Fawxy the Firebird Quilt

I became a member of the Imperial Officer Corp (IOC) Firebirds end of last year.  It's the female officers group of the 501st.  We adopted a phoenix as our logo and I just go the logo t-shirt (it's awesome).  A couple years ago I started a Fawkes the Phoenix quilt from a pattern I bought a quilt show.  I didn't quite like the fabrics in the kit, so I changed most of them out for a really fantastic fiery yellow/orange fabric and a really nice blue background (the original had black with odd white square dots on the sides).  So, after a couple months of talking about the quilt on the Firebird forums, I decided to change the name to Fawxy the Firebird.  I might remove the falling feather and replace it with the Firebirds logo.  I still have lots of work to do, like sewing down the edges (I love satin stitching, but I think I'll use a random zigzag to make it look fiery), doing some thread painting (I have three different red/orange/yellow variegated threads I bought as a 3-pack), and add an awesome eye.  I'll finish it sometime next year.  Now to figure out a cool quilting pattern (as soon as I learn how to use my longarm quilting machine).

MSDroids Group Pic

Just to have this for a URL, this is the MSDroids group pic from DCC 2014.  We look sooooo snazzy in our polo shirts, don't we?

The new Ball Droid (dubbed the Hamster Ball Droid) from the EPVII trailer....

Some thoughts on the first trailer.  I'm still saying WTF on that Hampster Ball Droid.  The guys over at www.rebeldroids.com are in the same boat as I am.  We don't consider it an astromech R2 unit, but another odd-ball droid (get it?).  I really don't want to make this one, unless I bring it to a Broncos game (look at the colors).  I'm still on the fence about this one.  I might make a financial killing if I sell a bunch of these as bobble heads for dashboards.

The big oversized bike the female is driving is ridiculous!  How can she see over that thing?  It's way not safe and has no resemblance to bikes like the speederbike was.  And she's wearing shorts in a desert environment on a fast bike type thingy!  OUCH!  That's gotta hurt!  One fall and no skin on legs left!

I like the X-wings, Falcon, and Tie Fighters.  Until you really see inside these ships.  Bare to the core, oversized, and no magic to them at all.

The sith is going to be great, but what is that thing he's holding?  You call that a lightsaber?  It's directly from some King Arthur/Knights Templar B movie!  A broadsword with flames?  Come on!  SW meets Ren Faire?  Not liking it at all. 

At least there's no lens flares, and I think the story will be strong.  I'm just not liking the FX just yet.  Still not convinced this will be spectacular, but it will be Christmas 2015 fun! 

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka (say, how many of those round thingys can I sell?)

MSDroid Club Shirts

The MSDroid club polo shirt arrived at my front door this evening.  Boy, that was fast shipping!  They look great and feel soft.  Don't they look nifty?  We're going to look great at DCC!

 

Speaking of DCC, I'm working really hard to get everything ready, including a visit from my brother the same weekend.  I think he wanted to spend some time with me, but I'll be pretty busy during the con.  I did score him one of the last Saturday only tickets (DCC has been pretty much sold out for a month now).  There are still a few Friday and Sunday only tickets left and three (count 'em - 3!) weekend child passes left (they may be gone by now).  Anyway, back to cleaning out the guest room.

 

Until my next update,

Jawa Jaka (soft shirt, warm shirt, little ball of shirt...)

 

Continuing the ANH IN Tunic Tutorial

First off, I want to let everyone know that my emotions are all over the place.  Tuesday at 9:30am I helped my vet release my beloved Smokey from her pain.  She is now over the Rainbow Bridge playing with all her friends in heaven as only cats can.  RIP my “Little Girl”.  Mommy wuvs you.



And we’re now back to this tutorial as promised.  Give me a couple weeks to finish (I hope).   I can dedicate a little more time for this project.

We left off with the front panel of the tunic, and now we’ll add the right side and inner panel. 

First, lay out the front panel with L on the left.  Measure the long raw edge of R. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now cut a rectangle the same length as the measured R side and 9-10 inches in width (or more, depending on your girth).  Then whatever method you choose (I used an old shirt pattern) draw the armhole and width of side.  You’ll have to fudge with this so the front panel folds over the inner panel properly (it will become clearer later).  Label this piece RS.
 

