Star Wars TFA Rey costume master list

I'm not planning on doing a Rey costume for myself, so I haven't researched it. I have seen a lot of questions asked about the costume though, so I figured I could make a master list of resources that I can link to.

First of all this is aobut the Rey main Rey costume, not the one she wears in the end scene. Secondly I'm sure that there are great tutorials out there, and builds that show how to make a decent Rey costume, I'm going to focus on the research and threads from The Replica Prop Forum and Rebel Legion.

As of now there are no finished standards for the costume in  Rebel Legion, it can be submitted and accepted for membership though. It's just no clear instruction on what parts are the minimum requirements.

Links

Rebel Legion Image Reference and standards discussion - This is the best thread for reference images. It has a lot of very detailed photos in the first posts. These are the photos you should use for references when doing the costume. Also a good tutorial for the wrist leather strap.

Rey tutorial - Dawn had the first RL approved Rey, and in this thread she and Lisa has a lot of discussions on choice of fabric and construction. Lisa is a great source, since she actually worked with the effects for the films and had access to images long before they were public.

Rey WIP thread - Puck who made this thread is from the Netherlands, so she's using materials that you can get hold of in Europe. In this thread you can also at least find patterns for the headwrap and the belt.

Rey at RPF.com - The Replica Prop Forum has a monster thread about Rey, it's 76 pages long as of today. There is a lot of information there, but some of it is wrong. Make sure that you read all of the thread, as well as the other ones in order to make correct choices.

Materials

The costume was exhibited at Celebration Anaheim and at the display there was a list of materials used

Wrap dress - viscose
Head wrap - cotton
Top - hemp and cotton jersey
Trousers - silk
Backpack - leather
Wrist cuff and belt - leather
Pouch - canvas
Arm wraps - cotton
Gloves - leather
Boots - wool and leather
Staff - 3D print

The boots have been identified and are: the "Piper V Dark Brown" boots by Po-Zu. (a UK Company)

Planning ahead for 2016

So with all the looking back on 2015 posts done it's time to lock ahead to 2016 and what I'm planning to do.

The main costume event that I'm planning for, and might have a deadline for, is Star Wars Celebration in London in July. For that I would like to have an easy to pack and comfortable costume and my goal is to have finished an X-wing pilot costume until then. I picked up a helmet and chestbox in Anaheim last year so I have started to get stuff together for the costume. Most of the costume will be bought, I guess that's why I don't really feel a lot of inspiration, it feels so simple just being able to order things and then wait for delivery. Still the shopping list for the costume is fairly long, so I need to spread out the expenses over a few months.

Other Star Wars costumes I might do...I need to decide if I want to make a proper General Leia from TFA, or if I want to make the blue dress from TFA. This might have to do be decided by trooping opportunities ahead. There is also the Star Wars Rogue One film coming in December, but so far I haven't seen any photos that make me want to make a costume from it, but you never know.

For historical costumes I'm starting to feel that I'm getting the 18th century wardrobe that I want to have. I am still missing a pair of pocket hoops and a pet en l'air or robe à la francaise. I have the fabric for the pet already, and if I first make a pet I can then use my experiences to make a francaise later on.

Over the last few months I've started to seriously think about making an early 16th century German gown. I've loved this fashion for a long time, and I think the velvet that I dyed, but wasn't happy with the colour, for the gold handmaiden would be perfect for a Cranach gown. I need to see how much velvet there is, but I'm hoping it will be enough for a gown. There is a big medieval fair at the end of May in Leksand, so I'm thinking that would be a good deadline for that project.

And then there are the Historical Sew Monthly challenges for 2016,

• January –  Procrastination – finish a garment you have been putting off finishing (a UFO or PHD) or make something you have been avoiding starting

I have some linen in the stash, and I really need at least one new 18th century chemise, but I've put off doing it since, well the ones I have make do, and it's boring to make chemises. So a chemise it is.

• February – Tucks & Pleating – make a garment that features tucks and pleating for the shape or decoration

To start the 16th century gown I need a shift, and I want to make a smocked shift, meaning that I need to learn how to smock.

• March – Protection – make something to protect yourself (from weather or injury) or your clothes (from soiling etc.)

