Senatorial Leia from A New Hope in a day!
Friday, September 7, 2007
PRINCESS LEIA IN A DAY... IT’S POSSIBLE
Handmade from white polyester, just like in A New Hope. Belt was made from leather-like vinyl with aluminum squares and silver button covers.
So i’ve been working on Zam all summer and I realized, 3 days before Dragon-Con, that I didn’t have a costume for the Rebel Legion photo shoot. My other RL costumes were entered into our local county fair and were on exhibit.
So here goes the fastest SW costume creation in history! The original gown used polyester (of course it was the 70’s) and I found it half price at a Hancock’s going out of business sale in Nashville. I also fully lined it and added a hook and eye to the back collar so I can put the dress on over my head and still close the collar.
The pattern was my own creation but it was based on the “T shape” gown mentioned on The Leia Costuming Site. I also used that site for the belt construction photos. The Padawan’s Guide was also helpful for reference photos.
The belt was made from thick, leather-looking vinyl that was left over from Zam construction (you could also use a matte white kitchen linoleum). The aluminum square backing was cut from the backside of a “No trespassing” sign from Walmart. It was the cheapest way to obtain thick silver metal! The raised circles were made from 1-1/8 inch coverable silver buttons from JoAnns. Everything was glued on the belt with “Welder” glue and 4 heavy duty snaps were hammered on to finish the belt.
The hair was an adventure! Many many thanks to the ladies at Kim’s Hair Plus in Nashville for matching my hair perfectly with 4 packages of extra long hair extensions. Prior to Dragon-Con, my wonderful roommate, Co, twisted the extensions and rolled it into a large bun secured with bobby pins. For the day of the photo shoot at Dragon-Con, Chris’s Mom helped me to wrap my own hair around the top of the buns. We secured (and to tame fly away hair) the buns with a very thin brown hair net. And Ta-Da, Leia hair in 15 minutes!
I was extremely satisfied with the finished costume. The only thing I would change would be to make the dress a little longer. It was the right length to walk around the Con in, but not as movie accurate. I also need more accurate boots instead of my white boots from my Padme white action costume. Below is a pic from the Rebel Legion shoot:
And some more pics of the costume:
