Handmaiden lining is done

I've finished the lining as far as I can do. Now it's just to calculate the amount of fabric needed for the pleated overlayer and to start draping/patterning the robe and hood.

Even if it's just pinned together on my dressform I'm quite happy with the general shape. I'm not exactly tall and willowy, as the photomodels that wore the gown originally, but I think I've manged to create quite a sleek silhouette.

This photo, taken with flash, shows that the lining is actually quite shiny. I'm hoping that some of that shine will be visible through the outer fabric, at least in photos.

The playing around with the lining and how the light works on it has also made change my mind on what fabric was used for the original. I'm now pretty sure what I'm going to order, but it's going to be a lot more expensive than the cotton voile I had planned for. It also of course means that I can't do anymore dye tests until I get the actual fabric that I'm going to use.

I also need to go and measure my largest suitcase to make sure that the roundel will fit inside it. I think it's a tad on the larg side now so I am going to cut it down a bit, but it would be nice not having to do that because it will be unpackable.

My main issue was once again the sleeves. I used the basic sleeve pattern from Construction Historical Clothes, but I'm not too happy about it. I'm starting to think that my sleeve fitting issues aren't just due to the sleeves though, I need to work with the shape of the sleeve head and the armhole as well. I definitely think that I need to work with a shallower sleevehead to fit my chubby upper arms. Since the sleeves aren't going to be visible in this gown I didn't feel like starting over with a new pattern though. This one works well enough.

Recap of 2014

It's time to look back at what I created in 2014. I can clearly say that this has been my most productive year ever when it comes to sewing, and I think a large part has been the Historical Sew Fortnightly. Not only have the challenges made me inspired to do things, but seeing and reading all about what other people are doing has made me inspired to keep on sewing.

Originally my plans for 2014, according to this post, were

Major projects
The 1787 Revolutionary
The Gold Handmaiden

UFOs
Female Tusken

Maybes
Winter Celchu
 18th century wool jacket

Touch ups
Classic Princess Leia white gown
Corset for the Can Can trooper
Trim the navy robe à la anglaise

So what did I actually do

Major projects
I did finish the 1787 Revolutionary.

That in turn included a new pair of stays, the gaulle, the cap, the hat, the shoes, the waistcoat and the redingote.

My second major project came as a big surprise when my sister asked me to make her wedding gown.

The wedding also meant that I made a corset, skirt and a shrug for myself, and when I was invited for a ball I matched the corset and shrug with a late Victorian/Edwardian petticoat and skirt.

I also made an 1830s ensemble that has turned out to be the most worn thing I've made, up until now three of use have worn it for time travel, Christmas fair and Lucia celebrations at Falun Mine.

If those were my major projects, I got quite a few smaller things done as well. For Star Wars projects

Star Wars
Princess Leia's Endor poncho
Classic Princess Leia senatorial gown.

Historical projects
Trimming the navy robe anglaise
a set of sleeve ruffles,
a reticule
a small bergere hat.
a 1930's belt
1950's Christmas skirt


Everyday wear
the UFO skirt
The 1940's skirt

UFO:s
Gold Handmaiden - At least I started it in the last days of the year
Tusken Female
Queen Elsa Coronation gown - a small project that snowballed into something a lot bigger, and now I want to start almost all over before continuing.

All in all I think I've done a lot of things and I'm very satisfied with my productivity. I also think that I have developed my skills a lot this year. The main thing is that I have started to make my own patterns. I still haven't gotten the hang of sleeves, but I feel a lot more confident in creating bodice and skirt patterns. I've also started to flatline my pieces, and realized what a difference that makes. All in all both my increased pattern skills and the flatlining has given my pieces a much more professional look than previous. The third thing that I'm taking with me for coming projects is that I can actually sew garments by hand, and I don't need to be afraid that they are going to fall apart. I now feel that it's soon time for me to actually make a whole project by hand, but we will see when that happens.

Dye tests

So today I started to test different dyes for the gold handmaiden. At the semi-local craft shop, meaning it's in the Yellow/Sunflower handdye and one Orange/Goldfish hand dye. I was pretty sure that the yellow would be too yellow and the orange too red, but I hoped that a mix of them would give me a warm gold colour.

