest after.  It looks like it is attached at the sleeves, so I will do that, but otherwise leave it unattached for the rest of the dress, relying in the belt to hold it together.

FABRIC

For the fabric, I went to a discount upholstery store and got 5 yards for of red polyester fabric that looks somewhere between raw silk (it is not) and some kind of shimmer.  I got one yard of the same fabric in black for the v-neck.





 PATTERN

I tried to look for a kimono pattern, but didn't end up finding much. I ended up doing a combination of two different patterns.  I started with the bodice from Vogue 8789 (view A) and modified it slightly.  It isn't a kimono style, but it has a v-neck in the pattern and that was close enough for me since it meant that I don't have to buy a pattern since this one is in my stash.  I made the following modifications:

• The back of the bodice on the pattern had the v-neck on the back, as well, but I rounded that out so there is no v-neck in back.
• I made a bias out of the black fabric and finished the  v-neck on the front and back
• I took out the back darts, since I wanted a less fitted look at the waist

Burda 12/2011 V-neck Blouse

I used skirt from Burda Style 12/2011 V-neck Blouse #106.  The pattern includes a modification to make the shirt into a dress and has the pleat in front that I am looking for.  I didn't use the top of the blouse because I didn't want to deal with the band around the lower bodice.  I knew I would have to lengthen the bodice and get rid of the band, so it was easier just to use the Vogue.

Plus, two more issues.... I didn't like the pleats on the front (and it has many more on the back) and the instructions were terrible. I just didn't want to put in that much work on a pattern I was going to cover up with a black v-neck.

I like that it has puffy sleeves that should work nicely if I don't add the cuff.

 Here is the dress so far without the sleeves.  I am happy with the pleat in the skirt and I think the v-neck is close enough for me.

Sabe Costume Part 1  Dress
Sabe Costume Part 2  Vest
Sabe Costume Part 3 Headdress
Sabe Costume Part 4 Headdress
Sabe Costume Part 5 All Together Now