JSmails semi-accurate ROTJ Boba WIP

Gregory, thanks for the reply!

I really wish I would have asked before. A side seam/closure would make it much easier. Damn.

I'm about to try sewing some elastic on the back, so he can put it on like a T-shirt, then the elastic will snap it back into place. That's my thinking anyway.

I was looking at the gloves before I saw your post. Deconstructing the gloves doesn't look like a lot of fun. I may just glue the pieces on and be done with it. :)

If you have a source for tackle twill I'd like to know where. I'm heading to Jo-Ann's tomorrow, and if need be, Hancock fabrics. And finally Hobby Lobby if those two don't produce anything.

Anyone have an SKU for tackle twill to get at any of those places? Thanks for the help!
 
I think the elastic idea is a good one. I wonder if anyone has made the flack vest from stretch material for this reason? As long as the elastic ends up hidden it should be great.

I didn't know about the tackle-twill before I started my suit, so I can't help there. I did get my white cotton muslin at JoAnne's, and I think I got enough to also make the flack vest. I used a pajama pattern for the suit. One thing I didn't do was pre-wash the material before I sewed it together, so it's tight and I'll have to add some material to the waist to make it longer and also and the arm and leg cuffs, made a big difference. I guess I should have followed the instructions in the patterns! I also couldn't find it in gray so I dyed it with the Rit Pearl Silver which was just right.

I know that tackle-twill is specified, but honestly I'm ok with my muslin material. It's lighter, and breathes more, which will help in summer costuming. If it wears out I might switch.

An idea for the gloves; you can get iron-on fabric adhesive, often called hem tape. Some is permanent and some washes out, so read the package if you go that route.
 
Okay. So it seems I sewed on the shoulders backwards. The round part should contour to the shoulder and the flat part goes around the arm.

I REALLY need to triple-check my references before doing anything from here on out. I'm glad this is a mock-up and proof of concept that I can do it. Now I need to find some tackle twill and give it another shot.
 
I went to Hobby Lobby today. In the twill section they didn't have anything resembling something shiny. I checked the seasonal and there was some shiny stuff. They had Ivory and white. I figured ivory for the flak and white for the neck seal.

When I got them home, they were way thinner than what I was expecting. To thicken the front and make it a bit tougher so I can attach snaps to it, I sewed a white muslin backing to the front piece. 4 hours later, I have the new vest.

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Nice and shiny.

Lots more to do. I think I'll get back to the gauntlets tomorrow. They aren't going to make themselves! :)
 
Neck seal today using the ladysewforus tutorial. The only thing I'd change from her tutorial is to maybe add 4 or 5 inches instead of only 3 to your neck. I tried to make this for me, which my son can certainly use then, but it came up a little short. It'll definitely work for him, but it won't fit me, which was my goal.

Also when sewing the Velcro, make sure to go all the way down to the end of the white or beyond. If you are going to wear the seal incorrectly, with the Velcro in back, this won't matter. But if you are wearing it correctly, in front (which is stupid) then you need to make it close all the way down or people will see your neck. I had to go back and sew on some more Velcro.

I used my material I had for the vest for the Dickie. This will create all one color if anything gets above the armor.

A couple of pics.

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Last update on this. I did decide to use heat bond tape to get rid of the hem line on the collar and the bottom of the vest. I couldn't stand the look of it and it ended up being a 20 minute fix, so I did it.

This should conclude my work on the vest and neck seal. Now that I have a vest, I can work on the armor I think.

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Realizing I probably have to do the neck seal yet again, and it's going to be COLD the next 2 weeks, I worked on the gauntlets again today. Right gauntlet specifically.

I'm not reinventing the wheel with this. I saw it in another WIP and stole the idea. I made the back part out of wood, as it's going to bounce a lot because of the hose. I put 2 bolts through the wood, through the gauntlet, and bolted to a metal plate. Nice and Sturdy. The last pic is after 1 coat of bondo and sanding. I bought a B&D mouse sander with the extended foot. Amazing. It goes through sandpaper quickly though. Finally sanding bondo isn't an impossible job anymore. I HOPE to get the right gauntlet to be ready to paint tomorrow, then work on the left and get that ready so I can paint all at the same time.

