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[RoboEmma]

Phew, it's been several years since I've started a Mandalorian costume from scratch. The exhilaration still feels the same!

While I wasn't a fan of Sabine's character design initially, I've since warmed to the character; they gave us a female Mandalorian who is a main character; it just seems wrong to not have the costume! I'm also very eager to see how her armor design progresses in the show, and I'd like to have what I can of the costume built and ready for if/when we see her don a more heavily-armored version.

I've gotten pretty terrible at posting WIPs, so I am going to try extra hard to make something of this thread and document my build process. I think I'm going to attempt to make her from plastic, a material I've never much worked with before (I dove head first into aluminum with my custom kit), so it'll be a learning process for me, too.

I have several other costume projects in the works at the moment (an x-wing pilot taking precedence), so this will probably be a slow build. I'll update as I progress.

Anyways. Sabine.



I started by digging out the duct tape model I made a couple years ago; it isn't a perfect fit, but it's helpful for general shaping. I like to start with fabric sometimes when I template, especially when I'm working with curves, since you can easily manipulate darts and pin out extra areas that need to be cut away. Then I took a pen and roughed out the outline of the armor.



Cut out the fabric pattern. Test fit it on myself. Did a bit more drawing on the outline.



Then I cut out the extra fabric in between where the two legs of the dart met and transferred the pattern to paper. I've taped the dart edges back together to show the general shape; when laid flat, the pattern has a big, wedge-shaped triangle cut out of it. Depending on how busty you are, your dart will be bigger or smaller. I'm on the bustier-side, so I'll have extra work on my hands later when I have to get rid of the nasty Madonna-point the dart forms. Not pictured is me trying on the paper pattern and pinching out more of the dart and modifying the outline. I did this about 4 times, and tweaked it until I was happy with it and the curvature fit me correctly.



Finally, trying on the tweaked paper pattern. I'm pretty pleased with it. But I'm sure I'll change it eight more times before the final one where I add details like a diamond cut-out.



Will hopefully have time for more templating this weekend.

[Parjii Saviin]

Oh I"m liking it! Would I be able to ask you for a template for the sabine? I can't wait to see the final results!

[RoboEmma]

Oh I"m liking it! Would I be able to ask you for a template for the sabine? I can't wait to see the final results!

I'm custom drafting these, and I don't plan to upload them anywhere (I don't really have the scanning/sizing know-how), but an already-approved Sabine costumer actually already offers templates here: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Downloadable-Sabine-armor-templates-483881333


I've made some more progress so far this weekend! I decided to pattern Sabine's soft parts from scratch.

Started by sketching, as always. I made the call to pattern Sabine's shirt as a leotard, to help it to stay tucked in the pants and prevent bunching.



I actually started drafting a leotard for another costume early this last summer, so I had the basis already set out for me.



In this picture you can see my first basic leotard mock-up, and all the correction markings I've made on it. About to modify and add detail to the pattern.



I've gotten in the habit of making mock-ups in order to judge fit and where my patterns are working/not working. Thankfully, I had extra fabric of the kind I need for Sabine already laying around from a previous project to make rough samples out of. Here I'm test fitting the paneling Sabine's shirt has and doing final fit corrections.



Finally, made all my adjustments and created the final pattern draft for Sabine's shirt. Now I just need the real fabric (in black and grey) to arrive!

[Kavryn Falco]

Aaaand this is why I will never be Sabine.

"I'll just draft me up a leotard," she says.

"What is this magic!?!" I says.

 

It looks awesome.

[RoboEmma]

Aaaand this is why I will never be Sabine.

"I'll just draft me up a leotard," she says.

"What is this magic!?!" I says.

 

It looks awesome.

Haha! To be fair, I used to just feel my way through patterning (with varying degrees of success), but at this point, I've actually been trained (I'm a junior in a 4-year apparel/fashion design program).

[Tyno Krast]

Good to see you back in the saddle again!

Pay attention boys and girls (mostly girls). 

[RoboEmma]

Drafted up some armor pieces. In all these years of costuming, this is the first piece of sintra I've ever owned. Weird.



Ended up cutting it out with a hand saw. Our dremel had a short! D:



Work area of the day. Working on commissions at the same time...



First attempt at forming. Just put the plates in the oven (not going to attempt the chest plates until I have more supplies). I have access to a heat gun set up for next weekend, so I can do some refining (I will not stand for warpy edges or uneven plates! ). So far, I miss the deliberateness of metalwork! Plastic feels so finicky.



More work next weekend!

[jinstarkiller]

You are off to a good start ......nice progress ........keep it up

[Kavryn Falco]

Looking good!  Any particular reason you didn't go with metal for this one?

[RoboEmma]

Looking good!  Any particular reason you didn't go with metal for this one?

Well, for metal, I don't usually work anything thicker than 18 gauge; that's well and fine for a custom kit, but Sabine's armor has some noticeable thickness to it, and if I'm going for exact accuracy, I need to use at least a 3mm thickness material (our CRLS also require that for her). Also, this is just a good excuse to learn to work plastic! The more skills I have in my costuming arsenal, the more costumes and projects I can attempt.

