X-Wing pilot flight / MOTORCYCLE Jacket

Hello RPF,

I've ridden a Harley for years but have been a SW fan for even longer.

Here's a picture of my Fatboy and the helmets that I customized and wear. When I started using my X-Wing pilot helmet I wanted a flight jacket to go with it. I'm an Industrial Designer / DIYer / amateur tailor, so I decided to make a motorcycle jacket for myself.

I usually wear a "Carhartt Duck Detroit" jacket or a MA-1 Bomber jacket when I ride so I knew my orange X-Wing Flight Jacket was not going to be screen accurate, but a combination of my favorite features of all three jackets. To break it down my jacket is 60% X-Wing flight jacket, 30% Carhartt jacket, 10% MA-1 Bomber jacket.

This is my first time posting on RPF so please forgive me if I make any format or protocol errors or mistakes.

Charlie

Pict 2: After many hours of thought and looking at reference photos I figured out how to make the "arm scallops"
Pict 3: I drew patterns on tracing paper based on my Carhartt jacket (size 40) and picts of Luke in his ESB flight jacket
Pict 4: I first made a prototype out of some light weight white fabric I had on hand. This took me about a week during Thanksgiving time.
Pict 5: Skipping ahead to heavy weight canvas fabric for outer layer with layers of felt quilted together with a soft inner lining. I want my jacket to keep me warm.
Pict 6: Installing the zipper
Pict 7: My messy work/dinning room area
Pict 8: All zipped up
Pict 9: Punching hole for Heavy Duty button on sleeve
Pict 10: Button installed
Pict 11: Finished! It took me about two weeks
Pict 12: Lots of room for my arm to reach handle bars.
Pict 13: Lots of pockets both inside and outside.
Pict 14: Scotch Guarding to protect against moister and bug guts

Nice work! Looks good. The "hidden" side pockets is a nice touch.
Cool that you gave the lining stitches with a diamond patterns, like what the the Rebel soldiers in the trenches had on their garb.

Digging it Man, great jacket!! :thumbsup

Welcome to the Board!!

Very cool.
Nice work.

That is seriously impressive! I imagine the color also serves a safety function too!

Well done. What a great way to bridge your two passions. Never considered it before but the orange of the x-wing pilot garb is also very HD. Brilliant!

That's really great work. However I have to ask: Why the pleats on the sleeve? The jacket in ESB has a quilted design same as Luke's ceremonial jacket. Is that a motorcycle jacket thing?

You did an outstanding job with those pleats.

Now that you have your jacket, do you have (or going to get) a motorcycle X-Wing helmet?

Mara Jade's Father said:

Why the pleats on the sleeve? The jacket in ESB has a quilted design same as Luke's ceremonial jacket.

Click to expand...

Nope. They were box pleats. Here are the images I usually use to point that out:

Mara Jade's Father said:

Now that you have your jacket, do you have (or going to get) a motorcycle X-Wing helmet?

Click to expand...

Take a look at the first pic of his bike...

That helmet looks great and that R2 helmet is a sweet touch.

I think I would squeal if I saw this going down the highway. So awesome!

Thank you for the positive comments everyone.

Next I will add my version of the white vest to the jacket. I'll incorporate white reflective tape into the design to make myself more visible while riding at night.

QUESTION: Does anyone have reference photos of model parts that go into the left breast pocket?

I believe they were resin-cast, but that model parts could have been used for the master. BTW, the paint scheme on the buttons differ from costume to costume and sometimes even from shot to shot ...


Anyway... I think that Corellian Exports' badge is spot on.

Darth Lars said:

Nope. They were box pleats. Here are the images I usually use to point that out:
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b345/DarthLars/Pilot/th_research3.jpg

Click to expand...

Sorry for the late reply. Here is cropped Hi res image from a LFL reference disc given to some of their licensee.

No pleats:

Thank you for the reference photo Darth Lars.

I'll leave it up to you guys to argue over the box pleats.

Can't wait to see what you do with the vest.

Darth Lars said:

Anyway... I think that Corellian Exports' badge is spot on.

Click to expand...

Agreed. I have a few of them. He usually has some on eBay.

i know people like to call them rank badges but I tend to believe they are ID or security badges. Luke actually wears his commander rank (3 blue discs) on his flightsuit on the other side but you don't really see them under the vest. You can see a bit off it in stills of luke checking his x-wing on Hoth when his arm reaches upward.

Mara Jade's Father said:

No pleats

Click to expand...

The pleats are probably just laying flat in that picture. There are clearly pleats in the pictures I posted - taken from shots where the jackets have been moved in a bit. It is possible that there were two types of jackets in the production, but I find it improbable.

As to not go totally off topic, I would like to ask about the motorcycle....

Any plans to do a custom paint you bike to make it more X-Wing like? You could join Road Squadron.

Darth Lars said:

The pleats are probably just laying flat in that picture. There are clearly pleats in the pictures I posted - taken from shots where the jackets have been moved in a bit. It is possible that there were two types of jackets in the production, but I find it improbable.

Click to expand...

Nope not box pleats. Your seeing the puckered up material of the ribs starting to lean one way in some case and you are interpreting that as a box pleat. When you look at the high res picts of the jacket, you can see how the shoulder looks non pleated but as you start to go down the arm that probably had more stress, the raised quilted area starts to pucker more and lean.

I wish I had a better word than "quilted". If you took two pieces of material with batting in the middle and stitched lines in it, I would call that quilted. But that is not exactly what is happening here. Museum Replicas did this in the ceremonial jacket and it is incorrect. You see the stitch lines and if it was done accurately, you would not see stitches.

I am not exactly sure what is going on but it is not a box pleat, but it is not your standard quilting technique either. It is almost like they laid down a piece of base fabric then stitched a line of the top fabric, then they took a piece of quilting cord and placed it between the layers. However when they stitched in the cord, they pulled in the top material so that it wrapped around the cord then stitched... and then repeated the process.

So yes, there is some fabric bending under or pleating in the process, just not a box pleat but there is also some sort of batting in there too. I think the best way to illustrate it other than actually doing it is to so you this picture of drapes: http://creativedrapery.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/295361_434463929955543_1475367334_n.jpg?w=500

Notice how the material folds both ways at the top and then the material bends towards and away from you. Now imagine there was some sort of cord or batting in the sections folding toward you and then at the bottom. you finished it off just like the top. In the case of the jacket, those folds or pleats at the top and bottom are covered by the other section of sleeve so that all you see is the raised fabric.

Was that clear as mud? :wacko

If your not seeing it, you can go back and look at the Space 1999 jackets as you can see a little better of what I am talking about.

No plans to theme paint the bike for now. I like the blue and black look. Though my license plate does say AR2 UNIT.

Mara Jade's Father said:

So yes, there is some fabric bending under or pleating in the process, just not a box pleat but there is also some sort of batting in there too. I think the best way to illustrate it other than actually doing it is to so you this picture of drapes: http://creativedrapery.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/295361_434463929955543_1475367334_n.jpg?w=500

Click to expand...

That is what I call a box pleat that hasn't been ironed. Now, the Snowspeeder pilot jackets were made in a plastic-coated fabric and you can't iron plastic. Such fabric has a little bit of stiffness in itself, so it rises naturally without any batting needed.
Here is a picture of a jacket that I made almost six years ago out of DWR-coated nylon. I think it is the picture I have on hand where the ribs can be seen most clearly. Now, they should have been a little bit thinner, but you will see that they rise up fine without batting, like they should ... but not as much as on the Space:1999 / Ponda Baba / Ceremonial jacket, like they shouldn't.