Help Me Obi-Wan Kenobi...

If you asked me 15 years ago if I was a Star Wars fan, I would have avoided you with a ten foot pole. I had heard legend of the crazy Star Wars fans and watched snippets of the original trilogy and prequels, but ten year old me was still not a fan of Darth Vader and was creeped out by the looks of Jar-Jar Binks. Jump to 2015 and the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens; I'm hooked. The use of a strong, force-sensitive female character (Rey) with the careful addition of cute droids (BB-8) and old stars (Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, etc) rejuvenated my interest in the series and need to cosplay any form of the leading ladies' outfits.

As mentioned in previous blog posts in anticipation of my Disneyland trip, I've had ideas percolating for a Leia inspired Disneybound for quite some time, but due to time and motivation, these plans didn't result in a new dress. But in planning the outfits for this Disney trip, I finally decided to choose a lesser-known Leia outfit out of the reasoning of boredom for her original white dress, but also out of the need for originality (since how many people did I think would wrap their hair into buns and wear a white dress to Batuu?). After watching the original trilogy completely through, I came up with a couple options. My first choice was Leia's Endor fatigues either with or without the poncho:

My concern with this was that there was a risk of it running too costumey (Disney doesn't allow anyone older than 14 to wear costumes to the park on a daily basis), finding the right pieces, and also trying to stay cool in the Florida heat with pants and boots. My next choice was a variation on the outfit she wears while in the Ewok village, except not in brown as I tend to look best in cooler tones, so I purchased a burgundy dress weight linen. What I didn't realize until I got home was that Leia wears a tunic and leggings of a similar color while in Bespin (cloud city) with an embroidered cape over top, so my fabric choice worked out perfectly.

While shopping a while back, I purchased Simplicity 8910, a flowy pattern that looked well suited for linen and also easily adapted to different looks. For my Bespin base, I chose view C with the pleated bubble sleeves and knee length skirt (gathered, not pleated like the pattern shows) and despite a couple minor alterations and the addition of a pocket, I found it gave a very pleasing shape. Not wanting to ignore the overrobe, I measured down from the neckline and drafted a wide collar shape, which I cut in muslin and tweaked before cutting it out in the main ivory handkerchief weight linen. The cape portion of the overrobe is simply gathered to a piece of twill tape and attaches to the collar with many hooks and eyes (as I was concerned I would get in trouble for wearing a long robe at Disney). Overall, the effect in the was exactly as I expected. I heard many cast members saying "the force is strong with this one" and I even made a scene when correcting an imperial leader in the middle of Batuu. I wish I had a video of it, but it definitely made my trip. SO without further ado, enjoy some pictures from a galaxy far, far, away.