 I made three quite large swatches of the fabric that I'm going to use for the undergown, it's a cotton voile. I also considered this quite a learning experience, so I made sure to follow the instructions. The only thing I did was to halve the amounts of dye/salt/water.

It was really simple. I heated the water to 40C, turned off the stove but kept the pot on the plate. I added salt and the dye, and then the fabric. I stirred quite a lot the first 15 minutes, and then I had the fabric in the dye for another 45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Here are the three swatches. The yellow is actually darker and warmer than I thought it would be, it's not very far off the colour I'm after. The orange, to the right, I could see immediately that it was going to be red. For the middle swatch I mixed 25 grams of yellow with only 5 grams of the orange, but as you can see the orange was way too dominant.

If I was making the handmaiden flame gown, then I would be really happy with the results, but for the gold handmaiden I need to experiment more. I have ordered iDye in gold ochre, hoping that it will work without any mixing, but I've also seen people who have commented on that it's a lot more yellow than it should be. I have also ordered more of Dylon yellow and Terracotta/Brown, to see if I can find a mix that is just a bit darker than the Yellow on its own.

These dye aren't wasted though, since I will start experimenting with the pleating on them,

The Christmas skirt

This Christmas I felt that I really wanted a big 1950's style skirt. It started when I went to a shop that usually carries a lot of 1950's inspired clothing. This time I didn't find anything though. I have a petticoat from that store though, but I hardly ever use it since I don't have any skirts that go over it. Also feeling the quality of the fabric of the dresses and skirts that they did have, I felt that I could make something myself that was just as good.

Off I went to the internet and ordered 4 meters of a red, plaid cotton. When it came I didn't want to cut into it, and having to deal with the patternmatching. I did what I had done for my sister's wedding skirt. I cut off 3,5 meters and boxpleated them into a waistband. I added a zipper and hemmed it.

the skirt over my petticoat

I'm very happy with the skirt, but not with the waistband. The wide waistband emphasizes my stomach over my waist and that doesn't feel flattering at all. I also managed to make the waistband a tiny bit too tight I could wear it, but I felt that it was too tight. That also made me feel big. I think I'm going to take off the waistband and make a new one, narrower and a bit bigger.

Me and my sister on Christmas Eve. I chose to wear the top over the waistband, rather than showing the waistband.

Draping a bodice

Today I started with the bodice for the gold handmaiden.  Looking at the original gown it's a fairly loose gown, mostly shaped by the obi. The thing is though that I don't want too much bulk under the obi, and since my bust is quite full I felt that it would be best with a fairly fitted bodice.

 This was the start, simply one square of fabric for the front, and one for the back.

In order to accomodate the bust I added a side dart. The vertical tuck started as a dart just under the bust and one dart from the neckline and down towards the bust.

On the back I folded a long dart from the top of the armscye and down towards the back. I simply just held up the excess fabric and pinned.

At this point I had started to just work on one side of the bodice, so I cut off the other half since it was now mostly distracting and making the "good" half hang funny. When I was satisfied with the fit I followed all the seamlines with a pen and also drew a seam line that dived the front into a front and side front piece.

I took the bodice off the mannequin and cut where I had marked the seamlines. I then cleaned up and evened out some of the lines, and the resulting pattern can be seen above.

The skirt was mocked up. I used my basic pencil skirt pattern, only lengthened to reach the floor, and I added a circle of fabric to the bottom.

HSF challenge 24: All that glitters

I really wanted to finish the last HSF challenge of the year. In a way it would feel good to have done at least the first and the last of the challenges, and when I counted my finished challenges I realised that I had made 11, meaning that if I did the last one that would mean that I had finished half of the challenges.

The theme was "All that glitters", which in an ordinary time of the year would feel interesting and fun. Now with Christmas I realised that I had hardly any time, and I wanted to concentrate on other projects instead. I did ask for inspiration from the members of the HSF group and they suggested a lot of beaded things like reticules and headbands. They definitely put me on the path of making some kind of accessory. Then it was time to look in the stash to see what I could use. I had some beads, but I also found a really nasty gold fabric. I think I've bought it more than 10 years ago, it's stiff and definitely some kind of plastic, but it was gold and really shiny at that. That fabric meant that I didn't feel like making something old historical, since I would never wear it with my 18th century wardrobe for example, but something vintage might work. I went off on a search for 1920's and 1930's accessories and sewing patterns to see what I could make. I very soon realised that on all the 1930's patterns and pictures they were wearing some kind of narrow belt at the waist. I gathered some pictures on my pinterest board. Most were wearing some kind of big clasp at the front, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to find a clasp, but a few examples had bows instead of a clasp. Then it was decided I would make a belt with a bow.

