The latest installment of the Star Wars saga finally hits the screen next week and if you’re a giant nerd like me, you’ve already bought your tickets and are counting down the days. Also, there’s a decent chance you’ve been itching to make Rey’s rad new Jedi training outfit. Just in time, Mood is releasing this awesome new (free!) cosplay pattern, which features her tunic, pants, belt, and wrist guard as well as an explanation of her obi and overlays.
Fabric & materials used:
- Tunic:
- 2 yards Coffee Cotton Canvas
- Pants:
- 1.5 yards Heathered Atmosphere Stretch Polyester Twill
- .5 yards 1″ White Elastic
- Leather belt/Wrist Guard:
- Front: .5 yards Brown Fashion-Weight Faux Leather
- Back: .5 yards Faux Leather Vinyl
- Dazzle-It Natural Genuine Leather Cord
- 2 Bronze Metal Buckles
- E6000 Permanent Glue
- Armbands:
- .5 yards Birch Viscose Gauze-Like Twill
- Recommended fabrics for obi and overlays: gauze, voile, chambray, or lawn
- The Andromeda Sewing Pattern (Free download below!)
Pattern includes a 1/2″ seam allowance unless otherwise stated.
Pants
The upper part of Rey’s pants have a seam going down the center, so you’ll cut the top front of the pants in two pieces. If you’re shorter than 5’7″, you may need to shorten these panels. Be sure to make a muslin to test the fit and shorten the same amount on the back panels as well.
I chose to construct these pants with French seams since they’re unlined. When it was done, I then top-stitched the seam to the side, like you see below.
The knee panels have two darts in the sides toward the top to create the correct curve needed to properly fit the knee.
The top of the panel is the more curved side. Attach each to the bottom curve along the upper front pant.
Attach the lower front pant panel to the bottom of the knee panel. The bottom of the pants are fully straight since they tuck into her boots, so if you need to do any other shortening, you can do so from the bottom when you hem your finished pants.
Sew your two front pant panels together at the rise, and do the same with the two back panels. The back panels will seem large since they’ll be gathered into a rear elastic waistband.
Attach the waistband panel to the front of your pants. When you sew the front and back of the pants together at the sides, sew a piece of elastic into the waistband, like you see above. It should measure an inch shorter than half of your waist.
Fold the waistband in 1/2″ and again 1.25″. Place the elastic toward the back of the pants so it’s encased within the waistband as you stitch it down. When sewing the back, pull the elastic taught like you see below.
Tunic
The tunic is incredibly simple to put together. There are no closures, it just overlaps in the front and gets held together by her many belts.
This is another garment where I’d recommend using French seams for the majority of it. Begin by attaching the front panels to the back at the shoulders, followed by the sides. For the sides, only sew down to the extension toward the bottom of the tunic. These will folded inward and hand sewn to form side slits, like you see below.
There’s no lining for this piece, but the neckline does have a facing made up of three parts: two front panels and a back panel, which get attached at the shoulders like in the photo below.
With the right sides together, line up the shoulder seams of the tunic and facing, and sew along the neckline and fronts of the tunic.
Fold the facing toward the wrong side of the tunic, fold in all your raw edges and slip-stitch around the entirety of the tunic like you see above.
Obi/Overlays
The obi and overlays are both simple rectangles. For the overlays, I got 3 yards of fabric, split it down the middle along the length, and sewed the two subsequent rectangles together to form an ultimate 6-yard long rectangle! Once it was draped over both shoulders, I cut each end to an angle like Rey’s.
The obi was made nearly the same way, but with 1.5 yards of fabric instead of 3. It’s tied together in the back and tucked into itself.
NOTE: Don’t be an idiot like me! Her obi should be layered on top of the draped overlays. Whoops.
Leather Belt/Wrist Guard
Rey’s wrist guard is made up of two different layers of leather fused together. I used a fashion-weight faux leather for the outside and a vinyl for the inside. They both worked super well together since the vinyl stabilized the fashion-weight layer and the two colors were pretty spot on for Rey.
I used the same two fabrics for the belt to get the correct stiffness, even though the inner layer is hardly seen. Before cutting either the wrist guard or belt out, I glued large enough rectangles of the two fabrics together and then traced the pattern onto the vinyl layer. and cut them out together.The bracer doesn’t need any sewing, but the belt needs a few hand stitches to secure two belt buckles to the ends, like you can see above. Wrap some leather cord around the side of the belt and your Rey costume should be nearly complete!You’ll just need some boots and arm wraps! For this costume, I’ll probably be stitching some strips of this gauze-like twill together and lining it with some power mesh to keep them from falling down. Has anyone else figured out a fool-proof way of holding them up? Let us all know!
8 comments
Power mesh seems like a smart way to go about it for the arm wraps, but sounds like maybe it’s still not as effective as desired? I made arm wraps as seen in Rey’s end scene in Episode VII, which go all the way up to the upper arms, and the elastic I put at the top edge did a miserable job. They kept slipping down all day. Having the wraps on just the forearms hopefully would require less constant adjusting. Maybe the power mesh + a piece of non-slip silicone-lined elastic would do the trick?
For my Force Awakens Rey, I cut the feet off a pair of kneesocks, put those on my arms, wrapped the gauze and tucked the ends into the socks.
I’ve also heard of people using self-stick gauze bandages.
Ohh, those both sound like good ideas!
Could you share the full sizing table? I usually fall between sizes (as do most people) or are more than one size (dependent on the body part), but am on the larger side of the table and I can’t figure out how your sizing jumps. It isn’t consistently one measurement from one size to the next… ie within one measurement, say the bust, the table jumps from using 1″ between one size and the next to using 1.5″ to using 2.5″ to 3.5″. I was trying to chart out the table to the larger sizes listed on the pattern, but am unsure how to proceed. Help would be appreciated as I want to cut the right size.
Thanks!!
Hello! Sorry – just updated the sizing chart; I hope it helps! The straight sizes are based on the Mood dress form measurements, so that might be why they seem a bit odd. Sadly we don’t carry dress forms above a size 18 (I’m hoping to remedy that soon!), so we based the larger sizes off of the PGM dimensions since they’re one of the more popular dress form manufacturers. Let me know if you need any further help. 🙂
Thanks!
Can you please do a cosplay of Princess Leia’s dress?
Maybe one day! I’d love to. 🙂