Spontaneous Star Wars Stormtrooper

I was not planning on making this. Indeed, when my nephew called with the request, my initial response was thanks but no. Unfortunately it turns out I love a sewing challenge more than is probably healthy.

So he is the scenario: My nephew Hugo, flushed with cash from spending two hours cleaning the house, decides he wants to buy a Stormtrooper costume. Not wanting some cheep polyester rubbish (can't blame her!), Sarah redirects this request by suggesting Hugo ask me to make it and pay me instead. As I said, my initial thought was no. Stormtrooper costumes are so complicated and layered and yuck. Not something I wanted to venture into. 

But I told Hugo I'd think it over and let him know. When I hung up the phone, I was thinking it over and my mind refused to let it go. How could I solve this puzzle? A comfortable, wearable and also recognisable Stormtrooper costume. Was it possible? 

I did a bit of research on the internet of what other people did for a DIY Stormtrooper costume, and found that people resoundingly made them out of foam or cardboard, but that the reviews were "looked great, kids loved the photos, but they couldn't wear it long term, it was too uncomfortable". So could I make one that was comfortable enough for my nine year old nephew to run around and have a nurf gun battle with his mates? Also remembering that this is Australia, and he's likely to overheat even in October.  

I broke down the parts, and figured it came down to the vest, waist part and belt. If I could make those and potentially a pair of basic white pants, he should be right to go. Fabric is way more comfy than cardboard to wear, and all it would need would be some strong interfacing, which I happened to have leftover from making some obi earlier in the year. So, I got to work. 

I did this costume in a week and a half, so not many photos at all. I traced around the girls for a basic pattern, dug out white fabric from my stash (I think I bought it for cheep table cloths for Christmas over ten years ago) and got going. I hand sewed the features of that waist part at church. Everything else was pretty simple, and I managed to have all the parts in my stash - black elastic that had come from someone's stash at some point, a sturdy clip for the belt and some scrap velcro from who knows where. 

The vest needed a bit of extra shaping along with the super sturdy interfacing, so I added a layer of cotton batting. The belt has blocky parts on it, which I sewed on and stuffed with some random stuffing from an old pillow. I did end up having enough time (and fabric) to sew together a pair of white pants and we were good to go. 

Hugo had a mask and a white shirt at home already, and he was over the moon with his costume. I'm pretty happy about how it turned out too, for a week and a bit of sewing with no pattern at all, and no trips to Spotlight for whatever I didn't have. Hooray!