The construction was fairly simple. I cut out a long 10 cm wide band of the gold fabric, a cotton lining and fusible interfacing, half as wide as the lining. I fused the interfacing to the lining and flatlined it to the gold fabric. I folded it all in half, sewed it together and turned the right side out. For the bow I made the same thing, but with only the gold fabric, no lining. I added a hook and bar to close the belt. Then I made the bow by simply folding the fabric together and handsewed it on. The bow was sewn on on the over the hook. I had to add a snap to make the bow lie flat against the bar side of the belt. I didn't have any metallic snaps, so I used clear plastic ones, something that also takes away from the accuracy of it all.

Finished belt

Close up of the bow

The closure and snap.

 I wore the belt for Christmas. I don't have any 1930's garments, but I felt that it worked well on its own. I did wear a 1950's inspired skirt and top, and then I just added bling, and the belt was definitely blingy.

Me and my sister on Christmas

The Challenge: 24 - All that glitters

Fabric: 20 cm of some kind of synthetic gold fabric, 150 cm wide

Pattern: None
Year: 1930's
Notions: Thread, hook and bar, plastic snap

How historically accurate is it? Style yes, material no, and I didn't have time to research period techniques, so I would say 20%

Hours to complete: 30 minutes

First worn: On Christmas Eve, with the family

Total cost: This was a total stashbusting project, and the fabric is so old that I can't remember what it cost, but since there were so little material in the project it ends up under $10

Merry Christmas

Happy holidays to everyone that reads this. And thanks to Fredrik for the help with photoshopping and creating this Christmas card.

Christmas with the Skywalkers

One dark December night the whole family had gathered for the traditional holiday photo. This time it was going to be the whole family so Luke had brought his girlfriend and Leia had brought her boyfriend, who had also insisted in bringing his dog, or wookiee has he called it, with him. To be on the safe side they had also brought one of mother's bodyguards.

It started out really nice. All smiles and happiness. Then father might have made a comment about the problems trying to finance a new Death Star, since somebody had blown up the last one. The boys just stood there, smiling very innocently, while mother started to argue with father about the appropriate discussion subjects at family gatherings. As seen by Leia's face it wasn't the first time she had heard that discussion,

Father had also heard this before, and ebates had never been his favorite thing. At that time he started to realize that there might be positives with a body double in the household, something that Luke really didn't like. It was at this moment that Han and Leia started to wonder what had happened with the wookiee.

Luke felt that father started to go a bit far with mother's handmaiden, and draw his lightsabre, only to be thwarted when his girlfriend decided to defend the Empire's best commander. Mara on her side was suddenly attacked by the wookiee. When Han tried to say that nobody could expect him to look after Chewie, after all wookiees are intelligent and independent creatures, Leia got really angry. With tempers flaring it seemed only father was happy with the situation.

I

As told by Björn (Han), Anna (Leia), Janne (Chewie), Lora (handmaiden), Johanna (Amidala), Jenny (Mara Jade) and Tommi (Luke) from Nordic Base and Tommi (Vader) from Nordic Garrison.

Classic Princess Leia gown

Last week I decided to make a new classic Leia gown, in costuming circles it's also known as the ANH senatorial gown. I had actually thrown away my old one, it was simply too worn and way too big for me. I had used cheap polyester interlock for the old dress, and it had gotten a lot of runs and was quite dirty as well. I had bought new for the dress many years ago, but since it's no costume that I wear very often I had never felt really inspired to redo it, but when it was time for helping Musikhjälpen I felt that Classic Leia would be the best costume, not the least because I was going to be the only rebel.

Anyway I'm not going to make a full tutorial, because if you want to make the gown I really recommend Pam's complete tutorial. I'm going to point out a couple of things that I've done though and my solutions to a couple of tricky issues.

First thing though when looking for reference photos of this gown. For most people it seems as if Leia is wearing the same dress throughout A New Hope and at the end of Empire Strikes Back, in fact there are actually three dresses, the difference comes mainly in the size of the sleeves and the fabric used. The original ANH dresses have disappeared, so it's the one from ESB that has been used for promo shots and has been part of different exhibitions. According to the Star Wars Costumes book the original was made in crepe de chine, while the ESB gown is a bit heavier than the ANH one.

