Comments from Chrononaut and Scott4040 motivated me to fill in my obvious knowledge gaps of ponchos and its many variations. Also the excellent detailed photos provide by Without a Stitch in their album of Star Wars Celebration photos provided excellent, if sometimes confusing, references for Jyn Erso's concho.
If you are not interested in Jyn’s Concho, you can skip this rather lengthy, picky discussion.
This discussion is not an exhaustive analysis but I hope it gives others a starting point to expand and improve. It also tries to answer some of my own questions like “how did the back of the bandolier – disappear?” This poncho-cowl-cloak-cape-ish garment was an interesting 3D challenge to me to understand how and why it was made the way it was. I have made some assumptions which I provide here so others can challenge and suggest alternatives. The resulting product is not how I would make a garment for tropical protection, but since Jyn does not even have her hood up in the face of a blowing storm in the Behind The Scenes video, I guess keeping dry is not the ultimate goal.
I break down the garment into the following major elements, main (rectangular) body which also forms the sleeves, a shoulder cowl, a collar stand, a collar, two exterior“pockets”, and a hood.
The width of the body should be roughly the measurement from wrist – behind the neck – to opposite wrist when your arms are stretched straight out to your sides. The length is roughly the distance from the back of the upper thigh - over the shoulder - to front upper thigh. The body in turn seems to be made of four panels, left and right fronts and left and right backs, each of which is half the width and and half the length of the full body rectangle. The two back panels are joined by a center back seam from hem to nape of the neck. In two of the right shoulder photos there appears to be a small portion of shoulder seam which may be part of the shoulder cowl. The two front panels are attached only at the shoulders leaving a front opening like a cloak.
The back panels have the same deep hem. The front panels have the same narrow hem. The difference between these hem patterns is most obvious where the front panel is sewn to the back panel at the end of the sleeves.
Aside: This back seam, shoulder seam, and open front is not good for providing a weather-proof garment but I believe this approach was taken to provide the best fit, weathering and “character'” to the garment. One traditional approach to making a poncho is to start with a rectangular tarp (or in this case maybe two). Just like my jeans, it is the edges of the tarp which will be the most worn and frayed and those are the parts which the designer will want to retain. This means cutting out the center of the tarp(s) so you can retain the outside edges when putting them together.
The body also produces the sleeves. This is accomplished by making slits on the front panels. Each slit starts at the outside edge and goes more than 1/2 of the distance across each front panel. The height of the slit is located below the arm pit. (I found making the length of the slit being the same measurement as its height above the bottom edge makes for an interesting design which ties some elements together well.) The upper edge of the slit is sewn to the back panel at the same height to form the sleeve. The back panel under the seam hangs down to provide the back of the poncho. The part of the front panel below the slit seems to be folded under and back toward the center. To strengthen the end of the slit, there appears to be a heavy seam (perhaps even a binding?) along the upper part of the sleeve seam, and then following (part way?) down the folded edge. This would make an “L” shaped seam but with the arms down at your side the legs of the “L” are roughly parallel to each other such as how they appear in the photos. At the bottom of the folded edge there is a cutout. On the right-hand side this provides access to the gun and holster. On the left-hand side this allows access to her other weapon and entry for Jyn's bandolier to return under the poncho.
One major assumption I am making is that to reduce bulk and weight, the portion of each front panel below the slit has been cut away close to the fold and seam. This is because I see no evidence of this material going back either across the front of the mannequin or around the side and across the wearer's back. In traditional ponchos the sleeves would not have been sewn closed (but often just loosely corded together) and the material would not be removed. This would have allowed the poncho to be unfolded at the shoulders to provide a large rectangle to use as either an overhead cover or ground cloth.
Another major assumption relates to the cutouts. The top of each cutout appears to be a section of stitched belt or webbing. This webbing in both cases seems to wrap around the body. The webbing may only go as far as the “L” seam but since the front is open, this would make for a very “flappy” poncho. On some ponchos designed for cyclists there is a cord or belt which attaches one side of the front, around the back, and to the other side of the front. This allows the wearer to cinch in the material to reduce the bulk in the front as those ponchos do not have an open front. The belt is not attached to the back so the poncho is free to drape over the wearer’s back, backpack, cycle seat, etc. I believe using the webbing at the top of the cutout as a belt around the wearer back would provide a similar ease of wear.
I also assume there is some type of (currently unknown) front closure as using the bandolier would not provide a practical method.
My assumption is there is both a body neckline and a larger cowl neckline with the collar attached to the body and the hood attached to the cowl. The collar is a rounded mandarin collar. The collar is sewn onto a collar stand. The stand is taller than the collar. The stand is longer than the body neckline so the left-hand side can overlap the right. My assumption the collar attaches to the main body because the collar is located inside the hood. Also collar would provide a finish for the body neckline.
The hood is comprised of three pieces - two sides and one center. Once the three pieces are joined together the hood is attached to the shoulder cowl at the cowl's own neckline. The front of the hood extends beyond the neckline and left unattached. These hood flaps are turned wrong-side outward and on the left side provides a surface for an attached small greeblie. In practice these flaps could be turned up and wrapped around the lower part of the face to provide protection from the weather. One the right side, the front edge of the hood is partially covered by the bandolier. When the mannequin was dressed for Celebration it appears the jacket was put on first, then the bandolier, then the concho. The concho was positioned with the right front over the left front (which can be seen hanging below the grommets in some photos) and the bandolier was used to help close the concho. At the lower left side, the front panel of the concho was placed behind the bandolier allowing the bandolier to go through the left-side cutoff. The upper right front of the concho was then pulled under and partway through the bandolier. The bandolier also distorts the upper right of the concho and hood flap as the bandolier apparently goes over the collar on the right side and down the wearer's back under the concho. The position of bandolier and oxygen mask (which is clipped to a leather strap which goes around the neck inside the hood) covers the details of the front opening.
With the hood sewn to the shoulder cowl, the cowl assemble is sewn to the body over the shoulders like a yoke. Having a second layer of fabric on the top of the shoulders does work well for weather protection. In my concept the cowl follows the shoulder seam as there is no evidence of it on the concho’s back other than the center extension. The center extension goes slightly down the back, covering the top of the back seam which would help with water resistance. The cowl fronts wrap over the shoulders and angles toward the center. (This angle is similar to what would normally be at the shoulder seam, but in this case rotated to the side. This could provide some fitting structure to the otherwise “square” shoulders.) On the left side a layer of fabric forms a “window” for another larger greeblie. On the right side there appears to be a layer which makes the bottom of the shoulder cowl into an exterior pocket.
The attached diagrams provide some rough approximation of the separate elements.
I normally test my patterns before providing them. In this case I did not make a test garment but I did make a paper and tape model to make sure the concepts were “workable”. At the current time I do not plan to make this garment so this may be as far as I take this concept. However, as a part of my process I have measured, counted stitches, and calculated, and normalized many elements of this design from the available photos. If anyone is interested in this data, I can try to organize and make it available.
View attachment Poncho Body.pdf
View attachment Poncho Cowl Hood.pdf