Sew RS to R along the long edges.  (Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the end result.)

 

We’ll now set this piece aside and go onto the inner panel.  This is basically the exact same inner panel as the IOC uniform, but without the dosimeter pockets.  The piece looks like this.

Never mind the black threads, I have used this piece in a couple officer uniforms.  Notice the pinned area towards the top.  Normally this is where the dosimeter pockets are but I’ve pinned them shut.  Tip:  make sure the short edge of this piece is the same length as the short raw edge of RS.  There are several websites that will show you how to measure for armholes (or use and old shirt pattern just for the armhole measurement like I did).  The best way I can describe this piece is to go to ChazTorad’s tutorial as mentioned on the first post.  Remember to take out the dosimeter pockets as the whole piece should be flat (thus my pinning the pockets close).  If you have difficulty visualizing this please pm me and I’ll try to walk you through it.  This piece will be behind the front panel (again, it will become clearer later).

We’ll now move onto the skirt sections for these two panels.  Sorry to do this to you, but you’ll probably need to take apart the front panel if you’ve sewn it together, or unpin if you pinned it together.  We’ll start with the front panel skirt.  Here are the total pieces of front panel and front skirt.

You’ll be cutting four rectangles the same width as the front panel pieces.  The length will be about mid-thigh.  Keep checking in the mirror for correct length as you build this section, checking with reference pictures.  You don’t want it waist high or an evening gown.  It’s kind of an attached mini-skirt (very mini).  Give yourself at least an inch to the length for hemming (more if you want to experiment a little).

Now, align the skirt strips with the panel strips as shown above.  If you have any quilting experience you’ll understand the next step.  It’s basically what we quilters call strip sewing.  Sew the skirt strip to L, then skirt strip to M, skirt strip to R, and skirt strip to RS.  You now should have four long strips that look like this.

 

 

Now, sew L to M, M to R, R to RS all the way down the long edges.  Of course, once again (I think that’s twice) in my haste I forgot to take an end result picture, but I think you got the idea.

For the inner panel, use ChazTorad’s tutorial once again.  If you already have an officer uniform it will be the same.  I can’t remember if his tutorial has the same small flap that extends, or if I came up with it, but there is an extended flap about two inches (allows for hemming and/or lining)  for the waist snap. 

Tip:  this part of the skirt flares out a bit but not too much.  You’ll have to fudge with this to see what works for you.  I have what I think is a nicely rounded butt, so I had to make this part fit over it (yeah, I’ll call it fat butt, it doesn’t bother me).  You might not have so much of a flare, or maybe a little more.  Whatever you do, don’t make a square dance swing skirt out of it.  The skirt should just barely lay flat on your body with just enough flare for walking without binding.   Again, keep checking yourself in the mirror and compare to reference pictures.   We just call it a skirt for easy reference, but it’s really an extension of the panel.

 

You now have front panel and inner panel with skirt sections done.  Between the two will be the back section, which we will discuss in the next post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

NEXT:  We’ll move onto the back, side seams, and back skirt sections.  I do want to remind everybody that once you have all this sewn with muslin and fitted just right, you’ll have to take out the seam ripper and take it all apart.  These will become your pattern pieces, so don’t cut your black gabardine fabric yet until we’ve gone through the tutorial with muslin.   

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka (cuddling with teddy bears because she misses her Smokey)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introducing King Arthur!!

I've been working on a mouse droid since Christmas after collecting some parts over the summer.  I guarantee it's much easier to build than an R2 unit.  This is a fun little project with an RJ series race car chassis, a full-scale shell, and lots of IC chips that I pushed into a perf board while watching the Super Bowl.

A little backstory to his name:  a friend of mine called it Arthur, thinking that the PBS kid show was about a family of mice.  It took me a few days to realize what he was talking about.  No, it's a family of aardvarks.  But I like the name Arthur, and since he's full sized, I renamed him King Arthur (KA for short).  I then went to work on some cool graphics for racing stripes.  I came up with Excaliber with flames coming out.  I know I have some work to do with it (I just printed it on plain paper in color, cut out the image, and taped it on).  I want the sword to be longer, the flames to wrap around, and have it a vinyl sticker (not taped on).  For what I did in a couple hours I think it looks pretty good.  He probably won't win races, but he'll sure look good trying!

