Starting the Last Jedi Leia

With around a month to go until the premiere of the film I really need to start working on it. I have started on a mockup for the coat. I'm going for the grey version, with a distinctly patterned fabric and a lower standing collar, compared to the more dramatic brown version.

Since I'm interested in historical costumes as well I tend to find inspiration from history, and the TLJ Leia coat has screamed mid-16th Century loose gown for me.

Margareta Eriksdotter Leijonhufvud (1516-1551)

Margareta Eriksdotter (Vasa), dead 1536 Copy after: Mäster Hillebrand

Then I found a photo of this extant dress 

garment of Margaretha Francizka Lobkowicz née Dietrichstein, 1st half of the 17th centuryRegional Museum, Mikulov

It has the open, hanging sleeves and the dramatic collar, so it just screams TLJ coat inspiration to me.

With inspiration from this time period I opened up my "Creating historical clothes" and used their pattern for a 16th century loose gown as the basis for my mock-up.

I changed the neckline in the front though to continue as a straight edge from the center front, this gives the collar a large lapel.

I trimmed the collar down and curved it to match the references.

There was a crease going from the shoulder seam and all the way to the front though, so I added a dart that continued up from the shoulder seam.

I was very happy when I found this reference photo that shows that there is a continues seam, from the sleeve, over the shoulder and up all the way to the collar.

I still want to tweak the collar a bit, but then it's on to the sleeves.

One thing that is guesswork at this time is the back. I don't know if there are any seams there at all. At this moment I'm going to treat the back as one large piece, if we get a reference for the back it's easier to add the seams in later, than if I make seams and it turns out that they aren't there.