Friends, I finished the Return of the Jedi jacket. It isn’t perfect because the fit in the shoulders is just a liiiiittle bit off and it is a tad short but I don’t even CARE! I love it, it feels so good when I wear it and it makes me so giddy. So lets get into how I got this monstrosity done!
It is truly a deceptive garment. It seems so simple and yet…AND YET.
The first thing I had to do, after ripping off the sleeves and fixing the one that I sewed backwards was to take in the jacket at the shoulders. After a lot of fussing I discovered that the shoulders were too long by three whole inches on each side of the garment. Even the smallest possible size of pattern was made for shoulders significantly broader then mine it seems. I measured three inches in on each side and carefully trimmed away the excess fabric on the front and back, following the pre-existing curve of the armhole. Which meant that I didn’t take away any of the width from the lower torso area, and I didn’t change the size of the armholes. So I could still accommodate my bust and I got to avoid altering the sleeves any further. A win win.
Next, I sewed up the lining and stitched it in. Now, originally I was trying to be really fancy and have an invisible closure for when I didn’t want the silver to show. I bought the worlds tiniest blackest button and then I tried to add an invisible loop using fishing line. The hope was that when the jacket was open the closure wouldn’t be noticeable. Unfortunately the line slipped out while attaching the lining because it is thick and waxy. So as of now I can’t not show the silver lining, which is fine since the silver bit is kind of iconic anyway. But I am still a littler frustrated that I wasted the time and materials on trying.
With the lining in the next thing to do was sew up the opening at the bottom and attach the loose bit of lining to the outer shell’s armholes. Because I am a savage who was very frustrated with this jacket…I didn’t make lining sleeves. I just sewed the lining armhole to the outer armhole and left it at that. I will probably go back later and hem it in bias tape to keep it from fraying but for now that is how I intend to leave it. I hemmed the bottom edge using my invisible zipper foot after turning the raw edges in by eye. Now…I have to admit that I did not trim the edges down so they were even before I did this. I just went as is…which meant that in some spots the hem is now a little wavy. I do this to myself….I know but I really just wanted to be done. I was at the point where if I didn’t finish the project soon I was going to just end up hating it. And I really didn’t want to hate it, seeing as it is my favorite Luke Skywalker outfit period. So I made do. And in the end it all worked out fine. I might go back later and put in an extender panel at another time but for now, I am happy with it.
The very last thing I did was hand sew in all of my closures. I used four hooks and bars on the lower opening near the stomach, and two snaps up at the collar to keep everything closed. I’m still debating on if I need that second snap or not, I might get rid of it. We shall see.
So with that the bulk of the costume is done. All I need now is to alter the belt to include all the silver bits and get a better glove. But those are such small things that I probably won’t make a whole post about them. But keep an eye out for when I post finished photo shoot type photos!
If you want to see my struggle in semi-real time (but actually stretched out over a bunch of months) please feel free to watch this really nonsensical video here.
Cheers!
And Now Sewing 