Slave Leia Cosplay tutorial Part 2

Okay part two is going to consists of the finishing of the panels, like the side ovals and the skirt part. As well as the bra part.

This turned out to be a little bit complicated but not too bad, what you will need for the ovals/skirt:

-Thick paper, again like the kind you used in the first part
-Plaster of Paris Bandages
-Felt Sheets
-Wire (a big enough gauge to keep its shape when taped to the paper)
-Tape (probably duct tape would be your best bet)
-Fabric (in that red wine, grape-ish color, again that's where the reference pics come in handy)
-Snaps (you can find all sorts of sizes in a craft store or around the fabric section of the store, I got medium sized ones as to not make it too bulky)
-Elastic (also found most likely in the same place the snaps are make sure its an elastic that wont stretch out after one use of it)
-Rubber Cement
-Hot Glue
-Thread
-Needle
- Same Gold Paint in the first step
-Paintbrush

So to start out the ovals I measured how far apart roughly on me the panels were and took an inch off. I then on a piece of random scrap paper made an oval circle about as big as the measurement with the inch off (you could make these ovals in Microsoft word but I found it easier to just draw them). Then trace your oval twice onto the thick paper, make sure to make the ovals wide enough so that when you cut out an inner oval to make it an oval ring there is enough thickness to it. After cutting them out take the wire and duct tape it onto whichever side is going to be the inside of the ring and bend it so it bends with your hips. I then took the Plaster of Paris bandages to it, as you do not want these to be flimsy in anyway shape or form. I let it dry over night and then painted it the same gold as the panels.

After everything is dry you want to take the sheets of felt (the 37 cent kind at craft stores) and glue it with rubber cement to the inside of the panels and ovals so it doesn't bother skin or become irritating in anyway shape or form.

Now for the skirt part. I managed to get away with a yard of fabric as I am only 5' 1" maybe. You need to measure the backs of the panels. Measure about an inch to an inch and a half in from the "corners" meaning the top to corners of the triangular panel over.

Here is a basic diagram of the part on both panels to measure:

.After measuring from side to side take your fabric and cut it in half so you have to yard pieces. You then need to pleat the fabric so it will be to the desired width (your measurements you took on the panels, your back panel measurement will be longer than your front.) You can do it many ways, google it and really pick the way you are most comfortable doing. After that grab your snaps, I used three in the front and four in the back.

Here is a diagram  of just the front to help:

I just hot glued the snap onto the panel, make sure to take the half of the snap off that will be sewn to the fabric. Glue all the snaps down, then sew the other half to the fabric, make sure that the snaps are equally apart on the panels as they are on the fabric too. Then take the elastic and hot glue it so it connects all the pieces, I cut out individual pieces of elastic and hot glued them to each side. You can color the elastic black if you want or not, its really up to you. After that the bottom part of the costume is done.

Here's what it should look like:

Now to start the bra part. What you will need:

- Old bra you don't want (or one you don't mind cutting up)
-Fabric (This one you will have to decide on your own there is a lot of pictures out there and it comes down to either a greenish color or brown, I could not find a greenish I liked so I went with brown)
- Fabric adhesive spray or glue just some way to get the fabric to stay on the bra
-Adhesive Door/Window draft sealer (its a tubing of sorts that goes in door frames to keep them sealed when the door is closed)
-Hot Glue

what you first want to do is cut everything off the bra except for the actual under wire bra cup part as well as if the bra has those plastic rings in which the bra straps are connected to in front, you want those for later. So your left with the bra that doesn't really do its job anymore, but we will fix that. Take your fabric (you need fourth or half a yard depending on bra size) and use the spray adhesive fabric glue to glue it onto the bra. You will have to cut the fabric and overlap itself so it will mimic the drastic curvaceousness of the bra, I glued it on the front and made it wrap around the edges and glued it there as well so it looked nice. It should look like this:

You can see where I cut to make it fit, but no worries it will mostly be covered up later

After letting it dry, I took a white crayon and drew onto the facric which way all the design stuff went. Another thing that it REALLY helped me to have a reference pic of the bra. I then took the adhesive tubing and I'm not sure if its all like this but the kind I found had two humps to it, sort to speak, I took the adhesive off and taped it to each other to make it a circular tubing. Then with the hot glue I glued it to the lines I had drawn to follow (make sure to cover the plastic rings of the bra to hid them but don't glue the tubing to the rings or you will have major problems later). I then took a piece of tubing and glued it to the bottom most tubing on the bra, make sure this is long enough to reach on either side of you as its where the line will be to conect it all together. Here's a pic of what it should look like, so hopefully if this was confusing (sorry) you can use the picture to help you:

So there is part 1 of the bra done! I will update more tomorrow!