No idea, but maybe an apron or a pair of mittens?

• April – Gender-Bender – make an item for the opposite gender, or make an item with elements inspired by the fashions of the opposite gender

No idea here either.

• May – Holes – sometimes the spaces between stuff are what makes a garment special.  Make a garment that is about holes, whether it is lace, slashing, eyelets, etc.

I want to finish the 16th century gown here, and go all in for slashed sleeves.

• June – Travel – make a garment for travelling, or inspired by travel.

I'm thinking that maybe learn how to make a pair of gloves would fit with this.

• July – Monochrome – make a garment in black, white, or any shade of grey in between.

No idea.

• August – Pattern – make something in pattern, the bolder and wilder the better.

The fabric that I have for the pet en l'air is patterned, but it's not exactly bold or wild.

• September – Historicism – Make a historical garment that was itself inspired by the fashions of another historical period.

No set plans.

• October – Heroes – Make a garment inspired by your historical hero, or your historical costuming hero.

I would like to do a headwear for the 16th century gown for this, since I'm drawing inspiration for the whole project from an actual historical person.

• November – Red – Make something in any shade of red.

Red is not my colour, I don't have anything red in my stash so I will need to buy some fabric for it.

• December – Special Occasion: make something for a special event or a specific occasion, or that would have been worn to special event of specific occasion historically.

No idea

So by seeing this list it's pretty clear that I don't have much inspiration for the challenges this year, it was easier last year. I'm very happy that I did the full set of challenges in 2015, but I think in 2016 I won't stress about meeting them. I'm hoping to do as many as possible though, and I like how I've used the challenges to create smaller things and accessories and finishing touches. Those don't need to be planned far in advance either.

So to summarize here is my planned costume list of the year:

Star Wars

X-wing pilot

TFA Leia

16th century

16th century gown including underwear

18th century

chemise

pocket hoops

pet en l'air

HSM 2015 recap

Even if we are into 2016 I'm not quite done with the 2015 recap yet. Now it's time to go through what I did for the HSM challenges.

I'm proud to say that I finished all the challenges, and in time as well. I even made one extra thing, so I did 13 HSM challenges. Going through my projects I can see that I haven't done much of really big projects that have fitted with the HSM challenges, but HSM is important for me to take the time and do those little extra things and accessories that are needed to complete a wardrobe, after all a costume is more than a bodice and petticoat. Not making a lot of big things also meant that I didn't stress too much about them, since I was sure that I could come up with something to do. HSM is also good for my stash, since I've mostly worked with stash material, and it's always good to make room for new fabrics. Right...

Going into 2015 here were my plans for the HSM:

#1 foundations - make a pair of 18th century stays
#2 blue - a muff
#3 stashbusting - ?
#4 war and peace - ?
#5 practicality - a petticoat or a shortgown
#6 out of your comfort zone - draping and making a pet en l'air
#7 accessorize - a fichu
#8 heirlooms and heritage - refit my folk costume
#9 brown - a pierrot jacket
#10 sewing secrets - ?
#11 silver screen - finish Queen Elsa
#12 re-do - ?

And here is what I did:

January - #1 foundations - The Desert Rose Stays

outside

lining

Even if they ended up a bit big in the bust, I still love the silhouette I get from them and will rely on them as my main 18th century stays.

February - #2 blue - the Blueberry muff

March - #3 stashbusting - The handmaiden cloche hat

I love this cloche. This is my most worn piece that I've made this year, and I've used it for everyday wear throughout the autumn.

April - #4 war and peace - the three quarter tricorne

If hat nr1 (the cloche) was my favorite project, this is probably my least favorite project. I was never happy with the result, and I'm definitely wondering if I'm ever going to wear it. Maybe it's salvageable with some trim.

May - #5 practicality - the Edwardian corset cover and shirtwaist

The hat I'm wearing was my third hat of the year, if you keep count.

June - #6 out of your comfort zone - a late 18th century bodice pattern

I didn't get time, or energy, to make the pet en l'air that I had planned, but I did take my time to draft a bodice pattern from scratch, so that I had something I could use for future 18th century garments.