Now as for fabric choice. Most costumes chose to make the gown out of a polyester knit fabric. In my case I've chosen thin polyester interlock from Stoff och Stil. In my first attempt I selflined the whole gown, but that made it too heavy. For my new version I still used the same fabric, since I had it in my stash and I'm not going to use it for anything else, but I decided to just use one layer to give the gown a lighter and more airy feel.

This is the basic shape of the gown, a simple T-tunic. I'm quite short so I have no problem fitting the arms on the width of the fabric, and just fold it double. For those of you that are tall, or can't find fabric that's wide enough you can put a seam at the waist, since that's going to be hidden by the belt. Even if you are short enough many costumers add an elastic at the waist, the original had some kind of smocking at the side, to keep the gown in the right position.

With the basic gown cut out and sewn together I felt that it was too seethrough for me to be comfortable in it. Carrie Fisher only used duck tape instead of a bra, according to George Lucas there was no underwear in space, but I have a bit more to support and want to be able to wear a good bra. The thing I did was to add a floating halflining. It's simply the same fabric, folded in half, but it only reaches just below my butt, and I didn't cut any sleeves. It's attached to the gown only at the neckline. I can wear underwear without having to worry about the visibility, but it doesn't affect the look or the drape of the gown.

The most tricky part of the gown is the collar. It needs to be a standup collar. For my first gown I simply took a rectangle of fabric, folded it in half and attached it at the neck. It worked but I always felt that it was too flimsy and soft. This fabric that I'm using can't stand heat, something I've discovered when I happened to burn a big hole in my first gown when I was going to press it, so using a fusible interfacing was not an option. To be honest I've never felt happy with fusible interfacing anyway. For the new collar I decided to make it more shaped and to use some kind of support that I could attach by sewing it on.

First thing was to create a pattern for the collar. I simply put a piece of tracing paper around the neckhole and drew the outline.

From that outline I drew a wider shape, that I wanted. This only served as a guideline though. This first shape was too angled didn't look good. I didn't take any photos of my mock ups, but in the end I cut out a piece of heavy canvas, left over from my 18th century stays, with no seam allowance. That was going to be the interfacing. Using that canvas as a new pattern I cut out two pieces of interlock, with seam allowance, and had these three pieces.

The interlock pieces are a bit longer than necessary, since they are going to overlap at the back so I can add invisible snaps to them.

I sewed the interlock pieces together at the top, then I inserted the canvas between them and made sure to catch it with a row of top stitching.

At this point I had attached the hood to the neckline of the gown, and now I sewed the collar on over the hood. The hood is a trapezoid shape, and has a rolled hem that I sewed by hand. A good thing with the handstitching is that it's possible to take tread a hairpin through it, and that way you can invisibly attach the hood to your hair, which is great when you have a bad hair day and the buns refuse to behave.

The hood was gathered by hand before being attached.

On this photo of the gown inside out you can see that I left the raw edge visible on the inside of the neckhole. It's not my most beautiful work, but the fabric doesn't ravel, and since I was having a fever when I did this I didn't have the energy to make it look good on the inside.

These final two pics shows the complete gown.

The lining is visible when it's backlit, but not when I'm wearig it under normal light. The sleeves and the gown is hemmed with a double hem on the machine.

Some more practical advice
Don't make the gown too wide or too long, that was a mistake I made with my first gown. Even if it blouses a bit, it shouldn't do it too much. Since I have quite a big difference in width between my wasit and my bust and hips I simply made the gown just a bit bigger than my biggest measurement, the hips, and that is enough to make it blouse at the waist. As for the length it just reaches down to my feet.

As mentioned previously you can use an elastic or gathers at the waist to give it more shape.

Don't forget to add a slit that goes just above the knee. I did and had to rip it up on this gown.

The hood should cover the belt in the back, so be long enough to reach your butt.

If you have fair skin, the most invisible underwear is actually to wear something that is bright red! The white and red blends together and is more invisible than nude or white underwear.

