Starting My New Cosplay

Well it's already the end of June and I swore I wanted to have all of my cosplay outfits done by the end of June so of course now is the perfect time to start making them. First let me say that I have very little experience with sewing and cosplaying.. I mean I have cosplayed primarily as a Hobbit (Frodo/Bilbo) the past five years but I purchased everything and had my friend Greg create my Hobbit feet. I did have to alter the height of the pants and add button suspenders to them but that was pretty much the extent of my creativity.

This time around I wanted to create everything from scratch, or at least as much as I could. I am making a Twilek Jedi and modifying my Hobbit cosplay to include my favorite Hobbit Samwise.

For my Twilek Jedi I had to make (from scratch) the Jedi robes, tunic, shoulder armor and belt. I purchased pants, boots and had someone else make my Lekku. For my Samwise Hobbit cosplay I was using my previous Hobbit pants, purchasing a new shirt but plan to make Sam's striped vest that he wears early on in Fellowship of the Rings. I (or better yet my friend Shannon) found fabric that's looks almost identical to his vest from the movies. I also plan to create his backpack (including pots, pans and hot links)

My Jedi Twilek was my priority so I started with that. My friend Kimi mentioned that I should start by washing the fabric. I would have never thought of that. You wash it so if it shrinks it won't happen once it's all sewn together. It makes so much sense. After washing and drying it my friend Shannon came over to help me layout the pattern and start cutting material for my Jedi Robe. Shannon taught me how to read patterns and I have to say it's not easy. We laid out all the material, and pinned the patterns to it. We then started to cut everything out. This is a pretty tedious process and took about four hours. In the end we got everything cut out for the Jedi Robes. Next step is going over to Kimi's house for a crash course in sewing.. think I'll be doing that this week... stay tuned.