Well, it’s been a loooonnngggg time since my last post. In order to kick off the new year, I’ve started a new nerdy craft project. This time I’ve taken a step away from electronics, and moved into costume design.
When I was about 16 or so I started making lightsaber replicas. None of them really turned out too great, but it was a fun thing to do. Now that I’m older, I figured I’d give a good costume a shot. After mulling through some ideas and doing some research on the tubes, I came to a Tusken Raider conclusion.
My main resource of information came from the mighty TK-409. His site offers a lot of really great insights and even greater links to making some of the better Star Wars costumes out there. If you’re interested in making a SandTrooper, C-3PO, Tusken Raider, or Boba Fett costume, it’s almost a one stop shop for all your needs.
Enough promotion though… I am working on a Tusken Raider costume right now, and I started by making the leggings and shoes. So for Part 1 of Tusken Aspirations I’d like to explain my process from a beginner costumer maker’s perspective.
Supplies
The first item on my list was Duck Cloth. I don’t know much of anything about fabric, but that’s what TK-409 suggested. After buying it, I’m sold on the idea of this fabric. It’s worked out better than I expected. There’s a few places you can get it, one of them being Jo Ann Fabrics. I instead, looked locally here in Seattle, and ran into a GREAT fabric shop on Capitol Hill called Stitches. The lady there was really nice, and helped me instantly with finding what I was looking for. I suggest finding a dark khaki color, it worked well for me, and after some weathering, matched the color I had in mind perfectly. I’d also like to add how friendly the store keeper was to me, even explaining the process of buying fabric (I’m REALLY new to this remember). So I bought a yard. So far it’s seemed to be enough.
Also, I needed a sewing kit (or glue, as you’ll read later) and some paints (other solutions mentioned later) with a foam brush. The paints and foam brush are easily found in any craft/art store, and the sewing kit I scored from Walgreen for 5 USD (115 pieces including scissors, a pin cushion, needles, pins, thread, and more! ). Good times.
The Process
The first thing to tackle was cutting the fabric. I looked at my more favorite home made Tusken costumes, as well as the originals and then started cutting. I mainly copied the picture from TK-409′s site though, as I liked that idea of tackling the leg wraps the best. I wasn’t super keen on the look, nor the process of wrapping up rubber rain boots, which seems to be another very popular idea of Tuskeneers. I won’t cover that here, but if you’re researching into the subject before starting (something I REALLY REALLY suggest doing) you’ll definitely come across the process.
So I measured about 3/4th of the way up my leg, from ankle to kneecap for the height of the under fabric, and I measured a few inches past what I might need to wrap the fabric around my leg for the width. That left me with a nice rectangle. I then made strips of fabric to line up diagonal across the under sheet. When cutting these, I purposefully didn’t cut straight lines… I made them jagged cuts, and sort of wavy in places. The result of this process looks something like this:
At this point I was almost concerned. This definitely doesn’t look very much like what I want for an end result. I had to push that notion behind me though, and remember that this is the beginning, and not the end. Therefore, it’s gonna look bad at first.
Moving on… it was time to make them ragged and frayed. I’ve read a plenty of ways to do this, and decided to start off by the most simple way… washing the fabric. I was scared as to what would happen, but I tried it. I didn’t really know if I should throw them in the washer and dryer, or hand wash them in water… use soap? I didn’t know. I’m new, and couldn’t find information of the specifics. What I ended up doing was filling my kitchen sink with warm water, and dripping a dap of detergent into the mix. I then dumped the fabric into it, and let it soak for about 10 minutes.
When it was done soaking, I then scrubbed and mashed and rolled the fabric together. I beat it like the Micheal Jackson song, and after not too long, I ended up with a frayed out mess of wet, soapy fabric. Yay! I then pulled it all out, untangled some of it, cleaned the fibers out of my sink, and rinsed and squeeze dried the whole mess. They were then left overnight to dry.
I woke up to this. A bunch of dry strips, and two dry rectangles, frayed quite decently.
It was time to start the attaching. One way to do this (I believe TK-409′s suggestion) is to simply glue the strips onto the fabric. It’s a pretty good idea I think, but I wasn’t sure if I could trust glue to hold something on all day (in the event I was at a con or something). I instead opted to sew. The approach I took to sewing the fabric, was to try and make the least visible path I could take. Instead of sewing the entire piece on by sewing the top and the bottom, I decided instead to just sew the top part, and leave the bottom free to flap around. I can show this better than I can explain it… so here’s a couple pictures.
These pictures are after the first coat of weathering, so don’t mind that… but that’s basically what I did to attach the strips on. I hand sewed them, and it took a long time. If you’re sewing it, a machine might be a faster decision. If you decide to use glue, then it’ll be even faster.If you do hand sew, I’d suggest using pins to hold the strips in place. By doing that you can keep the fabric straighter, and it’s just easier (minus the fact you’ll likely poke yourself a few times).
So the two leg wraps are done now… It look’s pretty good, but maybe not still exactly what you’re looking for? The next step in the process is weathering. I mean, you’re going to be a freakin’ Tusken Raider. They hang out in the sand, and harsh conditions. After that rough wear and tear, you don’t think they’ll have pretty shiny clothing, do you? Yea, I didn’t think so.
The weathering process has been really difficult for me. Looking online you’ll encounter A LOT of different ways and ideas to go about it. I’ve seen watered down paint, dirt, spray paint, hitting it with rocks, tea or coffee staining, washing they hey out of it… and more!
My hand washing had frayed the pieces out, and I didn’t want holes in it, so I ruled out the rocks and washing. I tried dirt on a test strip, and didn’t like the result. I mean, it works, but not to the standard I was holding this project to. A lot of it comes out over time by movement. Also: it STINKS. At least it was pretty musty smelling. I wasn’t cool with that. Ew.
So I got paints. Acrylic paints to be exact. I also made a pot of coffee. It was morning, so why not? The paints I had purchased were the standard primary colors (Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, Black, and White). I looked up some color combinations online, and got to experimenting. I can’t tell you exactly the colors I used, because I just kind of went with it. Black with a hint of green turned out good I thought. The result was a dark effect with some pale dark green hues around the edges.
My application of it was basically watering the crud out of paints, and then dipping my foam brush in it, just a little bit. I kind of just randomly hit the pieces of the cloth, little sections, small strokes, or large sections with long strokes. I feel that it applied the colors semi realistically. When I was done adding on the paint, I poured myself a cup of coffee. I also poured some of it in a bowl. I rinsed out my brush and then dipped it in the coffee, and generously applied it all over the fabric.
I was kinda of worried… it was now really dark looking, and not much of what I wanted… but I waited for it to dry.
A few hours later it looked like what you’ll see in the picture below. On the left is before, on the right is after.
And that’s the end of part one. This whole ordeal took me about 3 days to complete, and still needs a little bit of work. The process was fun though, and I can’t wait to get working on Part 2.
!!!COMING SOON!!!
TUSKEN ASPIRATIONS PART 2: TUSKEN SHOES
I’ll see ya then,
Shinigami, Signing out!
shinigamimusic
