Darth Maul - the beginning

So, in January I started work on a Darth Maul robe for my nephew, but didn't get very far. I did some more work in the first half of February and have currently put it on hold to try and make a jacket for myself.

This first thing I did when I got the idea for the costume, was to make a couple of work sketches to help me keep track of seams and layers. This costume has a lot of layers... And they're all black. Fun fun.

My costume sketches after an evening of research looked like this:

Note, I'm only doing the robe right now, and I'm cutting down heavily on the folds. (My sketch also have the short leg problem).

I started out with making a pattern for the shoulder support. This needs to be double layered with slightly differences between inner and outer layer.

I then worked on the sleeves. The sleeves are a bit funny due to their seamline in the middle and the square shape of them. Firstly I just did the top to test how it fitted with the support piece.

I did a test on some brown fabric I had lying around and then went on to the black fabric when my test went well.

Inner back and front support piece:

This is what the support pieces looks like:

The pieces have been sewn together along the shoulder seam. I added some extra width, so it will be possible to later maker it wider across the shoulders.

Then came the sleeves. There's one pattern for the top part and one for the bottom part. I needed two of each.

Finally, I sewed the sleeves together, leaving them open in one side for the forearm and hand to poke out.

This is where I'm currently at. Next up is the main part of the robe, which I'll look at sometime after the 22nd of Marts. :)

Plans for 2015

Hiya.

So, I finished Ewok Village Leia in November, but this won't be about that.

Instead I wanted to talk a bit about what plans I have regarding stuff to make.
It's a bit of a mix between costumes and general wear items, but my tentative list is as follows:

A Darth Maul robe for my nephew
A jacket for a wedding
Pants
Mara Jade cantina waitress
Night gown
Jedi belt
New jedi robe
Maybe a pillow case of silk
Upgrade to Weeping Angel

The above list is written in the order I expect to do things. I'm not sure if I can get the Maul robe done quickly, even if I take some liberties with the pleating, and I have to have the jacket done by mid Marts.
The only reason the pants are on the list before Mara Jade is because I need to learn how to make pants before I can make that costume. But I've got a couple of different patterns to try out, so hopefully I can get the result I want.

Honestly, I don't know if this is too ambitious; I tend to work in small, concentrated spurs and then not work for a while, and this will require working a couple of days every week for some time to come.

I expect my next update to be an actual costume update.

~Lora