Slave Leia Cosplay tutorial Part 1

So as a little girl I grew up with Star Wars and like every little girl I wanted to be a princess, but not just any princess, a galactic kick ass princess such as Princess Leia. Now as a small child my mother would not let me go as Slave Leia for Halloween and I had to settle for Senator Amidala's Red Invasion dress. Now, being almost 20, I decided that I want a Slave Leia costume for parties, anime convention, the grocery store, the usual, lol.


So I started out with the basics, which consisted of a lot of searching. I highly recommend if you are going to attempt this costume to join the Yahoo group, Slave Bikini Builders, as there is a lot information on the site. You will find in your searches that there is a lot of different ways to go about this, I decided to go on a much cheaper rout. All in all I believe I spent maybe 50-60 dollars on the whole thing, I bought what I needed as I went.

To start out what you will need:

- Thicker paper (I used a cardboard like paper, it was thicker than construction paper, but I was still able to fold and shape it)
- Front and Back panel diagrams (found at Slave Bikini Builders)
- Crayola  air dry craft foam (in white as its easier to paint later)
- Plaster of Paris bandages
- rubber cement
- scissors
- tape
- Gold Metallic paint (all I had was fabric paint in that color from another project but it worked fantastically)  
-Paint brush

So I started out gluing the patterns (the patterns I had to measure myself to see how big I needed them and printed them out) to the thick paper, give it a few minuets to dry. Then cut them out and cut the paper so I could "fold" it over its self, so that the paper itself started to curve. The front panel should be slightly curved while the back should curve with your butt. After I used the craft foam and used it to make the definition and detail on the panels, gluing it on and let it dry over night. If you want to make the back panel stronger as that is the one that is most threatened to be sat on you can put a layer of the Plaster of Paris bandages over the foam after it dries. It should look like this when your done with those steps.

Front

Back

After it all dries put a few layers of the paint, for the middle part I dabbed it to give it that textured look, it all should look this (I only have a picture of the front panel but the back looks the same)

After that your panels are done!

I'll put up the next part tomorrow, the bra!