Cosplay Replica- Shaak Ti's Apron

[Amanita]

Here's a leather apron I made for a cosplay outfit I've been working on- Shaak Ti, one of Star Wars's Jedi masters. For those unfamiliar with the character, she was an alien Jedi who didn't wear the order's regular uniform, opting for a unique ensemble. Part of that ensemble was a leather apron known as a "Togruta sash". (Togruta being the name of her species)

I decided to replicate this prop/costume piece, and based my own version on an incredibly detailed photo found in the book "Dressing a Galaxy", which is all about the costumes of Star Wars. The pattern was partially drawn by hand, and adjusted on the computer to get the precise scaling effect (The design gets smaller and narrower from bottom to top). In total, from the time I started cutting with a swivel knife, it took about 50 hours to do this piece, between the tooling, and the hand dying and painting which followed.

Here's the pics, taken from start to finish:

Unfortunately the camera flash made the last two pics look a lot more orange than they actually are- in reality, the lightest colored areas are more of a darkish tan than anything, and the dark orange parts are more of a rust. FYI- I actually used Tandy's Saddle tan antiqueing gel to achieve the rust colored areas, I just painted it straight onto the bare leather, then rubbed off any excess. It worked very well.

[rickybobby]

Wow!! I was not expecting that!!

Incredible amount of work involved and it appears a whole bunch of research too.

Very nice job and finish work.

And welcome to the forum.

[BIGGUNDOCTOR]

Who had the correct alien life form leather?

Nice job.

[PANTHER]

That is way cool! Would love to see it on.

PANTHER

[OrchidNoir]

1st: Love it

2nd: I second wanting to see it on and with the rest of the costume

3rd: My StarWars junkie side is envious of the doll (they were sold out around me every time I went looking for one)

[gnomecraft]

the rebel legion will never accept it, not made out of bantha hide

[Amanita]

I do have some pics of me in the costume, but I'm kind of disappointed in how it came out- the makeup was a serious rush job, and I had to substitute a store bought shirt, because I didn't have time to make my own long sleeved blouse. I'll have to put the whole thing back together again sometime, and do a better job of the makeup. I also plan to redo the skirt if I can find pleated fabric in the right color.

[Gabriel Rasa]

That is a gorgeous piece of work there -- I especially like the texturing you used to add visual interest to the big blank spaces. It's details like those that make a costume look authentic, rather than cartoony, and it's the sort of thing that most people overlook when doing cosplay. Well done, you!

[Amanita]

That is a gorgeous piece of work there -- I especially like the texturing you used to add visual interest to the big blank spaces. It's details like those that make a costume look authentic, rather than cartoony, and it's the sort of thing that most people overlook when doing cosplay. Well done, you!

Thanks! I do confess that I had a picture of the screen-worn prop to work with that showed the fine details of the tooling. However, I've taken that experience and am using it to add visual interest to other cosplay pieces I'm working on.

[Gabriel Rasa]

Thanks! I do confess that I had a picture of the screen-worn prop to work with that showed the fine details of the tooling. However, I've taken that experience and am using it to add visual interest to other cosplay pieces I'm working on.

If I may ask, what tool did you use to get that effect? It doesn't look like any other type of backgrounding I've seen.

[Amanita]

I'll have to check the tools to get the exact number, but I used a couple of Tandy's matting tools that had a sort of crosshatched pattern. They were just recently discontinued, so I am glad I got mine when I did!