Pics.

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Thanks. It certainly doesn't seem quick. Also, unless one has unlimited time on their hands, I'd advise against a DIY. It is UNBELIEVABLY time consuming. But, if you like putting things together from scratch, and want a project that takes a while to do, Fett is a great project. The resources here at TDH to do a good costume are unbelievable. So much giving of advice, and blue prints, and shortcuts, and WIP's, and how-to's, it's amazing.

For a Vader build, you basically order parts. And wait. For a TK build, again, you order parts, then custom fit them by cutting and gluing them together. For Fett, and Mando's in general, with the wealth of information here, you can basically put together every part yourself and, depending on your skills, make a decent to AMAZINGLY accurate costume.

With that said, I completed the gauntlets today. Just need to fix some velcro to close them. And buy a keypad. Then I have to build that damn rocket. But all the heavy lifting is done.

Can anyone link me a good DIY for the rocket? Most I've seen have just given up and bought a resin one. If someone has a link to a resin rocket at a decent price, I'd probably go that route. I haven't found any in the cargo hold, or on ebay, and the shapeways rockets are WAY more expensive than I'm willing to pay.

Anyone have dimensions for the rocket? Other than the tip, it shouldn't be too hard to build with some dimensions. I suppose I'll just look at pics and measure my left gauntlet, but I'm sure someone out there has the correct rocket dimensions. I may have to make a post as I know not everyone looks at every WIP.

Pics.....

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Right

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Left

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Any help with the rocket would be great! Thanks!
 
More updates and a how to....

I got some tackle twill from BatNinja. And I will say this right up front, what he charges for his flak vest is simply not enough. If I were doing a Boba Fett build for myself, I'd buy from him for sure. Creating a vest, while doable, is incredibly time consuming for a sewing hack like me. With screw ups etc. it took me about 5 hours to put a vest together for my son. The neck seal should have taken only an hour or so, but the closure on it has been tough.

Photobucket isn't being nice yesterday and today, so I'll see if I can get some pics and links. Hopefully this goes okay.

Anyway, here's the final flak and neck seal. I'll probably have him wear the seal "backwards". I think it looks better that way. I couldn't figure out a good closure and ended up just doing an overlap with 3 squares of velcro.

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Tutorial.

The only thing I don't like about the current neck seals is no pleating. There are clearly pleats on the neck seal. I don't think that can be disputed. Sewing puffy lines through the fabric and batting inside is a decent, and fast, way to simulate the pleating. The thing I couldn't figure out is how the seal closes. So I'm sure there's a better way than this, but here is how to get pleats for your neck seal.

First off, take your neck size and add 4 or 5 inches. The more you add, the looser, and nicer, the fit. To me, the seal looks like 3/4" pleats. I did mock ups with 1" pleats and it just doesn't look right to me. Here's how I did mine.

I cut out a rectangle of 22" (loose 18" neck) by 16 inches. The pleats themselves are going to take up 10 1/4".

I marked both sides at 5" and overlapped it, creating the first "peak" of the top pleat. I pinned that in place. Then I took my iron (set to 3) and steam and pressed the top pleat. Nice and crisp.

I went back to the Alvin board (get one if you don't have one. It's great for every project) and made 3 marks every 3/4" from the top pleat. The first mark will be where the second pleat has to end up. The second mark (not really necessary) is the valley fold, and the 3rd mark is the peak fold of our next pleat. Here's a pic:

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Pin the second pleat and fold/crease it.

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Take it to the ironing board. It should look like this:

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I fold the top pleat "under" to get the 2nd pleat onto the board itself. Then I press the second pleat with the steamy iron. Once that is crisp, I move the first pleat back into position, then I fold and line up the 2nd pleat with the mark on both sides. I remove the pin and pin the second pleat to the first. Then I press both pleats and valley pleats. (flipping it over). Here's a pic:

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(photobucket is being an absolute tool the past couple of days. I hope to get the photos rotated correctly, someday. Damn you photobucket. They have no problem serving up the ads though. My god)

Then you go back to the Alvin and mark your 3 dashes from the top of the second pleat on both sides. Pin and crease on the 3rd mark.

