Rachel Kerns 11/13/17 Rachel Kerns 11/13/17

Rey's Scavenger Staff

The final touch for Rey's Jakku look was her scavenger's staff and it was by far, my favorite part.

I hadn't done some good old fashioned prop making for a project of my own in a long while and it was so nice to be back at it. After a quick Google search I had some great resources to work with.

Primarily, I used a shopping list from Instructables user kylegilbert (http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-Reys-Staff-Star-Wars-The-Force-Awakens/), screen shots of the actual prop, and the detail breakdown from Sellfy user Ian Henry( https://sellfy.com/p/f9NU/) to build mine.

As per the Instructables list, I hit Home Depot for showers heads, faucet heads, electrical connectors, wire, and a pipe. I went with a metal pipe for my staff base instead of the PVC used in the Instructables tutorial - it adds weight to the finished prop, but it won't warp over time.

I started with the end details - first off, the shower heads. Now, I ended up with a slightly different shower head than what the Instructables shopping list called for because, retail. Our local Home Depot didn't have that particular shower head in stock and I wasn't going to pay more for shipping on $1 shower heads than for the product itself, so I settled for an equally cost effective option.

I wasn't able to remove the ball joint from this shower head, so instead I hot glued the ball joint into place and used some air-dry Cloud Clay to sculpt an end cap over the joint. Because Cloud Clay can crack pretty easily (particularly if it's thin or attached to a hard surface), I allowed it to dry before coating it in two thick layers of wood glue to seal it and hot glued it onto the ball joint.

After the shower heads were taken care of, it was just a matter of drilling through the end of the facet heads (very, very carefully - the cheap plastic cracks easily), cutting some fins from wood, and slicing the electrical connectors into two, before it was time for assembly.

I worked from the center of the pipe outwards, starting with just a wrap of craft foam (left from my Elsa Dress bodice) secured with E6000 and electrical tape. This was followed by connector pieces (also E6000ed) and the wire wraps. I did hot glue the ends of the wires down before I wrapped them tight around the pipe, but they were ultimately secured completely with electrical tape. I did detail these a bit wit my leather off cuts on the end (also hot glue and electrical tape).

The larger details, such as the faucet and shower heads went on the both E6000 and hot glue. Contact cement might have served a bit better, but so far, my staff has survived the Academy of Sciences Halloween party, Halloween night, Wizard World Sacramento, and SF Comic Con with only the need for a paint touch up. I tried to keep as many of the details as possible slotted over the pipe itself for stability - anything just glued onto the outside without a tape cover increases the risk of something breaking off. I did have to glue the shower heads at the ends directly onto slotted pieces - I wasn't able to drill into them with my cordless, though I imagine a drill press and a more sophisticated clamp set up than I have in my living room would get the job done. Three small foamie details, a larger Cloud Clay detail, and the wooden fins were also glued straight on with again a combination E6000 and wood glue, though the fins were also secured with electrical tape.

Once my staff was assembled, it was time for paint.

I'd never used spray-on Plasti-Dip on a metal surface, so I ran a few tests to check and ultimately, I based my entire staff first with two coats of Rustoleum clean metal primer before three coats of the Plasti-Dip, just to avoid any peeling or cracking. I painted the entire staff with alternating black and rust colored matte spray enamels from Rustoleum.

The final touch were strips of muslin and brown felt, just hot glued onto the body of the staff, over the large section of foam and small leather straps with d-rings for a shoulder strap (my strap came from my grandmother's sewing stash I inherited - I can't even begin to guess where or when it may have come from).

And that was Rey!

Ultimately, I was really, really pleased with the way this turned out. I still need some formal photos, but it is by far the most comfortable costume I own and I'm so pleased with the way it all looks!

Rachel Kerns 9/25/17 Rachel Kerns 9/25/17

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Rachel Kerns 3/21/17 Rachel Kerns 3/21/17

Jakku Rey - Part One

My stepmom suggested Rey's Jakku scavenger outfit. We walked out of our second viewing of The Force Awakens at our local single screen theatre while I was home at Christmas and the first words out of her mouth were "You should make her outfit!"