July - #7 accessorize - The Daisy hat

I didn't make a fichu as planned instead for hat nr 4 of the year I remade the Edwardian hat into a big, really big, maybe too big, 18th century silk covered bergére hat.

August - #8 heirlooms and heritage - refitting my folk costume

I'm so happy that I now have a folk costume that actually fits, so I don't feel like a big cow wearing it.

September - #9 brown - the pierrot jacket

If the cloche hat was my most worn thing, this is probably my favorite of the year, even if I haven't worn it yet. I'm so happy with how it looks and fits.

October - #10 sewing secrets - the Dalecarlian pocket

I took the chance to hide some dye stains, hide a simpler and coarser fabric and embellish the pocket with some Dalecarlian runes, that most people today can't read. A lot of secrets in such a small little pocket.

November - #11 silver screen - the Demelza cap

Hat, or rather headwear, nr 5 was a small little practical but still stylish cap. Taking inspiration from the fact that you hardly ever see proper headwear in historical films or TV productions.

December - #12 re-do - a cap and the blueberry cape

The cap was headwear nr 5 and a well needed addition, so I can cover my hair instead of making a big hairdo when dressing in 18th century clothing, and the cap was a fun little project making use of the very last remnants of the cotton velvet that I had used for both the muff and tricorne earlier in the year.

So to summarize my HSM  year was a year of small projects, but I did finish them all. Now it's time to start planning what to do in 2016.

Costume recap of 2015

It's time to look back at 2015 and see what I did. This will be about my main projects, I will make a separate post about the HSM challenges that I finished.

First though here were my plans for 2015:

Star Wars
Gold Handmaiden
Tusken female
Possible a TFA costume

18th century
pair of stays
pet en l'air
pierrot jacket
pocket hoops

19th century
possible a black bodice

Other
Queen Elsa

The tusken female and Queen Elsa remains in the UFO pile, even if I did work a bit on the mask of the tusken. I ran out of time to make a pet en l'air, but I did use that time to draft a basic 18th century bodice pattern. I did decide to move the pocket hoops to this year instead. The black bodice was a maybe, so I wasn't even close to starting it.

All in all when I look back at the year I think I'm going to call this the year of hats, counting back I I've made four hats and two caps, even if two of the hats were made on the same base and just a matter of redecorating. I've also done a lot more accessories, but those will come in the HSM recap.

My costume year follows a program where spring is historical costuming, and autumn is Star Wars, this was made different this year due to Star Wars Celebration being held in April.

Well enough writing, now I will go on with the costumes and my favorite photos from 2015.

The gold handmaiden was my main project of the year. It was a lot of time and money that went into it, and even if I'm already thinking about improvements I was really happy with it.

In the winter I also got invited to take part in the 100 year celebration of the Swedish Railway Museum. It was fun being able to bring up most of what I needed from what I had in the wardrobe, but I did add a corset cover and blouse, and trimmed up a straw hat.

Me and some of the ladies from the Swedish 19th and 20th century societies, and ArtyAnna as a steampunk chimney sweeper, made quite an impression when we were walking around in a group.

A new experience for me was a visit to NärCon Summer. For this I took the chance to do something totally new, and that was my My Little Pony cospaly of Rariy.

I did some changes to the Rarity for Comic Con. The dress was not the easiest to sew, but it's good to have a comfy con costume to run around in. The wig makes it warm, but otherwise it's really nice. I should upgrade it with some pony years though.

The other big thing was get together in Stockholm for the most fake 18th century clothing that you could think of. I loved my totally over the top style that I did, and it was really funny just doing something for the looks and not having to worry about accuracy in any way. I'm pretty proud of having been finally fulfilled my dream of wearing a big aircraft carrier on my head.

I did get a chance to make a proper serious 18th century photo shoot as well in the summer, now with my brand new Kensington shoes, and a new petticoat for my late 18th century wardrobe.

Going into the autumn I finished my main historical projects by doing a pierrot jacket in brown. I still haven't had time to wear it, but I'm really happy with it, this was also the first really fitted handsewn garment that I made, meaning that I had to trust my seams to hold up for strain. For this jacket I also used a bodice pattern that I had drafted from scratch in the summer. I was also really happy when I realised that I could make a sleeve that actually fit. The major thing I discovered was that it's much easier to adjust two piece sleeves than one piece sleeves, so from now on I will probably work with two piece sleeves.