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Then you fold under pleat 1 and 2, and press the 3rd pleat. Line the 3rd pleat up with the mark at the bottom of pleat 2, pin to pleat 2, and press all pleats. Repeat until you have 5 pleats. It really doesn't take that long.

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Here's all 5 pleats pressed and pinned and ready to sew. Line up the part you folded over with each edge as that's going to be sewn in to create a pocket.

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Here's where I get lost, and where someone who knows what they are doing would probably do better.

I sewed the pleats together:

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With all the strings hanging off, I probably should have folded that under and hemmed it. I end up having to do that later.

Here it is flipped over and you can see the pocket that was created by sewing the pleats to the flipped part.
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Finally, fill the back pocket with batting and sew the pocket shut.

I have a lot of pics of where I sewed in the velcro etc., but I hated it. If I have it in front, I couldn't really look down as the velcro would push on my neck. I could wear it in back.

I finally went with 3 squares of velcro and an overlap. The dickie I tried to put on is horrible. I may have to look up a how to.

Here is the velcro before:

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VERY STIFF.

Here's the velcro after with only 3 squares.
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That isn't stiff at all. I'll probably have him wear it in back anyway.
 
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I have redone my neck seal twice now and I still hate it. Thank you for this now I have a good idea on what I should do next time I remake this thing.
 
I have redone my neck seal twice now and I still hate it. Thank you for this now I have a good idea on what I should do next time I remake this thing.


Thanks for looking, always happy to help!

To be accurate to one of the ROTJ displays in the gallery, the top has a little square or Velcro, but the stitching doesn't come through the front, like mine does. So that could be sewn on before closing the pocket or padding. Also, there are two (I think) hook clasps that keep the front closed. Those are hand sewn in I believe. If you are going for screen accurate. I'm going for semi-accurate. :)

I also would use more batting than I did if I was going to do it again. Not much more, just a little. Just to make the top of each pleat seem a little fatter.
 
Thanks so much for your kind words!

Nothing seems to be easy. I modded the jumpsuit by putting the front pockets on and the shin pockets. Then I tried dyeing it. The new parts didn't quite dye the same as the old. And it's much darker than I'd like even though I'm using pearl grey.

I had cut off one of the back pockets and tried to bleach that. Nothing. It was in a 1:1 cup of bleach/water for over an hour and didn't even move a single shade. With the jumpsuit, I may just have to say "it is what it is" and just go with it.

I I really thought this 100% cotton jumpsuit would be easier to dye/work with.

I'm going to try that pocket in 100% bleach and some salt and hope that moves the color a little.

I I have also painted all the armor except tha back and the cod. Unfortunately, too much pulled off. The yellow later didn't adhere to the silver later as good as I'd have liked. So I have to redo a couple of parts.

More pics next week as I'm heading out on vacation tomorrow.
 
This is the ab plate that I need to redo.

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The scratches from the EE3 worked out great on the left. It was quite unfortunate the entire right side peeled.
 
Well I found myself with a free 20 minutes, and I didn't want to have to worry about the paint my entire trip, do I decided to take the toothpaste off of everything I've painted to see where I'm at.

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I got lucky I guess. Everything stayed together except that GLARING ab plate. But at least I only need to redo the ab plate, not all of them.

No weathering yet in that pic, and the toothpaste is still pretty fresh. I'll wash the pieces, lightly, after I get back.

What do you all think? Good enough?

Thanks for looking!
 
Okay update. I'm still plugging along each and every day. It really is unreal how long this takes.

Anyway, I finally have the armor snapped to the vest.

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I used JB weld to put the snaps on the back of the armor and only most of them have pulled off so far. The Line24 snaps from Tandy flat out HOLD. I probably should have used the smaller line20 snaps. The snaps that have pulled off I put back on with JB Weld SteelStick. That dries way faster anyway.

Going forward, I have to get the butt and cod lined up and situated. Thanks for the great ideas in my other thread. I have to get the back armor to play nice with the collar. And I have to weather the decals I got from DeLucks designs.

Always more to do, but I am at least a step closer.
 
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