King Arthur



The Flaming Excaliber



Don't you just love his blue mouse tail?  It's the receiver antenna.

 

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka (playing with her mouse)



 

New banners and name

Foolish phb forums won't let me post pics directly from my laptop, so I gotta post everything here then copy and paste the URL of my pics.  Silly really, but not much I can do.  Men design the strangest coding and make life a little complicated.  OK, enough of my rant.

What I really want to post is that I'm excited to finally recieve the new MSR2 banners, cards, and... MAGNETS!  Yes, magnets for special people (like ultra fans and members).  And we changed our name to Mountain States Droid Builders (because we can, and because we have R2's, R4's, mouse droids, gonks, and one heck of a Droideka!!  So, drumroll please....  our new cards (banner and magnets are the same, and I got a blue banner with reversed colors):

 

 

Pretty nift, huh?

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka (enjoying the new banners and cards)



2014 Schedule and new website

BIGGEST NEWS EVER!!
The Mountain States R2 Droid Club now has a new home at www.msr2droids.com!!  We also have a facebook page, so come Like us!  Check out our new website for news on where the droids will be next.  You can even post up pictures of our droid, meet the droid builders, and join in discussions on our forum.  Happy Days Are Here Again!!

I seemed to have skipped putting AL's schedule on the left hand side for 2013 (it's been a very busy year at work), but I promised a lot of people I would post 2014.  As always, the schedule is subject to change due to work, illness, weather, called to duty on the Death Star, etc.

Galaxyfest, Feb 21-23, 2014, Antler's Inn, Colorado Springs, CO
Sun City Scifi, Mar 14-16, 2014, El Paso Convention Center, El Paso, TX
May the Fourth, May 4, 2014, Wings Over the Rockies Museum, Denver, CO
Denver Comic Con, June 13-15, 2014, Denver Convention Center, CO
Britishfest, June 28-29, 2014, Comfort Inn and Suites, Omaha, NE
     (I might just bring the mouse droid for that, but I'll be doing the 007 panels and party)
Rocky Mountain Con, October 2014, Crowne Plaza DIA, Denver, CO

There will probably be other events but I don't have dates for those yet.  I'll post up when a new one comes along.  Due to logistics with May the Fourth events, AL will probably not be out for Free Comic Book Day (again I might bring the mouse droid for that).

Please feel free to contact me before hand to make sure AL will actually be at an event.

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka (busily cramming her calendar with cool events)

Hauntings at the Hangar

WOW!! It's been awhile since I've blogged (I miss blogging).  Stupid facebook getting in the way of my blogging!  LOL  Anyway here are a few pics of the droids at Hauntings at the Hangar, Oct 27th, 2013:

AL in his kid Vader costume, inspired by a couple dozen little boys in the same costume at Boo at the Zoo at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. 

Next year Coke Zero???

Dave!  or is it Kevin?  I can never remember.

Goldie says BOO!!  It was an impromptu costume cutting holes in our personal tablecloth.

 

Goldie shares a moment with another sheet (friend).

The Jawa Candy Dish from Spirit Halloween store, with Crowina the Carrier Crow.

 

Speeder Mater was a HUGE hit!!  And most everyone got it!

Fraggle Rock meets Star Wars meets Minions.  Kudos to a well done mashup.

Vader was a hot costume for boys, both human and mechanical, this year.

 

AL and his friends can't wait until next year to do it all again.  So, what would you like to see AL dressed up as next year?

 

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka (playing dress up with the droids) 

 

The Astromech Action Figure Collection

A few of us in our garrison have collected astromech action figures, including myself.  I've been collecting for about four years now and have a pretty good start.  Here are a couple links to droid action figure lists:
http://donsolo.wordpress.com/
http://www.rebelscum.com
Google Docs List
http://astromech.farbauti.de/  (added after initial post)

And now pics of my collection so far:

I found some bamboo desk dividers with ends that slide out at Big Lots a couple years ago.  Droid figures fit in it perfectly.  I'm intending to add a couple more "shelves" on the left side so it matches the right side.  I also want to add some sort of plexiglass covering for convention display purposes.  I have a third divider somewhere that I can add more figures (just have to find a place to hang it, not much room next to these guys).

