My Luke Skywalker A New Hope Costume

Psab keel

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I'm nearly finished putting this costume together and I figured I would post some pictures and see what you all think. I'm still in the process of dirtying this up to give it that "used-universe" look. These were taken just after sewing was complete. After weathering all that is left to do is to convert my Graflex replica into a lightsaber and build my Blast Shield Helmet.

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Since these pictures were taken I've finished the belt and droid caller which I made from an actual Kobold Flash. I'll update this when it's complete, and also include some pictures of me wearing it to SDCC 2011.

Psab
 
Thanks all! The boots as well as the puttees (leg wraps) were custom made for me by an expert shoe/ boot maker in Peru. The materials used are 100% cotton, although the real tunic was made from Viyella (a cotton/ wool blend). My tunic was made of a sanded cotton twill, and the pants from a Bull denim twill. All the colors/ materials are screen accurate as best as I could match them, although the real tunic was an off-white/ eggshell color. When I post more pictures I'll be sure to add some that I have with the poncho. That was made from a sanded Tan twill and coffee color corduroy for the trim. All pieces shown, with the exception of the boots/ puttees, were made by me.
 
Thanks! Yeah that is the last step really and then I can call it finished. You'd be surprised at how many times it takes to get dirt to stain fabric! Either I'm not rubbing the stuff into the fabric hard enough or my washing machine/ detergent is REALLY good! haha
 
The key is sweat... go out to the desert and play in the dirt. At least that's how all my gear got dirt stained in Iraq... that and don't wash it for like a week... so play in the dirt get sweaty and don't wash it for like a week or two.
 
No problem, I'm new to costuming... but having been in the Marine Corps I know how to destroy a set of clothes lol... Here we just call it weathering. Your costume looks sick by the way, I can't wait to see that with a bit of dirt on it.

Also maybe try some oil stains and cake them with dirt.
 
One thing you might want to consider using to dirty your costumes is staining it with tea. It sounds a bit absurd I imagine but it's supposed to work very well, the British troops stationed in South Africa during the Zulu war were supposed to have dyed their white pith helmets and cartridge belts with tea. You could do a combination of dunking it in a bucket of tea, throwing tea on it, and dabbing at it with a tea soaked towel so it doesn't look too even. That should help speed the weathering process along a bit and should keep you from having to roll around in too much sand and dirt.

Another thing you might want to consider using to weather your costume is a bit of grease here and there. You figure that Luke liked tinkering and spent a lot of time not only fixing and maintaining the moisture vaporators for his uncle, he also spent time tinkering with his speeder and T-16 and that would certainly result in a bit of grease on his clothes. Of course, being in the desert I'd imagine that any grease stains would get faded pretty quickly so any grease stains he had would probably be relatively faint and not that black either.
 
All really good suggestions, and I will try a combination of these. I also don't want to get it too dirty as Riceball has stated that the stains would look faded from exposure to twin suns. I imagine the color scheme of the weathering to be close to the color hues of the costume in many ways. My thinking is that the weathering should closely resemble the environment in which the character spends most of his time. Fixing speeders in the garage, and moisture vaporators, which would inevitably be dirty, greasy etc.
 
Really nice job. I think you attention to detail in the build is really noticeable. Looking forward to seeing the finishing touches. Those boots really look great. You don't see to many of them around that look like that. G-man
 
Thanks! When I get the pictures my sister took of me at ComicCon I'll post them for sure. For now though here are some shots of the weathering. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. The first two shots are of the tunic and the pants, with swatches of the unweathered fabrics laying on top for color comparison. The next two are of the tunic itself, one before, and one after.

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Since finishing the sewing portion I've tried running it through the dirt, artist's charcoal, and washing with dark colors to give the costume a faded, worn in look. So it's been a few layers of work to get it to this point, but this afternoon I took the suggestion to try tea dying and wow what a difference that made! It really gave the look I wanted and now I can say it's safe to call the weathering complete. It's more subtle than some costumes, but Luke's outfit, while dirty, wasn't as filthy as say a Tusken Raider's outfit. I'd say that the tunic is more of an eggshell color now, as was the screen used costume.

Once I have the Graflex converted and Blast Shield Helmet complete, I'll be doing a professional photo session for my costume portfolio.

Thanks for all the positive feedback everyone! It's been fun sharing this with you all! I'll be sure to keep you updated on further progress.
 
I look forward to seeing the Comic-Con photos your sister took. I've always been more of a "Luke" (goody two shoes) than a "Han" (charming scoundrel). :)
 
I love Han Solo. How could you not? But I always identified more with Luke and the Jedi. Plus the lightsaber is the coolest weapon in the galaxy!
 
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