Jakku Rey - Part Two

The Wraps

I picked a cotton crepe for the drape and arm warps mostly because of how easy it would be to dye. 

The finished wrap.

I bought three yards and decided to gather before the dye bath. I divided my crepe into thirds and cut down the grain so that I had three, three yard lengths. I could tell just three yards wouldn’t be long enough for the drape effect I was looking for so I went ahead and sewed two together to give me one massive six yard run. 

Then using reference photos, I draped around my dress form, pinning directly to the form at the shoulders when I was happy with the proportions. The six yards, unsurprisingly, was a bit long, so again with extensive help from my reference photos, I trimmed up the ends to even out. 

Shoulder gathers facing out.

I decided to go ahead and gather the shoulders, for a cleaner, more consistent finish and so I wouldn’t confuse myself every time I tried to put the wrap on. I did this entirely by hand and stitched the gather down to a strip of bias tape to secure it.

The final bit before the dye bath was the arm wraps. Using the left over three yard crepe, I cut two, two inch wide strips down the grain. I didn’t hem any of this or use pinking shears - any fraying would just add to the overall look I was after.

I used Rit’s liquid dye in taupe for all the crepe. Everything got a short fifteen minute bath before a run through the washing machine. I trimmed up some of the frayed ends and then I was happy.

The Leather Details

The leather wrist cuff was a quick and easy one, though admittedly not the most beautiful. 

Should gathers face down.

I don’t usually purchase real leather simply because of the price, but I had found a pretty cheap bag of leather cord and off-cuts at Michael’s which had an off-cut roughly the diameter of my skinny little chicken wrists and enough width to give the effect I was looking for. I had enough of the leather for a rectangle in the dimensions I was after for the main portion of the cuff, but I had to improvise for the strap. 

Rolled cuff

This is where my cuff got a little less lovely.

The remaining off-cuts were much smaller than the one I’d used for the main portion of the cuff and very irregular in shape. There was one in the proper length to secure the cuff, but it was one of the odd shaped ones. I cleaned it up as best I could with a pair of scissors, but it still ended up a bit of a crooked triangle shape. I centered and hand stitched the wonky strap to the main cuff before using a razor blade to slice loops into the main cuff so the strap could secure. 

Unrolled cuff

The completed cuff was still a little bit stiff all around, so I finished it off with several coats of Saddle Soap, leaving the cuff rolled and secured with rubber bands to a width slightly smaller than my wrist after each Saddle Soap rub down.

Vinyl belt before paint job.

The final cuff is still a little crooked, but tough enough to stay secured around my wrists without any addition snaps, clips, or d-rings.

The belt was my next big challenge. 

I didn’t have enough off-cuts or spare cash to build one of real leather, but I did have some taupe vinyl I bought for an in-progress Princess Mononoke cosplay. 

I used a pattern found on Google. The original image and creator of the template appears to have been buried in Google results or has been removed. I was only able to recover the image as saved by other makers who’ve used it too and wasn’t clever enough to have saved the original link myself, so while I cannot credit the original source, I thank them. Whoever you are, pattern maker, you saved me a shocking amount of time. 

I drafted out the found pattern onto my vinyl before cutting it out and painting it to match my references. I didn’t have the proper primers and time was running short before the Academy of Science Halloween party, so I just made do with the Rustoleum primers I did have and painted it in acrylics, knowing would chip and crack in the long run. The belt survived both the party and Halloween with minor cracking in the paint, but storage has since destroyed the paint job as expected. This was a quick finish only and I do not recommend it.

I do recommend using real leather. I have since remade the belt using the same pattern and real leather in the correct color and I am much happier overall with the look. I did use a very fine and soft tanned leather that I found on sale and I did have to add a seam, as I didn’t have enough for a single piece, so my current belt is much thinner than I would ultimately like, but it stores better and there is no risk of cracking and looks much cleaner overall.

I detailed both the old vinyl belt and the newer leather one with two sets of d-rings and hemp cord left over from my macrame necklace phase back in high school. 

The final piece in Rey’s scavenger accessories collection is her bag and this I did not build at all - I owned.

It isn’t quite film-accurate, but I own a small purse my step-mom got me for Christmas the same year she suggested making Rey’s scavenger look in the first place. It has a stamp of inspirational quotes on one side, but the little canvas bag is the size, shape, and texture I was hoping for and I only needed to remove the strap and add attachments so I could clip it to my belt, but I love the way it looks without any serious alterations, as long as the stamp faces in.

Next Time: The Staff