 

 

 

 

Here are a few of my unopened ones.  The rest are scattered throughout the house and a few, like my most wonderful R2-KT are still in AL's bin in the car.  I currently have strep throat and a humongous sinus infection and way too sick to get anything out of the car at the moment.  So, you have to trust me when I say I have more battle packs, Entertainment Earth collections, and single carded figures floating around.

 

 

 

I've included my R2 light set (I have two packages of these for my RV), the tiny R2 at the right is my rubber stamp from 1982 (a stocking stuffer from Mom to Dad), the rare McQuarrie concept is in the middle, and on the left is my very first action figure of any kind ever!  I found Leia and R2 pack at the flea market for $7.  I talked him down to $5 and now this pack is hard to find.  I scored big time and didn't even know it!!  Yep, that little find started me on the action figure collecting craziness.  Just droids and jawas for now, even though I have a few Maul's, stormtroopers, and one officer.

 

 

 

The tiniest action figures --  Micro Machines!  Found this for a song at last year's Denver Comic Con.  The seller held it for me for two days until I could get to his booth.  I have great friends, don't I?

 

 

 

Some of my other droids and jawas.  Someday I want to make the big green guy lower left corner.

 

 

Until next time,

Jawa Jaka (happily playing with her dolls while coughing up gunk)

 

As soon as I posted this a friend of mine found another great resource list:

http://astromech.farbauti.de/



And my Kilted Trooper!

I almost forgot to post my Kilted Troope outfit from the St. Pat's parade.  I hand made my kilt with black and white tartan plaid.  The extra fabric from the bottom became my sash with my dad's real four-leaf clover in-a-pin holding my sash together.

 

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka (going green, black and white style!)

IN tunic front panel mockup

After a long St. Pat's weekend that included finishing a kilt, helping on a float, marching in a parade, and eating lots of pizza at Beujou's with good friends, I decided to take a break from my hectic life and work on the IN tunic mockup.  So, here's what I did tonight while watching LOTR/Two Towers for the umpteenth time.

First I got out my muslin.  People ask me what kind of muslin I use, and it's a doozy.  I have hundreds of padded packing paper from seven years ago when my parents passed on.  I just rip the brown paper off and I get lots of blue thin fabric that works quite well.  Ask your local moving companies/uhaul/PODS/etc for some padded paper.  It'll cost you some, but it's cheaper than what you can get at a fabric store.  Or use any old sheets/curtains/etc.  Remember, it's going to be tossed out eventually.

Now on to the fun stuff. 

This is based on a regular IO front panel.  You'll need to adjust and measure this piece on your body using CharToraz's tutorial.  You'll also need to take the right side of the neck line and make a straight edge from center to about one inch below your right shoulder.  In this pic I labeled the panels backwards but the end results are the same.  R will actually go over your left shoulder and L will go just under your right shoulder seam.

From the point where the neck curve becomes straight draw a straight line to the bottom edge somewhat parallel to the right edge.  Cut on this line to make R.  Measure two to three inches from the left edge at both top and bottom.  What ever measurement you decide to use it must be the same at top and bottom.  Draw a straight line and cut to make L.  The middle piece is automatically magic!

These three pieces will be the basis for your pattern pieces.  Take another large piece of muslin and pin R and Mid on it.  Cut at least one inch on the sides you cut in the previous step.  This will give you seam allowance and some extra to adjust for that taylored look (it's always better to cut bigger than smaller!).

For L fold your muslin giving yourself at least one inch extra on the short side.  Lay the long side of L on the fold and cut on the extra inch for seam allowance and adjustments.

As a long-time quilter I like to use a straight edge and rotary cutter.  If you don't have those please try to cut as straight as possible.  Tip:  you can use any ruler or straight edge like a piece of paper and cut outside the edge.  This will help you get a nice clean cut.

At this time you'll have three larger pieces that looks something like this.  L is unfolded in this pic.  Sew R to Mid, then the unfolded L to Mid.

This is what it will look like after sewing the three pieces together.

This is a close up of the top neck line.  Notice the pointed shape of the unfolded L.

This is what you'll get when you fold L under.  L will get some light batting and then whipstitched into place on the back.  I'll have pics of that process later (when I get to that part). 

