Every year I like to make myself an outfit for the Renaissance Faire. This year, I was out of Mulan outfits to recreate, so I decided to go with my new favorite character to torture: Kylo Ren! Restyled to be an ancient Chinese hanfu, ‘cuz I like to remind people that China existed during the 1500s too.
Here’s the initial sketch:
I was really excited about pointy shoulders and the sexy sleeves that were gonna be a lovely chiffon and a stretchy vinyl to get that folded look Kylo has on his arms.
Usually with my hanfus, I make my own patterns. And by “make,” I mean “stare at 6 yards of fabric, question everything that I know and think I can do, hem, haw, panic and finally cut out.” However, this was the fastest costume build (without a pattern) I had ever done!
You can’t see the belt but I didn’t do the cool bits that flared out. I forget how short my torso is so it would have totally engulfed me, so I kept it to just one band, fastened with velcro covered by a gigantic frog knot.
Yes, my sewing is still sloppy. And that vinyl was near-impossible to penetrate.
And a terrible photo of my helmet on my head:
I bought a generic warrior helmet on Amazon, painted it black, drilled a hole int he crown to insert a big fat tassel and made the silvery bit out of craft foam. It was initially made with balsa wood but it kept cracking when I tried to conform it around the helmet that the night before I just threw it out and did foam I had around. I’m sad that I didn’t get to use wood -- the chrome-like spray paint I bought is actually a bit reflective! But I could totally remake this easily -- All together the helmet was probably just $10 to make, and I have another tassel.
Because I finished this so quickly (thanks Mom!), I was actually able to contemplate weaponry.
Man, that’s ornate. A bit too ornate for what I could do with balsa wood. And I originally wanted it to be telescoping, so I could mimic what “real” lightsabers can do but that was way out of my timeframe to figure out. So instead I bought a pair of balsa stakes and sheets in various thicknesses (thinnesses?) and set to work cutting it out.
Not too shabby! And again, I’d love to remake this one day, properly telescoping and having a cylindrical hilt. It held up pretty well for the most part, though some of the thin silver parts and bits of the cross guard broke off. But hey, let’s call it “battle worn.”
And that’s my outfit! I got recognized a bunch and actually had people stop me to take photos and I felt way cooler than Ben Solo probably was in Jedi high school (well, considering he murdered everyone...).
I have no idea who they are but the family ties are strong with us.
**Shout out to my wondrous friends Katie at Elhoffer Design and Kelly for their suggestions and patience with me as I dragged them through the Fabric District.
