Mara Jade – Star Wars

Made for: Star Wars Celebration 3

Background: I’m a red-haired Star Wars fangirl who wanted a lightsaber; it had to happen eventually.

Journal Entries: Read more at my Mara Jade tag

Related Costumes: Mara Jade as Arica, Mara Jade Green Tunic

Patterns Used:
KwikSew 2722 (altered)

Jumpsuit:

I searched for a long time for a good fabric to use, and finally settled on a 2-way stretch pleather I bought online. I used a pattern for a spandex bodysuit, making it a little larger than the pattern called for, since my pleather didn’t stretch as much as the pattern needed. I then took it in as needed. It was generally pretty easy to put together, but the pleather was pretty unforgiving to mistakes! It’s got a few needle holes in it from where I had to unpick stuff to fix. Originally, I planned to make the quilted leg panel portions separately and was going to sew them onto the suit. I got one mostly made, and then decide since the pleather was being such a bear to work with, I was going to skip it. Kinda glad I did because I think the way I was going to do it (as like, a quilted patch vs built into the suit) wouldn’t have looked great. The “piping” up the front seams is just a tube of the pleather sewed on top, it’s not actually set into a seam.

As of 2021 the pleather fabric was beginning to deteriorate along some of the edges where seams had to be unpicked, and last time I had it out, I believe in 2022, the pleather was coming off of the backing fabric in large chunks. So it’s now officially retired and unwearable.

Cape/Cowl:

The hood was just a simple tube of fabric – a khaki stretch knit with a neat texture. It’s self-lined. I also made a cape, but opted to make a green cape instead of the pink one commonly seen. It ties onto the shoulder harness.

Accessories:

The goggles I found on ebay. I made a quick pair of gloves out of my stretch vinyl. and the belt and shoulder straps and armbands my dad helped me make. We cut them out of large strips of leather and dyed them, and the belt buckle I found at the leather store. I had the boots, and I found a pair of catcher’s shinguards. I sanded the logos off and painted over the gold rivets.

Lightsaber:

I had intended to make my own hilt – even bought stuff for it – but I ended up buying two of the ForceFX ones that were available around that time instead. I had the Vader one for Celebration 3 and the Luke one for SDCC 2005. I switched up between them occasionally and just photoshopped the blade glow purple.

History:

This costume was a lot of fun to wear, so I’m sad to see it starting to fall apart; I’d love to remake the suit one of these days.

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