Again, I had you all cut the pieces a little big for any adjustments.  I already had to adjust the Mid section a little for the L seam (my Mid was a smidgeon too large).  You'll probably be trimming off a little here and there when you get it fitted on the rest of the tunic.

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka (Battle of Helms Deep is still going on!  What a long movie battle!)

Navy Trooper boots

I think I found the boots for the IN on ebay.uk.  They have a size 7 which will work (my shoe size is 6.5 ladies).  Granted they are replicas but they're the right ones with a top buckle and gusset.  A friend of mine got the real thing for much cheaper, so I'm going to see what his looks like and if they have small sizes ($45 for real ones versus $90 for replicas from England).

I'll be making the tunic mockup this weekend.  I'm totally going nuts on this, but I'm determined to get a level 3 (L3) on the IOC out of this.

Until next time,
Jawa Jaka (with small feet)

ANH Navy Trooper part 2

So, after today's MDA troop (which was a blast), and after finishing my kilt, I got back to work on the tunic. Here's a drawing I did of how I'm going to change the front panel, along with some notes. I'm hoping to make better drawings of this, but at least this is a starting point.



Here is a pic of my IN as of today at the MDA troop (second from left).  It's just my IO tunic with no rank badge.



Until next time,
Navy Trooper Jawa Jaka

New ANH Navy Trooper

I've been issued a challenge to create a tutorial for the ANH Navy Trooper costume.  It seems you can no longer wear an IO with a helmet and belt boxes and call it a day (which is what I did).  I'm going for the new Level 3 (L3) super accurate costume.  I've already ordered my metal belt boxes (no plastic for L3), found a source on ebay.uk for the correct boots with straps/gussets, and sent an email to the only person I know making gauntlets for small hands.  As soon as I get all the details ironed out I'm going to post the whole tutorial on the Imperial Officers Corp (IOC) website.  Unfortunately, AL will have to take a backseat again.  Here's the first installment:



I found out that a few have made this tunic but no WIP's, pics, or instructions. The IOC CO has asked me to do a tunic tutorial for this particular one. I spent most of the day cleaning out my sewing room so I could find my IO tunic pattern pieces (found 'em). I'm going to start with that, adjusting the front panel, and tapering instead of skirting the bottom part. It looks like there will be a lot of similarities for building both IO and navy trooper, but I'll do my best to write this tutorial from start to finish. This is going to be fun.

First up is buying McCall's pattern #4745 Men's Civil War. It has the best collar and front panel.


We are going to basically use the one on the left with some major pattern adjustments (and definitely not that long, either). Also, if you can find ChazTorad (Chuck Folz) on the IOC for his IO tunic tutorial print that (I have a hard copy of it if anyone wants a copy). It's several files, ignore the dosimeter pocket instructions (no pockets on navy trooper). And don't bother with the skirt portion (we are going to flare it out as one piece for navy trooper). I'm still researching the sleeves as some say it's a standard fitted sleeve, not the IO two piece sleeve (under and over sleeve). If this is true a standard fitted straight sleeve pattern without cuffs will do. Also, the back is one piece, no princess seams or side cut-ins. I'll get pics up as soon as I cut my correct pattern pieces so everyone can see what I'm talking about (most of this info is for experienced costumers).

I also got some black twill on sale at Joann Fabrics ($6.99 a yard with 20% coupon). I bought the last 5.25 yards at my store and got half off for the last .25 yards as end of bolt sale (couldn't they give me half off for all of it since I practically took the whole bolt?). Get enough for pants and tunic so they can be from the same cut of fabric.

Use any plain fitted straight pants pattern that you can find (Simplicity has several for beginners, I think mine is a very old McCall's). Don't use any old black pants that you find in the store as the chances of it matching the tunic are nil. No Jodphurs for this one! I might put a pocket in them so I can carry keys and wallet (although I think converting one of the belt boxes for that would be awesome). Tomorrow I'll be cutting out my pants pieces and putting that together (now that I have the fabric). I won't be giving detailed instructions on the pants, just follow the pattern instructions. When you're finished iron to crease down the front of the legs. Remember, these have to fit into your boots, so no flared-out bell bottoms.

Last thing for tonight's installment of this tutorial (once I'm finished here I'll tweek and transfer the whole shebang to the IOC): Do not buy/make rank badges for this costume. Navy troopers don't need no stinkin' badges.