Jawa costume! random gibberish - done, ish!

fallimar · Dec 21, 2015

So yeah, I've been wanting to do a Star Wars costume for ages, but never settled on a character because all the potato shaped characters really didn't grab my fancy. I reckon I could probably pull off a Jawa and it's a relatively simple costume so... yeah!

I'm using the 501st checklist, the Star Wars costumes original trilogy book and internet photos for reference, and I've already got my eye on some nice heavy textured brown upholstery fabric for the outer robe. I'd like to try my old method of using shaped buckram for the hood structure too.
Now, the 501st page says the boots are wrapped in the same fabric as the robe, but in all the photos they look lighter and the book says they were wrapped in fabric scraps and bandages, so I'm going to use something lighter and more gauzey looking. Once it's all weathered up it'll look great. I'm hoping to build them on dive boots with thick stretch fabric uppers, I'd use real boots but it's almost impossible to find flat knee-high boots in my size. Much easier to just construct some! I'll use EVA foam if they need some body, but the main idea is to be able to pull them on so the bandagey outside is seamless.

I've ordered some nice bright yellow LEDs for the eyes and I'm hoping to cast them into some clear resin domes and back them with yellow gloss paper to bump up the yellow. I'll set them on an EVA foam mask piece and cover with some black fabric.
I've got some leather gloves that I can glue fur sleeves to, then rough them up and make them look all ratty.
As for the bandoliers, I'm hoping to grab some replicas on ebay and then weather them up to look nice and desert-used.

I'd love to have props to go with it, but I haven't found any that I like yet, though ideally I'd like a droid caller and a jawa blaster.

fallimar · Dec 21, 2015

Re: Jawa costume! *random gibberish*

Three hours of fabric searching later...

http://www.cozytownlinens.com/crepe-weave-organic-cotton-blanket-p-617.html
I really want this weave, but the only places I can seem to find it at all are the organic natural bedding type places in the US, and none ship to Australia! Argh.
I might have to settle for a sort of pebble weave if it's available locally, but that crepe weave just looks so much better. So pricey though!

cornbread · Dec 21, 2015

Re: Jawa costume! *random gibberish*

Can you get Monks cloth in oz? Or we used to use a Ralph Lauren Blanket from the discount department store (TJ Maxx in the US)

fallimar · Dec 21, 2015

Re: Jawa costume! *random gibberish*

cornbread said:
Can you get Monks cloth in oz? Or we used to use a Ralph Lauren Blanket from the discount department store (TJ Maxx in the US)

I looked at both and didn't like the evenness of the weave! There are a few different RL blanket designs (of varying weaves) on ebay but I'd need a couple of them and they're only sold individually right now as well. Ah well. As a backup I ca get my hands on a couple of pebble weave cotton blankets that look ok, good texture look in any case even if the weave is too even, like monk's cloth. It'll have a little more weight to it though, so look a bit more authentic I think.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pebble-Waff...lanket-Single-Double-Queen-King-/291586914793

fallimar · Dec 24, 2015

Re: Jawa costume! *random gibberish*

I bought the blankets, couldn't get my hands on any with the weave I liked so went for some with more of an uneven monk's cloth look. Not only that but they're cotton blankets so they'll dye beautifully and the weight will help a lot with the drape. Lightweight for blankets too, so hopefully I won't die of heat poisoning when I wear the thing

Second, I started on the face mask and eyes. I had the bits to make a quick LED circuit with 9V battery and a switch, which I'll probably hide in the hood behind a velcro panel. I'm currently in the process of casting the LEDs into 1.25 inch clear resin domes, which I'll sand to diffuse the light, back with yellow gloss photo paper and set on to the mask which I'm currently making.

And the mask base:

Just good ole EVA foam with stiff fabric mesh for the vision ports. Now I've just got to go through my gigantic fabric stash to see if I have any suitable black fabric to wrap over the mask. I've got some that's sort of micropile fur, but I'd prefer more of a black, faded bandagey look. We'll see what I dig up after xmas.

Redwillow · Dec 24, 2015

Re: Jawa costume! *random gibberish*

I like that idea for the mask. Im doing a jawa too but i started on it backwards, im making the blaster first, then the costume. My blaster got complicated, but i am finally getting close to being able to paint it. I have been debating whether to use brown monk cloth or cream and dye it, so im very interested ib how you dye your fabric!

fallimar · Dec 24, 2015

Re: Jawa costume! *random gibberish*

Redwillow said:
I like that idea for the mask. Im doing a jawa too but i started on it backwards, im making the blaster first, then the costume. My blaster got complicated, but i am finally getting close to being able to paint it. I have been debating whether to use brown monk cloth or cream and dye it, so im very interested ib how you dye your fabric!

Well, if it's anything like the last time I dyed fabric I'll end up with hundreds of litres of near-boiling dye water in a huge plastic tub on a big tarp on the floor of my poor kitchen, alternating plunging my hands in to agitate the fabric and then into a tub of ice water so they don't cook.

Thankfully I think with cotton it's less necessary to scorch your fingers off!
I doubt I'll be able to dye all my fabric at once though this time unless I invest in much more dye and a much bigger tub, but by that point it'll become impossible to do indoors!

It'll be madness no matter what happens

As for my blaster, I'd like to make one myself but with my other projects and full time study next year I expect I'll probably buy one to complete the look. Might get a droid caller too if I can find one I like the look of. Everything else I'll do, I think

fallimar · Dec 25, 2015

Re: Jawa costume! *random gibberish*

Mask understructure complete!
I finished off the eyes by casting the little clear resin domes around the LEDs, then sanded the domes once they were cured to diffuse the light. I painted the backs of the domes with yellow acrylic paint (light colours reflect more light forward and the colour helps bump up the effect of the LED) and backed that with some glossy paper to provide a better gluing surface and seal in the paint.

Unlit and lit:

Popped the eye assembly on the mask using foam wedges to point the eyes forward and secured the wires using small strips of fabric glued with contact adhesive. It's a good tip that, since tape doesn't hold so well on foam and tends to lose adhesion when the foam flexes or heats up. Fabric and contact adhesive works a treat - it's permanent, sticks to almost anything and won't fall off if it flexes or heats.

Looks like this:

So now it's fabric time. I've got some poly cotton black fabric for the main face-hiding portion, and some gauzey looking fabric that I'll cut into strips for use on both the boots and mask, just have to dye the mask strips black. I think it'll look better with a bit of texture to the mask fabric strips.

fallimar · Dec 28, 2015

Re: Jawa costume! *random gibberish*

Phew, dying fabric really sucks no matter how you slice it, doesn't it?

Even the tiny little bit I was dying black for the face shroud bandages has given me no end of grief. First the black dye was too light, then it went purple for some reason (same bottle of black dye!) and so I ended up having to slather on my own last resort mix of acrylic paint, heaps of fabric medium and some water to thin it with a big paint brush. Thankfully that always works, and the stiffness that the paint gives the fabric after painting can be gotten rid of if you give it a few good rinses in cold water. Not enough to take off the paint but just to wet it down and get rid of any excess.

So that's drying... waiting to be cut into strips to give the face shroud that faded, bandagey texture.
I'll be using the same fabric for the boots, just dyed a shade lighter than the robes.

This is the shroud now:

Just polycotton over the face, darted and hand sewn to shape with a couple of fabric strips that tie around the back of the head so there's no flappage. And yeah, nose hole. If there's one thing I've learned from my years of costuming it's that anything that facilitates breathing and heat exchange is GOOOOD.

fallimar · Dec 29, 2015

Re: Jawa costume! *random gibberish*

Hm. I'm also considering bulking out the head a bit now, with some foam or something. I can see proportions being an issue - as the actors were kids and little people in the movies the heads on the real jawas would be larger in proportion to their bodies, so to scale it up properly the head needs to be larger on me. That and I'm wide, so scaling up helps with my own proportions! Thankfully I'm still pretty short

I also came across this photo showing one of the Jawa actors with the mask off - their hair's been done up or a pad is being worn to rest the hood on - looks like that's what I'll be doing! I always expected the heads might have been built up a bit.

I've also been poking around for boot references - this pic shows them being a shade lighter than the robes and different, more bandagey-looking fabric without the heavy weave of the robe, so that's what I'll do.

fallimar · Dec 30, 2015

Re: Jawa costume! *random gibberish*

Right! Finished the shroud part now, complete with doughnut-shaped head cushion.

I'm now working on the gloves, one's done except for a little short fur or bandage fabric to hide the brown stretch fabric that's visible under the wrist part.

The glove looks really brown and mottled in that light, really it's a lot more black when you see it in person! It's just an old pair of leather gloves I had lying around, sanded them to rough them up and then did a little drybrushing with a couple of citadel paints to make them look all old and desert-worn. The fur on the arm part is long fur that I trimmed down messily, rubbed together and thoroughly matted up and then brushed through with some sandy bone colour to weather that too.

Should look really nice once it's all integrated!

Redwillow · Dec 31, 2015

Re: Jawa costume! *random gibberish*

That's looking great so far!

fallimar · Dec 31, 2015

Re: Jawa costume! *random gibberish*

Redwillow said:
That's looking great so far!

Thanks!
I'm having a little trouble figuring out a few of the logistics, mainly because of my majestic potato body, but most of it's working just fine.

I think I'm going to try machine-dying my fabric in two batches, I'll only need two of the three blankets I purchased so using the exact same dye mix each time should work. I can always correct the colour afterwards if I need to with paint if all else fails, but it should be good!

fallimar · Jan 2, 2016

Re: Jawa costume! *random gibberish*

Finished off my gloves. I added some of the bandage-type fabric that I used on the face sort of like wrapping under the wrists. It doesn't really make sense in an anatomical sense but meh, it'll give the right sort of look if I lift up my arms, hides the glove/underglove join with more black.

I've also been doing some prodding around as to the pattern for the robe. The hood I've got sorted, I know what I'll do for that. The robe though, I'd like to do one with an off-centre opening, which is screen accurate and no problem, but there's the question of an under-robe. See, in ANH and also in the Star wars Costumes: the original trilogy book, you can see (briefly in the film!) a sort of brown under-robe skirt thing.

See, here's a scan of the book page:

You can see the bottom hem of the robe (raggedy, textured weave) and the fabric underneath, which is a finer weave. This robe has the opening, which you can also see. I'm guessing the robes with openings had a lighter robe underneath to hide any underthings. The blurb for this photo says the costume is from ANH and the head part is from RotJ, which I'm assuming accounts for the slightly lighter colour of the hood.

Interesting it has brown gloves and the 501st requirements say they have to be black!

fallimar · Jan 3, 2016

Re: Jawa costume! *random gibberish*

Dyeing things in the washing machine is somewhat terrifying, but seems to be working ok so far!

I'm also working on the boots - can't really use gum boots like the original costumes since I can't get them in my size without lots of weird panels and buckles and all sorts on, so I'm making some lightweight fabric "boots" from dive shoes and breathable stretch heavy knit fabric. Made the pattern with the duct tape method, sewed the pieces together and sewed the leg parts to the dive shoes. Then I'll be wrapping them in the bandagey fabric, gluing and sewing it in place and they should be complete! If necessary I'll add a long strip to the top of the boot to tie tight around the top of my calf if the boots have a habit of falling down and I can tuck in the ends.

Coming together slowly!

Redwillow · Jan 4, 2016

Re: Jawa costume! *random gibberish*

I like the look of those gloves. Are you not using that standard hood pattern that is floating around?

i almost have my blaster finished and i was able to get a great deal on a bandolier. Same 1903 style shown in your pic. I'll prob start a thread about my build to post some pics soon.

fallimar · Jan 4, 2016

Re: Jawa costume! *random gibberish*

Redwillow said:
I like the look of those gloves. Are you not using that standard hood pattern that is floating around?

i almost have my blaster finished and i was able to get a great deal on a bandolier. Same 1903 style shown in your pic. I'll prob start a thread about my build to post some pics soon.

Oh, I didn't know there was one really, mine is basically a double-square rectangle with the tapered tie straps pointing out at right angles to the long sides. I'd fold it in half and seam down the back of the hood, so the top has no seam. Nice thing is with a pattern that simple is that I'll make one in calico first and see if the shape works, then I can alter the pattern for the finished hood

Yeah! I'm getting one each of the 1903 bandolier and the martini-henry one, mainly because that one is slightly bigger around and will sit better on me! Still screen-accurate too.

fallimar · Jan 4, 2016

Re: Jawa costume! *random gibberish*

Machine-dyeing works well! Woohoo!

The right hand fabric is the "bandage" stuff, same fabric as I used on the face just hand-dyed with some residue from the blanket dye and thrown in the dryer. That's for the boot coverings. The left hand fabric is of course one of the blankets, I dyed two of them. Six dye packets each, 2X dark brown, 2X cocoa brown, 2X tangerine. I would probably like a bit more red in there, so if I did it again I might substitute a red for one of the tangerine dyes, see if that helped.

This is the boot assembly so far, just a sort of stretch gaiter on a dive boot. Now it just needs wrapping.
Going great guns on this one!

fallimar · Jan 5, 2016

Re: Jawa costume! *random gibberish*

Hood test.

Unsewn, just pinned together to see if the shape will work once it's all sewn and turned out. The mesh is visible inside because it'll fold into the hood after it's all sewn around the edges.
Shape looks good! I love how it makes my head look huge, it'll really help sell the outline

fallimar · Jan 5, 2016

Re: Jawa costume! *random gibberish*

Aaaand... Sewn up!

Seems to work just fine. Love how the head cushion doughnut thing keeps the hood exactly where it should be and helps keep the front open. There's stiff embroidery mesh in between the fabrics keeping the shape nice as well. Good to know my hypothesis about simpler patterns being more likely is still probably in play. Yay!

Jawa costume! *random gibberish* - done, ish!

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Jawa costume! random gibberish - done, ish!