How to create your own Jedi Costume
George Lucas' costumes for the Jedi borrowed heavily from ancient Asian clothing. They are made of several parts, some of which can be store bought but most will have to be hand-made, so you'll need to get out that sewing machine for this one.
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Things You'll Need
- Sewing machine
- Measuring Tape
- Patterns (bathrobe and/or karate gi)
- Straight Pins
- Thread
- Fabric (Dark brown or black for cloak and Tan color for the rest)
- Khaki slacks
- Boots (high riding boots preferably)
- Boot Tops (if you can't get riding boots)
- Scissors
- Belt
- Jedi Accessories
Instructions
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Plan the costume. You can get away with faking much of this. I went with store-bought slacks and a turtleneck tee instead of making 3 shirts and a pair of pants (I made 2 shirts instead). If you want to do all of it from scratch, you will need more fabric and patterns.
For the purposes of this article, I will assume that you buy the pants and either omit the third (under) shirt or use a store bought variety.
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Jedi costumes are known for 2 things. The cloak which will be covered later, and the V shaped shirts.
This V shape is accomplished by layering one undershirt, a V shaped (think Karate Gi) shirt that fastens or ties around the waist, and an over garment (referred to as tabards from my research) which is either made of 2 long strips of fabric or one shirt-like piece that is just two long flaps in the front.
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If you don't have a karate gi that you can dye tan or khaki, then you would need to make one. You can find patterns for a karate gi (or adapt a bathrobe pattern and make it shorter). This generally is a khaki or tan color and should be made of a fabric that is thick (for a film-accurate costume) like wool or "homespun", but you can make it lighter since no one wants to wear a 3 layer wool suit for any length of time. Since you should have a shirt under this, something stiff like duck cloth would work fine and usually comes in the appropriate color.
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The tabards are best worn (at least for me) as 2 separate strips of fabric belted at the waist as opposed to my earlier experiments with a tabard/shirt hybrid (they wouldn't stay on my shoulders). It would be better to make these from heavy, thick fabric like homespun or wool. The weight helps them stay on the shoulders (so do safety pins though so feel free to make these from whatever you like.
My tabards are about 8 to 12 inches wide, so make them twice that, fold in half, and sew the long seam together, along with one of the ends. Turn this inside out and sew the other end shut. I'm not the best at sewing so you could see this seam, I'm sure there is some way to sew this where the seam will be invisible but I didn't know how. It won't matter much in the final product anyway.
Make these long enough to go from your knees in the back, over a shoulder and down to the knees in the front (the length is not set in stone, feel free to make them longer or shorter if desired). You will lose a bit of length when you gather and belt it. Make two of these the same size.
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The Obi, or cloth belt, is the next piece that you will have to construct. Unlike the karate gi, this belt is very wide. You can go one of two ways with this, a traditional one that wraps around a few times then ties (knot is tucked under), or just use velcro or some other fastener. I have made both and found that the traditional one works better for me although it needs to be much longer and uses alot more fabric.
The belt should be about 6 inches (or more if desired) wide. It wraps around the waist twice with enough left to tie a knot(traditional method) and the ends meet in the front where they can be tied and tucked under the belt then rotated to the back. Construct similar to the tabards.
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Now that the costume is complete, you can accessorize with a cloak, lightsaber, blaster, etc. You will also need a regular, leather belt to go over the cloth one. You can be as ornate or simple as you like on this one.
I cover the cloak in this article as well below, the others are up to you.
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Now to assemble the costume, put on your pants and under shirt (if you bought/made one).
Next, put on the gi and fasten (with a belt, button, string, whatever) crossing the left side in front of the right. Always cross left over right. The Asian inspiration shows through here (right ove rleft was reserved for the dead).
Put one tabard over your right shoulder and one over your left. At this point you may want to pin them to the shoulders of your other shirt. Cross them in the front and back (again, a pin or two may help here).
Wrap your obi around the waist and tie/fasten.
Put on your belt over the cloth one and add accessories.
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Making the robe.
This is where having adapted the bathrobe pattern earlier might come in handy. The cloak is basically a bathrobe with slightly larger holes at the end of the sleeves and a hood.
The hood can be made by taking a large rectangle of fabric , about 24x12 plus seam allowances (jedi hoods are very large) and folding it into a square. Sew one seam (fold should meet the seam) and leave one open to attach to the robe and one open in the front.
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Turn your hood inside out and pin onto the robe. Try to make the seam line up with the center of the back. Sew to the robe and you've got the hooded cloak that a jedi typically wears to finish the ensemble. I left mine open in the front so you could see all of the other hard work underneath.
Now find yourself a lightsaber and may the force be with you.
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Tips & Warnings
Learn to sew. Sewing skills are invaluable.
Go from patterns if possible. A bathrobe pattern and/or karate gi pattern are invaluable if you can't just do this from scratch.
Look at some pics of jedi or ancient Asian clothing. It will help you with the multiple pieces.
Store bought pieces should not be ignored. Pants are pants and you don't see them much so go ahead and buy them. Same can be said for the under shirt (just make sure it has a high neck line or you won't see it at all).
Pins can hurt. Always exercise caution when using sharp objects
Same goes for scissors which you need to cut the fabric
Don't make a 3 layer wool outfit to go to a halloween party to dance for 4 hours, you'll likely pass out from exhaustion. Make the costume heavy or light enough for the occasion.
