I wanted to wear it at a baseball game we were trooping. And we found it it would just be the two of us, so we wanted to change costumes to mix it up and make it seem like there was more of us. (I am not sure we fooled anyone but the kids.)
And my Twi'lek pilot is on hold till my suit comes. (grrrrr)
So, easy costume it is.
Jawa Costume in a Week.
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| My finished jawa costume at Dock Spider's game |
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
Day one:
Research patterns and get supplies.
Luckily, my trooping buddy already has a jawa so I was familiar with the costume and even got a few tips as she has upgraded hers. (hers is now all techy with a glove that makes sounds when you press fingers and a jawa stun gun with a purple light)
I want a 501st approvable costume. Here is a link to the CRL https://databank.501st.com/databank/Costuming:Jawa
The basics are simple:
Hood with black lining and round opening
Black facial covering with glowing eyes
Dress with frayed ends
Black Under suit and gloves (I got these already form my Stormie Costume)
Boots
I can do this! And I did.
Patterns:
There are a lot of patterns and after seeing my friends in action for over a year, and online I knew a few details.
1. Hood looks cooler with pointed end and cannot be attached
2. Boots have to be covered in same cloth as dress
3. Dress isn't supposed to have shoulder seems and needs bell sleeves
4. Hood has ties and needs something to keep the opening round
5. Facemasks are better than just a face covering, then you can lift the mask and breath easily if needed rather than having take off the whole face mask
6. Michaels has best eyes
7. Monks cloth is best choice and frays like all get out.
Supplies List:
Monks cloth from JoAnns (estimate below)
Fabric Dye (Rit brand, two bottles brown and one orange - your choice)
Black knit cloth - liner for hood and mask, 1.5 yards
Black hockey mask from costume store (party city or amazon or ebay)
Underwater LED lights from Michaels
Tubing for hood - 1 yard clear tubing from hardware store
Boots you can glue fabric to
Spray on glue (using 3M-77 from my twi'lek project)
Binding (double-wide and 3/4 inch)
Brown thread
Black Duct tape or hot glue gun
Yellow candy wrappers or Yellow plastic bags from lego store
Sandy color acrylic paint (two shades) for weathering - optional
Foam craft brush - optional
Foam stolen from hubby's craft stash
Pattern:
*update - so I screwed this up initially and had to get more cloth. Don't be like me!
The basic pattern I was going for looked something like this below: and I found out it didn't work with the cloth I bought/dyed so I looked again and found this. It was perfect! With a few slight tweaks I was able to make a dress. (more on that later)
Start by estimating cloth needed
I messed this up but am going to give you the round two version. I bought my cloth without fully realizing I needed to cut out my sleeves and had dyed it prior to realizing I needed more fabric!
First, the dress isn't supposed to have shoulder seams, so you have to cut the front and back together from one long piece with a fold. If don't know if its approvable with shoulder seams. Just FYI. The image below has two styles. First one is if you are thin and short you can cut the sleeves out at the same time because the cloth width is 56 inches wide after you wash it. If you are taller, have longer arms, and are not thin, you have to do option B and cut out sleeves.
(I thought I was option A because I went with a different image of the same pattern, so do some measuring and see what you are before you buy, dye, and realize you messed up.)
A B
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| Easy Jawa Costume Pattern - see notes to modify and make sure it fits you |
The real trick is to measure yourself from one finger tip to the other finger tips while you stand with your arms raised like a cross, if its 56 inches or less you can do the no-cut-sleeve version. If not, you have to sew sleeves on, no matter what height/whatever you are. Sorry for those that are short and long armed.
1. So I was clearly in option B. I started by measuring from shoulder to shoulder. I went by my t-shirt seam to other t-shirt seam on right side. It was 17 (add one inch for 1/2 inch seams)
Shoulder to shoulder 17+1=18
2. Then measure from shoulder seam to finger tip: 29 inches + 2 for seams and fraying (so I made mine three)
Sleeves: 29+3=32 inches
3. Measure from top of shoulder to floor.
Length: 58 inches (58+58=116) - with extra so I went with 120
4. Draw and calculate. If you are thin and short, go with 44 inches at base of dress. If you are larger and tall, go with 56. And if you are thin and tall, go with 52. If you are a busty gal - go with the width of fabric to make sure it isn't tight against you. You can also measure around your bust, and make sure you will give yourself enough room.
Sleeves will roughly be 18 inches wide at shoulder to 24 inches wide at wrist. If you want a more pronounced bell, go with 28.
*Note: after washing and dying, my fabric shrunk! Buy Extra
On the left you can see that I drew out the dress part, with a hole in the middle for my head to go in. There will be a lot of extra cloth on sides to work with for shoe wrappings but I found my headpiece was too wide to be cut from it.
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| Jawa costume fabric estimation |
I roughly estimated hood and sleeves, and realized I needed 6 yards of monks cloth. And it shrunk when I washed it. So, get a bit more. Mine shrunk to 56 inches wide and 5.7 yards when I was through. I changed up my hood pattern on version two, and needed more cloth, so I got 6.5 yards (and hubby rounded up to 7 when he picked it up for me).
But you need to draw your own out and decide what you need, then add half a yard for shrinkage.
And use a coupon! Either 40% off a single non-sale item, or 20% of total purchase if its already on sale to get a good deal. I got mine for 9 dollars a yard instead of 15
5. Order Belt/Pouches/Thing: ordered on Amazon with two day shipping - no way I made that in a week!
6. Black undersuit - I already have these. I have nomex black gloves, an underarmor heat gear shirt and leggings all from amazon.
I love them! The heat gear wicks away sweat and actually helps keep you cool. Any black activewear shirt and leggings will do but may not keep you as cool.
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
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