With the jacket done I packed away my historical garments and went back to Star Wars costumes. I continued with the HSM 15 challenges, but I'm going to make a separate post with all the small things I made for that.

It started to feel that the premiere of the new Star Wars film was getting nearer, and with Björn in Nordic Base doing a TFA Han Solo I decided to make a TFA Leia. At this time there were really few reference photos around, but I did my best and was really happy with the result that I could wear for the first time at the Stockholm Comic-Con in October. This was also my first time making a jumpsuit, so that was something new that I learnt.

I must say that this photo of me and Björn as Han and Leia is probably my favorite photo of me in costume of the year. When we took the photo we didn't know why they looked so worried in the shot from the trailer, now after having seen the film and knowing what's going on I like it even more.

Then suddenly in November I realised that I had finished all the main projects of the year, that I was going to finish. It felt really strange to not have something to stress about. So I decided to upgrade my Endor Rebel Trooper with a vest. With the release of the game Star Wars:Battlefront I had noticed that the ERT was more recognized even on its own, and most of the troopers in the game seem to have the vest.

Without the vest, but in front of the battlefront backdrop at comic-con

The last big thing of the year was of course the premiere of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, with meant around 40 hours of Star Wars madness, and most of them in costume. 

Runner up favorite costume photo of the year

So with that lets recap my 2015 costume list.

Star Wars
Gold Handmaiden - done
Tusken female - UFO
Possible a TFA costume - done

18th century
pair of stays - done
pet en l'air - not done
pierrot jacket - done
pocket hoops - not  done

19th century
possible a black bodice - not done

Other
Queen Elsa - still in the UFO pile

Unplanned costumes that happened
Edwardian shirtwaist and small bumpad
My Little Pony - Rarity
new 18th century petticoat
Endor Rebel Trooper Vest

Skills that I've learnt this year

The first one was to dye fabric. I thought dyeing was really fun, even if I still can't get exactly the shade I want I'm looking forward to dyeing more things in the future.

The other one is that I've started to handsew more and more of my historical garments, and even if I don't have the most beautiful seams they are holding up well enough, this is really a matter of practise and more practise and eventually it will look good.

I have made a sleeve pattern that fits!

A smaller thing that I've taken up more and more is to work with wigs and hair. The big difference came when I ordered my new wig for Leia, and saw what a difference it was to work with a lacefront wig. With my own hair I've gotten more and more confident as well and now I actually enjoy doing pincurls and seeing what the hair will end up looking like.

End thoughts

Looking into my wardrobe I feel that I'm starting to get the 18th century wardrobe that I've wanted, and now I have quite a few pieces that can be combined in different ways, meaning that I'm probably going to venture into some new eras with historical costumes in the coming year.

As for Star Wars I really love dressing up as the older Leia, but I think when it comes to newer costumes I will try to look into more generic background characters. I think my most worn SW costumes this year was my Endor Rebel Trooper and the jawa, and they are both easy to pack and really comfy for running around at conventions.

Favorite costume photos of 2013

When you are finished with your costume, a lot of costuming is about posing for pictures and having fun with your friends. This is simply a collection of my favorite photos of me in costume 2013, I'm not going to wear any more costumes this year, but I'm really looking forward to 2014..

10. Me as a female Santa during the traditional Christmas market at work

9. Trying to go bowling in costume had its challenges, but nothing that couldn't be helped with some help from a friend

8. The first ever photo of two A-wing pilots, with A-wing helmets, together.

7. Snow White reading a book about occultism

6. Come taste a sweet Gingerbread jawa

5. It's important to match the colour of the robe with the surroundings

4. A (speeder) bike babe is both hot and cool

d

3. The fun you can have with friends in costume

d

2. Drama in blue and silver underground

d

1. Bringing joy to the children

The last picture isn't the best of my costume, but whenever people wonder why I spend a lot of money on going to places and dressing up, then I can just show this picture and the smile of that girl when she got to meet a real space princess and hero.