Since I've been on a bit of a princess kick, I was inclined to agree with her. Besides, it had been a while since I'd tried to make a pair of pants and Rey's staff was super cool.

Also, I found the source the film used for her boots and I am a sucker for sci-fi shoes. I actually waited long enough that the exchange rate dropped and I was able to get the boots for about $160, down from about $220. So obviously I had to make the rest of the look.

The Pants

I knew exactly how I wanted my pants to be - I all ready owned them. Actually, I owned a pair of dance pants (Ainsliewear's Best Dance Pant, in case you're interested). These are very one of the most comfortable, flexible, and softest pieces of clothing I own and when pulled to knee, fold to make a very attractive capri-length pant. I love them and I knew they would make a near perfect Rey pant. Trouble is, they are a dark charcoal grey. Goes great with leos, but not for Rey.

I patterned with newsprint over them. I traced around the seams where I could and measured the rest. Perfect as they are, the dance pant is actually remarkably simple - four pattern pieces. One back leg, one front, the waistband, and the cuff. Fantastic.

Part of the glory of the dance pant is its fabric. It's a stretch cotton jersey. I (unsurprisingly) could not find something as gloriously soft at JoAnn's, but I did come up with something close in a cream color.

I sewed most of the pant by hand. I'm rubbish at sewing stretch fabrics on traditional machines and I hadn't gotten my surger yet. The hand sew held together for the California Academy of Science's NightLife Halloween party and Halloween night, plus three dye baths and two machine washes, so I was pretty happy. I did go back over the seams though once my surger arrived, just to be sure everything held up.

I dyed the pants post-assembly - in the event I ended up hating the final color, I had enough fabric for a second pair. I bathed them first in Rit's powdered Pearl Grey dye for about fifteen total minutes, following the instructions on the dye for my fabric. While the grey alone was great, I went ahead and gave them a two additional shorter baths in Rit's liquid Taupe to add a bit of desert grime to them. The taupe ultimately was a little more patchy than I'd planned (the first taupe bath was interrupted by my puppy and I didn't get the pants submerged completely in time), but I quite like it as sort of an unintentional weathering effect.

They look a little like dingy long underwear when they aren’t pulled up to the knee, but I’m really happy with the outcome of the pants. They’re super soft and make Scavenger Outfit one of the most comfortable costumes I've ever owned.

The Top

This was an easy one.

I didn't properly pattern. I swore to myself I wouldn't do this again after my ridiculous good luck with the Elsa top and train, but I had enough of the bleached muslin to make multiple shirts and I was feeling lucky.

I measured out the length of the shirt from front to back and over the shoulder and cut this out of my muslin. I then folded my freshly cut cloth in half and used, of all things a round cork placemat to chalk out a collar in the center of the fold.

I failed to get any construction shots of the top, since the whole thing ended up only taking about an hour to complete.

I cut the collar before I draped the whole thing over my dress form. My dress form is almost exactly to my measurements and for a looser garment like Rey’s Scavenger shirt, I didn’t even need to pad up the bust where the measurements differ. I pinned along the sides and chalked out where the sleeves and the slit in the collar needed to hit.

I cut the collar slit and trimmed off the excess muslin about an inch off the pins, for seam allowance and any adjustments I might have needed to make before I pulled pinned shirt off the dress form. I laid it out flat, used the same cork round to chalk out and cut arm holes, sewed up the pinned sides and then it was back on the dress form.

I was actually pretty happy with the initial outcome and I didn’t have to do a whole lot of alterations on the top, just evened the sides out a bit. I went ahead and finished the collar with bias tape, before I moved onto the little cap sleeves.

I had two perfect half circles of muslin all ready from where I cut the arm holes. I pleated one for the texture seen in research photos and then trimmed the other before sewing them in. I did have to adjust the length of the flat sleeve a few times before I was totally happy that it was even with the pleated sleeve, but I was pleasantly surprised with how well they turned out.

The muslin wasn’t bleached totally white to start with and when paired with my finished pants, I was really pleased with their existing color. I didn’t dye them as I’d initially planned, but I did go ahead and finish off the bottom hem and I had myself most of a Jakku scavenger outfit.

Next Time: The Wraps and the Leather Pieces