Costume info

Costume: Classic Princess Leia gown
Fabric: 5 m thin white polyester interlock
Notions: white sewing thread, a scrap of cotton canvas, two clear plastic snaps for closure
Accuracy: There are more exact replicas out there of this gown, but anyone who sees this will recognize it as Princess Leia, I'd say 80%. The inaccuracy mostly comes down to the choice of fabric.
Hours to make: 10, most of that was the hemming of the hood and the collar.
Cost: $23 (the fabric cost $4/m)

Princess Leia cinnamon buns hair

After the last blog post I came down with a bad cold and had to stay at home doing nothing for two days, that's why I didn't get the blog post up about what I was working with. I still haven't taken good photos of it, so it will have to wait. I can say though that it is a brand new classic senatorial princess Leia gown. Despite not feeling well I managed to finish it and wear it to the last troop, for me, of the year. And what a troop, but more on that will come when the photos start to crop up.

I was happy with the dress, and for the first time ever I was really happy with my cinnamon buns hairstyle, and I tried to document the way I did it.

Leia's hairstyle is one of the most iconic film hairstyles out there, and also what I've struggled with the most as long as I've done this costume. I've had problems with the buns being too big, too uneven, too droopy (looking more like spaniel ears than hairbuns), so this was the first time that I felt that I didn't have to pin the hood up to hide them.

First of all I would say though that if I don't think this is the best way of doing the hairstyle, I would like to buy a short, but parted wig, and then attach two loose buns to that wig, now instead I have a very long wig that I have to style every time I wear it.

This is where I start. One long, straight wig, two small balls of hair and a lot of hairpins.

The hairballs are fairly small, look at the hairpin for reference. One of my previous problems have been that I have started with hairball that were too big. These ones are simply some wefts of loose hair twisted and formed into shape with two or three long hairpins in the back.

As for hairpins, I use three different kinds of hairpins.

The longest one is a wig hairpin. It's hard to open, so I can't get a lot of hair in it, but when I get it secured it holds the hair very well. I use that kind of pin for making the basic attachments, for example when attaching the hairballs to the rest of the wig. The middle pin is the best one for keeping loose strands of hair in shape. It can't hold any heavy weights, but is almost invisible, so I use a lot of them to make sure that the finished buns don't fall apart. The smallest pin is my favorite for both attaching and shaping the hair, but you can't only use them since they are too short to secure thick strands of hair. It has taken me a while to get a feeling for what kind of hairpin is best for which function, and I need all kinds of hairpins to keep the hairstyle in shape. Also I've learnt that it's better to use fewer pins, but put them in the right position, as compared to using a bunchload of them.

The first step when I've put the wig on is to attach the small hairballs, that are going to form the foundation for the hairbuns. I try to put them just above my ear, and I make sure that they are securely fastened with both a hairclip and some hairpins. I put the hairball behind all of the hair of the wig.

The next step is to twist the long hair of the wig. I twist it fairly hard. A previous mistake of mine has been to not twist the hair hard enough. It is going to loosen up when it's put in place, so it is best to have it tightly twisted from start. My problem with droopy hairbuns can usually be traced back to them not being twisted tight enough.

Then I take the twisted hair and pull it under the hairball towards the back, and back towards the front over the hairball.

The last bit goes under the hairball again, and my wig is long enough that the tips can be tucked in behind the ear. Take a look at the reference photo I posted, the original hairstyle doesn't consist of row upon rows of hair. This is a step that would be easier with a third hand, but I just put enough pins on in this stage that the hairbuns stays in position. At this stage on your second bun you also need to check that you have managed to make it uniform with the first one. When it looks good it's time to start adding a lot more hairpins, both to keep them in shape, and make sure that there aren't too many loose strands of hair. The original hairstyle was kept in check with hairnets, they are visible on some photos, but I haven't found hairnets that have been big enough to handle the size of the buns. Thankfully it's also totally screen accurate to have a bit of frizz around the hairstyle, especially after she has been in the trash compactor. You can even see her adjusting the bottom of her hairbuns when she comes out of the trash compactor. My experience is that it is usually the bottom that needs some more pins to keep it nice and tight.

This last photo shows a lot of frizzy hair, but it was also taken after two full days of trooping. I managed to make the hairbuns sturdy enough that they could handle the wig getting taken off, and placed on a portable wig stand, and then put on again. I just had to add a couple of more hairpins the next day.

