Princess Leia (Disneybound – 2nd Version) – Star Wars

Made for: Disney Trip, April 2021

Background: My old Leia disneybound from 2016 was starting to feel a little blah so I wanted to do an all new look for our 2020/2021 trip.

Journal Entries: Read more at my Leia Disneybound tag

Patterns Used:
Simplicity 9406

So, like a lot of early 2020 projects, this got interrupted thanks to COVID. It was originally supposed to be for our May 2020 trip – I got the jacket mostly done, and when we had to reschedule the trip I put it aside and didn’t finish it until early 2021, for our April 2021 trip.

My goal with this costume was for it to be a slight step more towards “costume” than my previous disneybound while still being very wearable. My initial plan was to do a white jacket with a white romper underneath. The idea behind the jacket was that, from the waist up, it would look like the ANH Leia dress for photos. And then something simple and cool (as is, not hot) underneath. i wanted kind of a sporty vibe this time.

Jacket:

For the jacket, it’s pretty much exactly the ANH Leia dress just cut in half and with an opening in the front. I used my Leia dress as a cutting guide – cut out 2 layers of jetset and sewed them together at the center front opening. Flipped it right side out and then finished the sleeves by pulling them through the neck.

I gathered the bottom into a wide, interfaced waistband, and then added a hood exactly like an ANH Leia hood, finished by hand. Finally I added a collar, again, exactly the same as ANH Leia, just open in the front.

I put a hook and eye at the neck closure and a snap closure at the waistband. Initially the waistband crossed over – but I didn’t like how that looked once it was finished, so I took the waistband partially off, gathered the top some more and trimmed the waistband so it would meet closer to the middle.

I got the bulk of this work done in 2020, as mentioned above. In 2021 I ended up taking the collar off, shortening it, and repositioning the hook and eye closure.

I also decided to put the Leia conchos on the waistband of the jacket, instead of on a separate belt. The snap onto the jacket so I can take them off as needed. I’ll talk a bit more about these down under accessories.

Dress:

Like I said above, I first wanted to do a one piece romper under the jacket, with a tank-top style top and shorts. I found a pattern for one that was cute, but just really wasn’t sure how short, hippy me would look in a romper. I decided to do a full mock-up in another fabric – something that would be wearable when finished – just to see how it would look, before struggling to make the same thing with 2 layers of slippery jet set LOL. I ended up using a cute knit I had on hand that has little Stitches all over (as in Lilo and Stitch, not sewing stitches LOL). And when I finished it I… didn’t love it on me. And by that point I realized our 2020 trip wasn’t happening, so I set it all aside to think on it since I had extra time.

(The Stitch romper would live on – in 2021 I ended up taking it apart and making it 2 pieces – a top and shorts – and now it’s super cute)

So in early 2021 I was thinking about what exactly I wanted to wear under this jacket I had already made. The jacket with it’s waistband had this kinda late 70s/early 80s vibe so I started looking through my vintage patterns from that era for something that might work, and I came across this darling tennis dress pattern. It’s a little earlier than I had wanted (1971) but it’s just so cute, while still being practical with the matching shorts underneath that I felt it was a good fit.

I still had 3 yards of white jetset that had been meant for the ill-fated romper, so that’s what I used for this – just cut it out twice to make a lining layer. I skipped the shorts that came with the pattern and just bought some (didn’t have enough fabric for them anyway).

This ended up being a pain in the butt to make, only because of having 2 layers that I needed to match. Initially I cut the pattern pieces slightly wider, because I was worried it wouldn’t fit at the bust – but that ended up being a mistake to do as it was WAY too big when I pinned it together. I recut them down to the actual pattern size and it was still too big – I had to take it up a good bit, and then repeat the process on the lining layer. I didn’t quite get them to match up exactly but wasn’t going to drive myself crazy over a disneybound outfit.

I assembled it like an ANH Leia dress – sewed the 2 layers together at the bottom (again, tricky to get them lined up – one layer constantly wanting to hang lower than the other in places), flipped it right side out, finished the sleeve openings by pulling them through the neck, and then installed the zipper in the front.

And omg that zipper. The pattern called for an invisible, separating zipper. So I found one on amazon and ordered it (that promptly got lost for an extra week in transit). When it finally arrive it was an absolute BITCH to get set in and it’s really really hard to get the insertion pin into the slider body. Like to the point that once I finally got it in – I’m going to try to never fully unzip it again. I’ve been leaving it partially zipped and pulling it off and on over my head LMAO.

Originally, I was going to add the collar, because I didn’t want it fighting with the collar of the jacket when I had them both on… but it’s so cute I went ahead and added it. I had to cut it down a bit from the pattern – the pattern’s collar was HUGE and VERY 1971 LMAO.

I still have some issues with the layers not lining up but at this point it is what it is. Not going to keep futzing with it.

Accessories:

I made the mistake of falling in love with a pair of white and silver Air Jordans early 2020 and wanting them for this outfit. That was nowhere near my budget so I started looking for cheaper options and of course I couldn’t find anything else I loved as much as the Jordans. Finally earlier this year I found some nike high tops that were close enough that WERE in my budget, so that’s what I ended up with. I replaced the white shoelaces with silver glitter ones.

Originally I had planned to make a belt for this costume – a “park friendly” version of the classic ANH Leia belt. I planned to do it in vinyl with 3d printed conchos. It would sit on top of the wide waistband of the jacket when I had the jacket on, and then I could also wear it with the dress.

I bought some white vinyl online and when it came, I copied my ANH Leia belt shape, just made a little shorter, height-wise, to look better with the smaller 3d printed conchos. I painted the conchos silver with rub n buff, then went to try the base belt on with my jacket to start marking concho placement and… the belt looked yellow next to the whites of my jacket and dress.

I tried painting it, I shopped for other white vinyl in person… and nothing helped. All the vinyls I sourced was also a more “natural” white than the “optic” white of my jetset fabric. Painting helped like a fraction but not totally.

So I decided to nix it. My jacket waistband was wide enough to accommodate the 3d printed conchos, and it would be one less accessory to worry about in the parks. I glued fabric onto the back of each concho hoping to be able to sew it directly onto the waistband, but I glued it too well and couldn’t get a needle through it LOL. So instead I glued snaps onto the back of each concho and sewed the other side of the snap onto the waistband. That makes life easier in case I need to wash the jacket anyhow.

And finally, I just bought the shorts to wear under it. Didn’t feel like making shorts out of jetset!

I think that covers everything!

History: This ended up being so much fun to wear! I can’t wait to take it back to Batuu!

                       

Visit my FAQ | Contact Me
Please note that none of these costumes are for sale! This is my personal portfolio. Thanks!