Tunic Fabric: 3 yards of rugged linen-like fabric from Walmart (it was better than anything I found at Joann!) - $6
Pants Fabric: 2 1/2 yards - Olive European Linen/Cotton Blend Fabric - $31
Tunic:
I sincerely believed the tunic would be easy to recreate. It looked like a simple draping project and then I would be done with it but I was very very wrong.
I know now that my biggest mistake was using a linen-type material rather than a stretch-friendly knit. My fabric choice did not hug my body the way that Rey's does and it resulted in some less-than forgiving photos.
Another issue was how transparent the fabric was. This resulted in the cross-crossed front being very obvious at the point where the two pieces overlap since that bottom portion was opaque rather than transparent. For this reason I decided to double-layer each piece of the tunic fabric so no area of the fabric looks any more transparent than another.
I used this blurry reference image to help me sculpt the curved back. I made sure to clip the curves so the piece connected beautifully.
Here you can see the interior clipped curves of the back seam.
Before handsewing the exposed "raw edges" I first needed to hand baste on the collar. (See below)
I was nervous to make the final cut to the collar because of the variation between the two reference photos seen here.
The top collar (from a behind the scenes featurette) is longer and the bottom (from the Vanity Fair photoshoot) is more of a short mandarin collar. Which one will The Last Jedi actually feature?!?
After posting the montage to the left, all of my Instagram followers voted for me to cut it longer and more dramatic, so that's what I did!
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| The first cut is the deepest... |
I attempted to recreate the knobby appearance of the garment's edges by following this process:1) First I trimmed all the seems to a little over 1/4th of an inch.
2) Grading the seams (paying special attention to the interior seems so they would be tiny enough to later become enclosed within the whipstiched seams.
3) And then handsewing a whipstitch across all visible seams. It was tricky to get the spacing right so the fabric would pull tight enough to get that knobby appearance. I tried for around 3/8 inch distance between each stitch.
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| I wish I would have cut the top layer longer than I did so it would better enclose the shorter trimmed edges. |
The collar doesn't seem to photograph well but I really think it looks beautiful in person!
Pants:
There aren't a whole lot of reference images for the pants as The Last Jedi has not yet opened.
Therefore, the main images I used in order to make my pants are the few you see on the left and the Vanity Fair photoshoot below.
I started drafting the pants by making a mockup of this Burda 6811 pattern. I then drastically altered the pattern by removing the pant creases, fitting it completely to my leg, drastically shortening the legs and then cutting the new pattern in two (to create the knee pad section) and adding additional seam allowances for each of those two pieces. I also switched the zipper to an invisible zipper since I had no idea how Rey's pants close from the lack of detailed reference photos. The new pattern was complete unrecognizable from the original, but since I have never successfully made my own pants I needed to at least see how they would come together before I created my own.
The kneepads took me two attempts to successfully create. The first version was far too narrow to be accurate and so I started all over again to make a thicker version.
The best advice I can provide is to mark your topstitching channels with a disappearing ink pen before you pin and sew all the layers together. Otherwise it's a bit tricky to get an accurate measurement on top of the rather puffy kneepad. Below is a pic of the kneepad sandwich layers.
It took me awhile to figure out the order of the sandwich. The two olive green layers must be touching each other, right sides together. On top of that, I piled two low loft natural cotton batting layers and one high loft synthetic batting to give the knee pads some bounce. After sewing around the edges with 1/4 inch seam, I trimmed the seams to 1/8 inch and then flipped the sandwich right side out.
I sewed the bottom part of the pant leg inside out and finished the raw edges in the same way as the tunic to mimic the knobby look of reference photos.
Did you know that Rey's ACTUAL boots made by the ACTUAL company who manufactured them for the film are available online? I bought myself a fantastic pair of Po Zu boots in Piper Brown (recently renamed to the Rey boot) for £150. They are amazing shoes, manufactured with the utmost quality and comfort, and I am really tempted to wear them every day! Seriously, these shoes make me want to buy many more designs from Po Zu. You can see my boots in the pic below!
The kneepads took me two attempts to successfully create. The first version was far too narrow to be accurate and so I started all over again to make a thicker version.The best advice I can provide is to mark your topstitching channels with a disappearing ink pen before you pin and sew all the layers together. Otherwise it's a bit tricky to get an accurate measurement on top of the rather puffy kneepad. Below is a pic of the kneepad sandwich layers.
It took me awhile to figure out the order of the sandwich. The two olive green layers must be touching each other, right sides together. On top of that, I piled two low loft natural cotton batting layers and one high loft synthetic batting to give the knee pads some bounce. After sewing around the edges with 1/4 inch seam, I trimmed the seams to 1/8 inch and then flipped the sandwich right side out.
I sewed the bottom part of the pant leg inside out and finished the raw edges in the same way as the tunic to mimic the knobby look of reference photos.
Rey's boots:
Did you know that Rey's ACTUAL boots made by the ACTUAL company who manufactured them for the film are available online? I bought myself a fantastic pair of Po Zu boots in Piper Brown (recently renamed to the Rey boot) for £150. They are amazing shoes, manufactured with the utmost quality and comfort, and I am really tempted to wear them every day! Seriously, these shoes make me want to buy many more designs from Po Zu. You can see my boots in the pic below!
Here's a pic of it all put together!
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