You can also see that a bit of my own hair has peeked through a bit. I have a problem in that my own hair at the moment is bright red, and it's hard to get it all in under the wig. I'm using a bit of my regular make up foundation cream to mask my own hair. The red gets dulled down enough that it looks brown from a distance, and I don't have to worry about temporary hair dyes or hair mascaras.

Craft café

Tonight I did something really nice, I went to a craft café. One of the shops at the mine is run by a craft cooperative, and the lady that is a fulltime seamstress has started to have craft cafés. It was really nice sitting in their shop, which is a mix of shop and workspace, around a big table just doing some handywork. Sure I was the youngest, but since most of the talk was about sewing that didn't matter. It was nice with a mix of things, one lady made a shirt/chemise for her folk costume, another made a hamster out of scrap pieces. I managed to almost finish a hem for a project that I'm hoping to have finished by tomorrow or Wednesday.

The craft cafés are going to continue in the spring, I'm definitely going to go to more of them.

Con report, SSGFC Stockholm, November 29

I hadn't really planned on going to this con, after all I trooped at Comic-Con and felt that it might be nice to have a weekend off. Well then we realised that my nephew has outgrown me, and that means that he can't wear the jawa costume much more, and I had promised to let him come with me to a con. Thanks to my very nice sister and brother-in-law we came up with a solution that meant that they drove me and the nephew to Stockholm, spent the day doing some Christmas shopping, and then drove us back to Falun again. In hindsight I'm very happy about this, because I had a lot of fun. It meant that I was only there for one day, so this is just about the trooping on Saturday.

The Nordic Legions' stand was one of the main attractions at the con, as usual.

Behind the scenes a few of us rebels had decided to bring cookies and candy, I supplied the saffron cookies and the homemade energy bars.

First thing I did was to show the nephew around, and then help him get dressed in the jawa costume. I also dressed up in my Endor trooper. In this video you can see our first parade, it's just a glimpse of me but the nephew gets some screen time.

I didn't manage to find any photos of the big group, but after the main photo some of us rebels decided to have some fun and take Christmas-themed photos.

 I will post more about my lovely impersonation of a Christmas tree, closer to Christmas. Then it was time to switch costume, because I was scheduled to be in the photostand as Endor Leia. Compared to Vader an Endor Leia and two bikers don't attract a lot of people though. I had rebraided my wig for Endor Leia, and tried to make the braids that I put on the crown of the head longer. I think it worked ok, but I want to make them fatter, which might be solved by just putting the leather ribbon on them.

As seen in this pic the braids had slipped back a bit. I'm also starting to feel that the wig is too dark for Leia, it might actually be time to invest in a wig that is a bit lighter. I'd say this colour is closer to Padmé than to Leia.

After Leia it was time to quickly change into Amidala for the second parade. I also helped the nephew into his costume.

And there we are costuming together! I really enjoyed bringing him to troop with me, so I hope liked it enough so that he wants to have a costume of his own. If you saw my post about the Amidala make up you also saw that I had changed my headpiece. The new headpiece is the reason for the veil not staying exactly where it should, but it was so nice being able to troop without getting a headache. This is probably the most fun I've had in my Amidala. The reason why I brought the Amidala is that I finally had the chance to go together with a handmaiden, since Lora had come up from Denmark and brought her handmaiden costume with her.

We also took this pure Episode I photo.

After this parade we once again decided to make some fun photos. First it was the Rebels only group photo.

In this photo we actually have members, and younglings, from all four countries of the Nordic Base. Then it was family photo time, and with family we of course meant the Skywalker family, including the family dog and mummy's body double.

The Skywalker family, so happy together

The con was finished off with a mother-daughter selfie

And then it was just about time to undress and pack all things back into the bags and drive back. I actually manage to have all costumes in one large suitcase and the Endor backpack, it's great with a costume that includes a proper bag.

Next troop will be December 12-14 in Uppsala, to help gather money for Musikhjälpen. I'm not really sure what costumes I should bring, since it very much depends on the weather forecasts, it's outside. I'm guessing jawa and Endor Leia. I would love to wear the Endor trooper, but I feel that when you wear it out of context it looks too much like an actual soldier and people might misunderstand it.

The cutest and best costumer of the con goes to Cesar though. He didn't just have a great costume, made by his father, but had all the moves and actions down perfectly. Quite a few troopers got force choked by him during the con.