Well, this is my first foray into one of my oldest fandoms -- Star Wars. The character idea stretches back to my old Star Wars Galaxies days, when I had a smuggler named Fionna. In the lore I developed, she started out life the straight and narrow (or at least the Corellian version, which can be questionable), eventually joining CorSec. Eventually, as the Empire grew in power and its influence spread, CorSec was pressured to harass her father, an outspoken businessman; her connection then had its own effect on her CorSec career. With nowhere left to go, and the family business floundering under Imperial pressure, she resigned CorSec and set about keeping the company afloat. In the end, she became more of an information broker (slicer) than a smuggler... until she stumbled on her own buried Force heritage.
After many years of mulling things over, I began the build process last year, purchasing the necessary bits and bobs to complete my first saber build, courtesy The Custom Saber Shop. Because I'd been filling my SW addiction by playing Old Republic, I chose a TOR-style saber, with an amber/yellow LED. The pre-wired components made it incredibly easy; all I had to solder was the switch, and fit it all into the hilt. At this point, I've skipped the sound board, but plan on upgrading when funds and time permit:
Right now, it kinda looks like a heavily modified LED flashlight. I'm planning on wrapping the grip with brown leather, not unlike the TOR-issue saber my toon has been carrying for a while now.
For the Jedi garb, I wanted to do something that paid homage to Fee's origins as a CorSec officer. It was a huge portion of her young(er) life, and taught her the skills she needed to survive in the gray areas of Imperial rule. The first (visual) exposure I had to CorSec uniforms was the X-Wing comics, where we saw the gray/khaki-black-and-orange oddities, seen here on Corran Horn and Iella Wessiri:
In later books we learn, however, that Corellian Security colors were green and gray; and as a Corellian Jedi, Corran eventually adopted robes in varying shades of green. It took a while to figure out where I was going with it, but I finally decided (if I was really going to do this) to pull from various sources. It makes sense that my girl would incorporate things from across the board, as well as her old uniforms.
Drawing from the X-Wing comic, I decided to go with a light(ish) gray, double-breasted vest; green shirt; and dark gray pants with a black officer's belt. Like Han, she'd also pull in her former black uniform boots -- they're broken in, and they match the belt. I set about to find a pattern and fabric.
For the pattern, I went back a few years to my BSG days, and unearthed the same jacket pattern I'd based my BSG duty blues on: Butterick 4294.
Among many things, I'd added princess seams in the front, fitted darts in the back, and adjusted the sleeves for an appropriate cuff. Skipping the sleeves, I decided the adjustments would probably do pretty well for where I was going with this. I dragged out the old modified pattern and pulled together a muslin:
Once that was done, I decided it looked a little too... Luke in ROTJ. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not quite what I was going for, even if I was going for a non-traditional Jedi color scheme. I'm a girl...I wanted a little swish factor! So I added a skirt:
Then I played with the image in PaintShop, painting it gray:
...at which point I decided it looked a little too, well, Imperial. So I played a bit more, and came up with a couple of options. In the first, I keep the green and gray color scheme, adding some green piping around the edges to help differentiate the tunic from the Imperial uniform. It also would bring it more in line with more of the available artwork for a CorSec Investigator (not necessarily canon):
---> to something like this, with a green shirt beneath the vest/tunic (pardon my sub-par PaintShop-fu): 
On the other hand, I could go in a completely different direction, maintaining the color scheme with a green (though the fabric I found is more teal) tunic and gray pants:
I've already altered the collar a bit more to accommodate the wider opening in the comic-version uniform vest, and sharpened the front flaps to something only slightly softer than those of the CorSec Investigator. Unfortunately, I don't have an image of the alterations I made to the muslin before I broke it down and transferred everything to the pattern. Suffice to say that I'm now to the point where I have to decide and I'm really on the clock. DragonCon is fast approaching, and I'd like to have this ready to go as a more comfortable costuming option, given my other costume for the weekend is Sif. =)
I'm washing up all three fabrics -- dark green, gray, and teal(ish) -- and hoping to cut fabric tomorrow afternoon. Maybe I'll do both and have options...
After many years of mulling things over, I began the build process last year, purchasing the necessary bits and bobs to complete my first saber build, courtesy The Custom Saber Shop. Because I'd been filling my SW addiction by playing Old Republic, I chose a TOR-style saber, with an amber/yellow LED. The pre-wired components made it incredibly easy; all I had to solder was the switch, and fit it all into the hilt. At this point, I've skipped the sound board, but plan on upgrading when funds and time permit:
Right now, it kinda looks like a heavily modified LED flashlight. I'm planning on wrapping the grip with brown leather, not unlike the TOR-issue saber my toon has been carrying for a while now.
For the Jedi garb, I wanted to do something that paid homage to Fee's origins as a CorSec officer. It was a huge portion of her young(er) life, and taught her the skills she needed to survive in the gray areas of Imperial rule. The first (visual) exposure I had to CorSec uniforms was the X-Wing comics, where we saw the gray/khaki-black-and-orange oddities, seen here on Corran Horn and Iella Wessiri:
In later books we learn, however, that Corellian Security colors were green and gray; and as a Corellian Jedi, Corran eventually adopted robes in varying shades of green. It took a while to figure out where I was going with it, but I finally decided (if I was really going to do this) to pull from various sources. It makes sense that my girl would incorporate things from across the board, as well as her old uniforms.
Drawing from the X-Wing comic, I decided to go with a light(ish) gray, double-breasted vest; green shirt; and dark gray pants with a black officer's belt. Like Han, she'd also pull in her former black uniform boots -- they're broken in, and they match the belt. I set about to find a pattern and fabric.
For the pattern, I went back a few years to my BSG days, and unearthed the same jacket pattern I'd based my BSG duty blues on: Butterick 4294.
Among many things, I'd added princess seams in the front, fitted darts in the back, and adjusted the sleeves for an appropriate cuff. Skipping the sleeves, I decided the adjustments would probably do pretty well for where I was going with this. I dragged out the old modified pattern and pulled together a muslin:
Once that was done, I decided it looked a little too... Luke in ROTJ. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not quite what I was going for, even if I was going for a non-traditional Jedi color scheme. I'm a girl...I wanted a little swish factor! So I added a skirt:
Then I played with the image in PaintShop, painting it gray:
...at which point I decided it looked a little too, well, Imperial. So I played a bit more, and came up with a couple of options. In the first, I keep the green and gray color scheme, adding some green piping around the edges to help differentiate the tunic from the Imperial uniform. It also would bring it more in line with more of the available artwork for a CorSec Investigator (not necessarily canon):
---> to something like this, with a green shirt beneath the vest/tunic (pardon my sub-par PaintShop-fu): On the other hand, I could go in a completely different direction, maintaining the color scheme with a green (though the fabric I found is more teal) tunic and gray pants:
I've already altered the collar a bit more to accommodate the wider opening in the comic-version uniform vest, and sharpened the front flaps to something only slightly softer than those of the CorSec Investigator. Unfortunately, I don't have an image of the alterations I made to the muslin before I broke it down and transferred everything to the pattern. Suffice to say that I'm now to the point where I have to decide and I'm really on the clock. DragonCon is fast approaching, and I'd like to have this ready to go as a more comfortable costuming option, given my other costume for the weekend is Sif. =)
I'm washing up all three fabrics -- dark green, gray, and teal(ish) -- and hoping to cut fabric tomorrow afternoon. Maybe I'll do both and have options...
