TerranCmdr
Well-Known Member
Hello everyone! I was super pumped about TFA and decided it was high time I made a costume. I had been thinking about doing a scout trooper for a long time, but I wouldn't have had enough time to pull that off, so I settled on an ANH Han. I wanted to keep the budget as minimal as possible on this costume while still keeping it as accurate as possible - definitely no easy task.
I thought starting out that this would be a relatively simple costume to put together, but boy was I wrong! My motto is "if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right," and it can sometimes be my downfall.
Anyway, starting with the shirt. I found a white henley at H&M on sale for $7. Great find! Looks very similar to the ANH reference, or at least close enough for what I wanted. So, job done there.
Next was the pants. I didn't want to spend a fortune on them obviously so I checked Goodwill stores first. No luck unfortunately. I decided I'd take a gamble and buy Dickies on Amazon, or buy a pair if I could find them at my local surplus store. Well I lucked out at the surplus store and snagged a pair of dress blues for $20. Perfect! They're even high-waisted like my reference.
To keep it cheap (and "easy"), I bought some red fabric paint, and painstakingly created a stencil by hand. My god it took a long time.
Unfortunately, after I painted I realized the tape hadn't stuck very well and there was a lot of bleeding. Nothing a little blue sharpie couldn't fix though! From any distance greater than a foot, they look fine.
The belt I got from eBay for $10 shipped, and Dremel'd off the middle prong.
Next came the blaster. I already had the orange Hasbro blaster from 1996 (image below is a stock photo), and while it's not the most accurate, it was free since I already had it. I bought black, brown, and silver spraypaint and went to work. Two coats of black, then taped off the handle and sprayed brown. Then I used a brush to apply silver as weathering. Not half bad in my opinion!
Then I took on the task of making the belt. I decided to keep cost down, and again, to make things "easy," I would use vinyl in lieu of leather. I managed to get enough material (marine grade vinyl) for two belts for $15 at Joann with a 50% coupon. Using measurements I found in this amazing thread, I created my own patterns, printed them out on standard paper, cut them out and taped them together to make a stencil.
The stencil seemed to be around the correct size, so I traced it onto the vinyl and cut out the pieces. I then began to attach snaps. They were surprisingly expensive at $17 per box (10 sets). Luckily I got two boxes at buy one, get one 1/2 off.
Simultaneously, I printed out patterns for the metal pieces of the belt and bought some sheet metal from the local hardware store. Unfortunately, I bought 1/8" thick steel, which proved to be just too much for my dinky little battery-powered Dremel to cut through. I decided in the interest of time, I would make the pieces out of cardboard reinforced with glue and spraypaint them silver, until I had the time to re-buy metal and cut out those pieces.
After all pieces were snapped, it was time to start sewing some things together. I (stupidly) started by sewing the holster together. I then realized it would have been smarter to sew it onto the "Y" piece first. Anyway, I managed to get the holster part all sewn together. After that, I tried the belt on and realized that my measurements must have been off because it was way too big. The leg strap was around my leg under my knee! To fix that, I took a little material out of each belt piece, and attached a new set of snaps to the "Y" piece so it could attach to the buckle higher. Much better!
After that, I spent the rest of the night sewing on the pockets. Bit of a rush job, but it looks decent enough. I didn't have time to make the droid caller, but that will be done in the near future. I'm thinking PVC.
So, the vest. My plan was to buy a black BDU shirt and cut the sleeves off, since the pockets on the front look very much like Han's. I ordered an extra-small off of Amazon thinking it would be around the right size and length. Boy, was I wrong. The shirt ended up being HUGE. Even after removing the sleeves, I realized it hung way too low and came too far around in front. I know it's something I can fix in the future with a bit of creative sewing, but at this point I was out of time. Luckily, my wife happened to have a leather jacket that looked great with the costume! I even realized after watching TFA that it matches Han's pretty well.
Ah yes, and the boots. I just couldn't find any for a reasonable price. I checked surplus and thrift stores everywhere, but none fit the bill. I was thinking about getting some cheap ones from Amazon, but even those were $40 and I just couldn't hack it. I felt a little lame walking around without the boots, but I think it's the belt that brings the whole costume together anyway.
Anyway, I had a blast making this costume, and I will continue working on it until I'm completely satisfied. At this point I plan to redo the buckles in metal, redo the snaps that I had to add to the "Y"-part, redo the pants with embroidery (and do a pair in brown), and finish the vest. I wore it to the 9:30am showing this morning, along with my wife who dressed like an Ewok. All told, I only spent around $85 for this whole costume, so I'm very happy with the result.
Thanks for looking everyone!
Edit: Forgot to add the link to the belt pattern!
I thought starting out that this would be a relatively simple costume to put together, but boy was I wrong! My motto is "if it's worth doing, it's worth doing right," and it can sometimes be my downfall.
Anyway, starting with the shirt. I found a white henley at H&M on sale for $7. Great find! Looks very similar to the ANH reference, or at least close enough for what I wanted. So, job done there.
Next was the pants. I didn't want to spend a fortune on them obviously so I checked Goodwill stores first. No luck unfortunately. I decided I'd take a gamble and buy Dickies on Amazon, or buy a pair if I could find them at my local surplus store. Well I lucked out at the surplus store and snagged a pair of dress blues for $20. Perfect! They're even high-waisted like my reference.
To keep it cheap (and "easy"), I bought some red fabric paint, and painstakingly created a stencil by hand. My god it took a long time.
Unfortunately, after I painted I realized the tape hadn't stuck very well and there was a lot of bleeding. Nothing a little blue sharpie couldn't fix though! From any distance greater than a foot, they look fine.
The belt I got from eBay for $10 shipped, and Dremel'd off the middle prong.
Next came the blaster. I already had the orange Hasbro blaster from 1996 (image below is a stock photo), and while it's not the most accurate, it was free since I already had it. I bought black, brown, and silver spraypaint and went to work. Two coats of black, then taped off the handle and sprayed brown. Then I used a brush to apply silver as weathering. Not half bad in my opinion!
Then I took on the task of making the belt. I decided to keep cost down, and again, to make things "easy," I would use vinyl in lieu of leather. I managed to get enough material (marine grade vinyl) for two belts for $15 at Joann with a 50% coupon.
Using measurements I found in this amazing thread, I created my own patterns, printed them out on standard paper, cut them out and taped them together to make a stencil.The stencil seemed to be around the correct size, so I traced it onto the vinyl and cut out the pieces. I then began to attach snaps. They were surprisingly expensive at $17 per box (10 sets). Luckily I got two boxes at buy one, get one 1/2 off.
Simultaneously, I printed out patterns for the metal pieces of the belt and bought some sheet metal from the local hardware store. Unfortunately, I bought 1/8" thick steel, which proved to be just too much for my dinky little battery-powered Dremel to cut through. I decided in the interest of time, I would make the pieces out of cardboard reinforced with glue and spraypaint them silver, until I had the time to re-buy metal and cut out those pieces.
After all pieces were snapped, it was time to start sewing some things together. I (stupidly) started by sewing the holster together. I then realized it would have been smarter to sew it onto the "Y" piece first.
Anyway, I managed to get the holster part all sewn together. After that, I tried the belt on and realized that my measurements must have been off because it was way too big. The leg strap was around my leg under my knee! To fix that, I took a little material out of each belt piece, and attached a new set of snaps to the "Y" piece so it could attach to the buckle higher. Much better!After that, I spent the rest of the night sewing on the pockets. Bit of a rush job, but it looks decent enough. I didn't have time to make the droid caller, but that will be done in the near future. I'm thinking PVC.
So, the vest. My plan was to buy a black BDU shirt and cut the sleeves off, since the pockets on the front look very much like Han's. I ordered an extra-small off of Amazon thinking it would be around the right size and length. Boy, was I wrong. The shirt ended up being HUGE. Even after removing the sleeves, I realized it hung way too low and came too far around in front. I know it's something I can fix in the future with a bit of creative sewing, but at this point I was out of time. Luckily, my wife happened to have a leather jacket that looked great with the costume! I even realized after watching TFA that it matches Han's pretty well.
Ah yes, and the boots. I just couldn't find any for a reasonable price. I checked surplus and thrift stores everywhere, but none fit the bill. I was thinking about getting some cheap ones from Amazon, but even those were $40 and I just couldn't hack it. I felt a little lame walking around without the boots, but I think it's the belt that brings the whole costume together anyway.
Anyway, I had a blast making this costume, and I will continue working on it until I'm completely satisfied. At this point I plan to redo the buckles in metal, redo the snaps that I had to add to the "Y"-part, redo the pants with embroidery (and do a pair in brown), and finish the vest. I wore it to the 9:30am showing this morning, along with my wife who dressed like an Ewok.
All told, I only spent around $85 for this whole costume, so I'm very happy with the result.Thanks for looking everyone!
Edit: Forgot to add the link to the belt pattern!
Last edited:
