Jawa Costume in a Week - Day Five: making mask and weathering

Links to other days:
Day One: research patterns and get supplies
Day Two: dying fabric and making balaclava
Day Three: making the dress
Day Four: sewing the hood
Day Five: making the mask and weathering
Day Six: Boots
Day Seven: Tweaks and Photos


Making the Mask

The mask is super easy - that's the good thing.

You start with a costume hockey mask from a costume store - or eBay/Amazon.

And you need some submersible LED lights from Michaels.

These lights are the best and easiest. They twist to turn on.

So you can open them up to paint them yellow - or use my trick.

And they have clip on the back. You clip them to your hockey mask!

You can take off the little clear cover and paint them with Testors Amber something paint. But I tried that and didn't like the streaks and such. I got the idea to use plastic from my lego store shopping bag which oddly enough was sitting across the room next to the cabinet.

Bingo! Worked like a charm!  Talk about fate or something... I cut circles, then put slits in the circles (from outside going into the center) so they would fold in better. And I got the best yellow eyes.

I just recently came across another lady who used yellow candy wrappers from hard candy. They all work, she used hers to diffuse the light and hide the LED center. Whatever works for you - but my lego store shopping bag is the bomb.

*Update: Version 2.0 of this costume has the eye base being painted black somehow. I will probably use a sharpie. After trooping in them, The rims show just a bit. Just enough for me to want the base to be black.

*Update: Version 2.0 of this mask has nose holes! Why didn't I just drill them out the first time I don't know. But trust me - take the mask, mark some holes and drill out a few nose holes. You will thank me later. And trim the top - read on for why.

I started by gluing some foam on inside to get the mask right off my face. It sits flush and my eyelashes would have touched the cloth - which is so annoying!

I decided to just use one strip of foam on my forehead. I did put some on my cheeks but decided I didn't like it.

Remove the eyes and drape your black cloth on top. I found it was easiest to hold it up like this and then rotate it while I trimmed it 1 inch from bottom with scissors.

You will then either hot glue or black duct tape your cloth to the inside. Stretch it as best as you can, and make sure to cut a notch where the black elastic comes out of the side.

I chose duct tape because it can easily be removed and repositioned. Also I can remove fabric and wash it - hand wash of course if needed.

I have also heard you can spray it with Vodka and water to freshen it if needed.

Cut a small opening for LED light clip to slide into at bottom of eyes - and its done!

Check it out! Easy Peasy. and when you get hot or need a quick breath of fresh air, you can go to a corner or room and just lift it up instead of taking off your whole hood like other styles.

*Update: after trying it all on and having my daughter take pics, I found my mask was too tall. 

You can tell from my head shot that the mask sits a good two inches above my forehead and makes a big bump on top of my head.

So I took it all apart (that's why I chose to use duct tape) and trimmed off the top. So trim off your top and drill those nose holes!

I trooped without them and it was annoying - ANNOYING!  Drill them right now... 

Weathering:

Let's face it - jawas are sandy, unclean people. Or whatever they are.

So you can weather naturally, which I did to an extent.  Its easy - find a nice sandy playground. Rub it in the sand. Rub sleeve ends and bottom of dress more than others. Shake off sand and repeat until you like how it looks.  You can also buy fuller's earth and put that fine stuff on. 

Then you smell funny too - but it did work.

My problem is that I messed up (remember the "not enough fabric" problem) and had to dye my fabric in two lots. The color is different so I needed to blend it in better.

Solution 1: buy sandy colored acrylic paint and sponge it on to weather it. I liked it so much better than I did this to the whole outfit.

No black - jawas are surrounded by light sand so go with those.

I found this technique worked best. Put some on your foam brush. Then wipe most of it back into bottle.

That way your brush won't be globby.

Dab that on your spot to be weathered.

Still looked to thick to me so I rubbed it with my hand (and kept a wet cloth nearby to clean it off if needed)

Rubbing it in worked so well! Look how great it is? So use your two colors and weather to your hearts content.

*update: to weather the leather pouches I used rubbing alcohol for edges. It discolors leather in whatever spot you put it on, then I sanded them with a fine grit paper on corners and edges.

See, great weathering but once again - hood and sleeves are dyed different shades! AAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHH - well, version 2.0 will fix that.

Still got approved - version 1.0 still got approved.

Links to other days:
Day One: research patterns and get supplies
Day Two: dying fabric and making balaclava
Day Three: making the dress
Day Four: sewing the hood
Day Five: making the mask and weathering
Day Six: Boots
Day Seven: Tweaks and Photos