[Kavryn Falco]

Aha, I see.  Well, sintra's not THAT hard to work with once you get used to it.

[RoboEmma]

Aha, I see.  Well, sintra's not THAT hard to work with once you get used to it.

If I've learned anything from costuming, it's if I bash my head against it long enough and enough times, I will eventually learn it.

Question for those stumbling across this thread: I'll go with my gut in the end, but I want to get some opinions; what color is Sabine's hair? I'm about to start wig shopping, but I'm torn between how it appears on screen, and what it's attempting to represent. I'm tempted to buy a black wig for her, even though her hair appears blue. Given the artistic style direction of the show, I believe they just use the color navy to represent black hair. So do I buy a navy wig and go with the exact screen appearance, or do I take artistic license and decide that that navy actually translates to black in real life, and buy a black wig because it would appear more realistic? Either way, I'll have to add the orange highlights, but I'm so torn. :/ I'm leaning towards black, but if I can find a black wig with a barely-there navy sheen, that would be ideal I suppose. Not sure that exists, though. /thinks aloud

Thoughts?

[Vi Caeirn-Atiin]

I know some wigs (like this one) have blue and black mixed in the hair. But I don't know if they look like what you're looking for.

[RoboEmma]

I know some wigs (like this one) have blue and black mixed in the hair. But I don't know if they look like what you're looking for.

Oh, that's pretty good! I could try looking for that sort of color in the styles I need. Neat. Good to know the option's out there.

[Jorad Werde]

Watching this thread with interest.  Every clan is going to need a Sabine in the coming months.  I've been half jokingly discussing making myself a sabine (i'm a guy) just to fill that gap since both of our current female OMs are moving (military).  But I digress, amazing work, jealous of your draping and patterning skills.  Also, in answer to the hair question.  It seems to be black with hints of blue, indigo, and orange. 

[Arch]

Vhe's making a Sabine? Yayayayayay! Your progress looks awesome.

Sabine's hair definitely seems ultimately blue to me, but "animation-versus-real" is tricky, as you've mentioned! It's entirely possible that her hair is meant to be black, but they brought it more toward blue so that it will stand out and highlight better against dark backgrounds.

Have you dyed a wig before? I think that adding orange to a black wig might be difficult, but I've never tried it before!

[Evaar'la Kal]

Have you dyed a wig before? I think that adding orange to a black wig might be difficult, but I've never tried it before!

Maybe it would be easier to buy an orange wig and dye it blue/black?

Good luck on this build, Sabine is awesome!

[RoboEmma]

Have you dyed a wig before? I think that adding orange to a black wig might be difficult, but I've never tried it before!

That I'm less concerned about; I have a couple of ideas of how to accomplish that (whether that means sewing in orange wefts or dying a white wig all different colors), so it'll get done. It's just so hard trying to pick the direction to go with translating the color!  I think I'll start by trying to find a mostly black-but-with-blue-sheen and go from there.

Thanks for the feedback everyone; it's definitely very motivating. 

[Pheonix023]

I agree with you that it is probably stylized black....but I would probably lean more twords a dark blue, so that it doesn't look like halloween hair....

This is looking great so far!  can't wait to see what you do with it!

[RoboEmma]

I agree with you that it is probably stylized black....but I would probably lean more twords a dark blue, so that it doesn't look like halloween hair....

Good point; true black always ends up looking fake somehow, too...

[RoboEmma]

Progress this weekend...

Got a heat gun; refining shaping on the plates. My shoulders slope at a much different angle than Sabine's! 



My very involved way to get rid of the obnoxious dart point...



Going to glue them in, bondo and sand, and probably fiberglass the back for strength. Involved, but I think it'll work.



4" PVC elbows to accomplish the compound curves of the shoulder plates.



Cut them out with a Sawzall. Going to use the grinder to take it the rest of the way. Also used it to bevel the edges of the plates to visually reduce the thickness of the edges, because the PVC was considerably thicker than my sintra.



Shoulder plates! All cleaned up.




Non-pictoral updates:
  -Found what I think will be the perfect wig! I ordered it, along with some orange wefts, but it will take a while to be shipped to me.
  -Patterned the pants and picked out the type of fabric I want to use. It'll probably be a couple weeks until I go out and pick it up, though.
  -Long story, but the post office managed to royally screw up getting the fabric I ordered for the shirt to me. It's now a week late, but I've been assured they'll get my package to me probably some time this week (of course, I'll be out of town this next weekend, so they've cost me a lot of work time).

[Lem'zig Dee]

Love the chest plate work around! 

[RoboEmma]

No real updates, since I was out of town this weekend, but while I was at the Talon campout, Mandalore was kind enough to let me steal a 3D printed comlink from his workshop! Sabine wears one on her belt. Just have to clean and finish it up now.

[RoboEmma]

Started with this...


Came up with this! Needs a little bit more styling, and the shirt isn't quite finished, either. But it's getting there!


I also managed to find and purchase the perfect fabric for the pants; hopefully I can work on them a bit this coming week!

[Tyno Krast]

Excellent progress! Screen accurate costumes are my favorite. I have no doubt you'll knock this one out of the park!