leia and winter goddess

The second post in the DIY Halloween 2010 series is dedicated to those ingenious and slightly obsessed Star Wars fans.

Here’s  a shot from ConCarolinas 2010 – Allegra in the Winter Goddess set posing with a friend in front of our booth. She had a pretty nice plastic molded Princess Leia set, but imagine an Organic Armor set!  We haven’t made one yet – maybe yours will be the 1st…

The Rebel Legionnaires are the “good guys”. They invite you to “research, create, build and improve your costumes in a place where costumers with similar passions share skills, tips and ideas.” They have very high standards for costuming, based on careful study of the Lucas films.

The Rebel Legions have “bases” all over that you can join. They do a lot of charity appearances and, from what I’ve seen at Cons, seem to have a tight knit, supportive community.

Their costuming page lists tutorials in order of:
Novice (for example Using an A-line in a Jedi Tunic ),
Intermediate (Leia Ceremonial gown),
and Advanced (Chewbacca),
as well as 30 (!) prop tutorials (Jedi pouch) and even some tool making ones (Building a hot wire foam cutter) to help you better use the Force to achieve the results you want.

Unfortunately some of the links are dead.
For the basic Jedi robe look here.
Basics for Darth Vader.
Leia’s hair buns for cheap
Helmets from cardboard and spackling paste
Helmets made with a vacuuform
I saw a wonderful exhibit at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in LA several years ago, of actual costumes from the Star Wars movies. You can see some of it online in  Dressing a Galaxy.
Lastly, I have to point you to the TK Project, a  charity art auction for the Make A Wish Foundation put on by the 501st Stormtooper Legion. They invited select artists to make one of a kind Stormtrooper helmets, in a wide variety of themes. The results are amazing.