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[Kurshi BeJahaal]

Kursh, if you don't like your vest (looks fab BTW) you could always mount yer plates on that epic beard!! ;-)

Aria, I wanted to ask about your neckseal. Did you use anything special to get the nice ribbed effect? I tried cotton batting, PVC foam piping, even tried with cheaply skipping ropes.... Can't get as nice a ribbed effect as you did... So, spill it! What's yer secret??

Haha. Thank you! I guess I'm OCD and critical of myself. I'm trying to work my way into BEARDs! 

And yeah! I love that ribbed collar and I'd like to try it out on mine!

[Aria]

I'm gonna have to agree with jm - that's a good looking vest! The neckline doesn't look that uneaven to me (at least no more then mine is) The only thing I see is what you mentioned about the arm holes being too small. 
And yeah, it was one of those things where the sibs found out I was joining and all of a sudden it was like, "I've wanted to join for forever!! Make me an outfit too!!" .... and then the next morning I woke up to three concept sketches posted on my fb. lol

Alrighty, ribbed collar. First thing, it's not terribly comfortable, so I actually have a thin black collar I wear under it to keep it from chafing my neck. Second, it's kind of frustrating (as all things mando seem to be - but we love it anyway), so be warned!

It's black denim, stuffed with fiberfill. (phiberfill? I forget how it's spelled on the package) You can find it at Joann Fabrics or most craft stores...it's the stuff they use to stuff dolls.

I used an old pattern of mine for the collar itself. Cut two and sew them together like a normal collar, but when you flip them inside out (so the seems are in the inside) you're going to sew two lines down the length of the collar. So you sort of have three long 'tubes' down the length of the collar. (you may also want to sew a line just inside the actual seem at the bottom of the collar so you'll have room to sew it onto the flight suit once it's stuffed) Try not to make the tubes too thin in any places, because that will make it difficult to stuff (I know  )

From there you're going to take the big bag of fiberfill and take out little teeny-tiny wads one at a time and roll them up (so they stay stuck together as they are stuffed) and stuff them down the tubes until the tubes are nice and plump. (It takes a lot more stuffing then you think) I used a chopstick to help. I also found that stuffing all from one direction (meaning not flipping the collar over as I worked on it, but keeping one side up the entire time) caused the fiberfill to clump in such a way that it actually curved the collar for me.
From there I just sewed it into my flight suit, trimmed off what wasn't needed and added my zipper.

Does that make sense? It does to me, but I made the thing....if you want I can get up a tutorial post with pics explaining the whole thing in another thread? (Pictures make everything easier to understand  )

AND I also just got my armor build thread started (I'll link it into my signature in a sec) if you feel inclined to head over that way and give me feedback on my horrible armor attempts! 

[Padm Thano]

So your soft parts look AMAZING.

One thing I wanna advise about though is the vest lacing on the sides; I have this on mine and it's hard to deal with. I know with mine I have to unlace essentially the whole thing to get my flak vest off, and then re-lace each time I put the vest back on. The laces may start fraying on the ends if you have to unlace & re-lace each time. I recommend putting a zipper on the back, under where the backplate will go; it will save time & frustration when kitting up. I promise this will make it easier. On the off-chance I missed it & you do already have a zipper; you are way ahead of me & are genius

With the above being said, I do however love the look of your vest. I'm a big fan of the lacing on the sides. I am also jealous of the kama because it's gorgeous. This is just phenomenal work all around

[Kurshi BeJahaal]

That ribbed collar idea makes perfect sense. We had a clan armor party today and I had a chance to check one out up close. With that close up visual and your directions, I think I can manage! Thanks for taking the time to type it all out for us!

[Aria]

So your soft parts look AMAZING.

One thing I wanna advise about though is the vest lacing on the sides; I have this on mine and it's hard to deal with. I know with mine I have to unlace essentially the whole thing to get my flak vest off, and then re-lace each time I put the vest back on. The laces may start fraying on the ends if you have to unlace & re-lace each time. I recommend putting a zipper on the back, under where the backplate will go; it will save time & frustration when kitting up. I promise this will make it easier. On the off-chance I missed it & you do already have a zipper; you are way ahead of me & are genius

With the above being said, I do however love the look of your vest. I'm a big fan of the lacing on the sides. I am also jealous of the kama because it's gorgeous. This is just phenomenal work all around

First, THANK YOU!!  That means a lot, because your kit is amazing.

Second, I've been able to keep one side of the vest laced and slip in and out with only one side unlaced. (saves a lot of time!!) I thought about a zipper at first but I hate how they look, so I'll stick with lacing for now and see how it goes. If it annoys me too much I'll stick a zipper in the back and pretend it was that way originally! 

That ribbed collar idea makes perfect sense. We had a clan armor party today and I had a chance to check one out up close. With that close up visual and your directions, I think I can manage! Thanks for taking the time to type it all out for us!

No problem! I'm glad it made sense, I might have been slightly sleep deprived when I wrote it...
Let me know how your collar goes! 

[Aria]

Since it was raining today and I couldn't work on armor, I did a bit of "staining/carbon scoring" to my kama. Thoughts? I want to leave the skull side untouched until I get the full kit done to see how everything looks.


In theory, my legs should be blocking most of the inside of the kama, so I did less staining on that side.

[Kurshi BeJahaal]

I like it! It definitely looks like you've been in a scuffle or two! I'm also in favor of leaving your designed side alone until you're further along. There's nothing wrong with that! I'd hate to see you "rough it up" too much and end up not liking it.

[Aria]

Exactly my thoughts!

[jefXfree]

looks absolutely fantastic!

I hope my kit turns out half this good!

[Aria]

looks absolutely fantastic!

I hope my kit turns out half this good!

Thank you!! Good luck with your kit - just remember it takes time and planning (and sometimes beating your head against the wall....) 

[Arli Vok'Chi]

That looks really good, very battle worn.  Can I ask how you did it?  The edges look 'proper' rather than just torn or cut.  Just love that Kama to bits.

[Aria]

That looks really good, very battle worn.  Can I ask how you did it?  The edges look 'proper' rather than just torn or cut.  Just love that Kama to bits.

Thank you!! 

For the edges, it helped that I picked a super fray-able material (linen), but I think this technique will work on just about anything except pleather and leather.
I sewed a seem along the kama just above the point where I wanted to fray it to (using the same color thread, of course), then I cut out the jagged parts using both scissors and a seem ripper (scissors for the larger parts and the seem ripper for the smaller details) and attacked a lot of the edges with the seem ripper to fray them until I was happy. So it's kind of a combination of cutting/fraying/attacking fabric.

The staining is eyeshadow. I used a lot of black highlighted with gray and a wide varieties of brown highlighted with very small amounts of white. I used the same technique about six years ago when I did a Jurassic park uniform and the stains on that uniform are still there and very visible, so it doesn't fade or wear off over time. Just be careful, because it sticks to fabric and DOES NOT COME OFF OR BLEND at all...so once it's on there it's on there. 

[Kurshi BeJahaal]

I want to see that Jurassic Park costume! I bet that's rad!

[Aria]

I want to see that Jurassic Park costume! I bet that's rad!

hahaha! I even cut the brim of my hat so it looked like a dino bit it...it was awesome. 

[Kurshi BeJahaal]

hahaha! I even cut the brim of my hat so it looked like a dino bit it...it was awesome. 

That was another one of my childhood favorite movies. To this day, I still have all my JP toys, pillowcases and books.

[Aria]

I still like watching it in the dark because the raptors are still scary in the dark....somethings I will never out grow!

[Arli Vok'Chi]

Just a note to say thanks for the advice on fraying, neat trick to sew first and use a seam ripper to shred.  I would never have thought to use make-up, great idea!

Also...Raptors, one of the only movies to ever give me a nightmare. Raptors *shudder*

[Kurshi BeJahaal]

Just a note to say thanks for the advice on fraying, neat trick to sew first and use a seam ripper to shred.  I would never have thought to use make-up, great idea!

Also...Raptors, one of the only movies to ever give me a nightmare. Raptors *shudder*

Do you say, "Clever girl..." right before you're eaten in your dreams? 

[Aria]

Just a note to say thanks for the advice on fraying, neat trick to sew first and use a seam ripper to shred.  I would never have thought to use make-up, great idea!

Also...Raptors, one of the only movies to ever give me a nightmare. Raptors *shudder*

No problem! I hope it helps - I think your kit is looking great so far, I can't wait to see how it turns out. 

Do you say, "Clever girl..." right before you're eaten in your dreams? 

Now I really will have nightmares....thanks! 

[Nia Kad Runi]

Just wanted to add my kudos to the many . . .  That Kama is awesome.  I really appreciate the discussion of you height, though.  I'm also 5'2' and didn't think I'd be able to pull of a long Kama.  I'm re thinking that now . . .
 

[Aria]

Just wanted to add my kudos to the many . . .  That Kama is awesome.  I really appreciate the discussion of you height, though.  I'm also 5'2' and didn't think I'd be able to pull of a long Kama.  I'm re thinking that now . . .
 

Thank you!   
Honestly, as long as you scale everything to your own height you can pull off anything.  So try that long kama, you might be surprised. 

[Spartan]

If you need a bucket I have some for sale, though I'm not sure they would fit you:/ if not, the scratch build really wasn't that bad, I went over to TDH to get a template, and once you get started its just 10 minutes at a time

[Aria]

Yeah, I struggled with helmets quite a bit before I got mine....  I was thinking about scratch building the next (upgraded) one, but I think that would take me forever!

[Aria]

Twi'lek soft parts (Wow, look how far I've come!  )

Um, well, I'm doing it to myself again and started a new build about a month ago. I'm doing a twi'lek this time. Figured I'd add my soft parts onto my existing thread vs. starting a new thread for just a few pictures.

Build is going nicely so far. Soft parts are 90% done, have to sew my cape together and add some details to the blue loin cloths. Shouldn't take very long now that I'm rolling. Armor is mostly cut out and shaped. Will be starting a new WIP for that process tonight as well.
I learned some stuff with my last build (mainly I don't like codplates) so I'm opting out of those this time.

Build will be mostly black (seems like a theme with me, huh?  ) and bright blue. And, in answer to the most important question, I am going to be a flesh colored Twi'lek. Not really interested in being blue for a week after an event. 

Concept.


Cape....

Blue in the center is a square of the same blue I'm using for the loin cloths. Breaks up the black a little. It just needs more break in time to hang like the rest of the squares. Trust me. 

and I'll get some photos of the rest of them up tomorrow. Mostly just needed to remind myself to post the updates.   

[Kurshi BeJahaal]

This will be sweeeeet. Any projections on when it'll be finished? If you finish your second kit before I even finish my first I WILL karate chop you.