Halloween Costumes- Part II- Darth Vader!

Welcome to the dark side!

This Darth Vader costume is one I'm particularly proud of. My husband just happens to have a life-size cut-out of Darth Vader that I used as a model for all the doodads on the chest. It's kind of hard to describe how I put it together, but I'll try.

• For the main top, I traced one of son's shirts to get the right size and shape for my pattern.
• Then I cut strips of gray and black fabric, sewed them together in an alternating fashion until the assembled piece was wide enough to fit across his chest.
• I sewed the striped piece to a solid black piece that was roughly twice as tall as the striped piece.
• Since I was using a thin, slippery fabric that frayed easily, I used my pattern to cut out the front piece that I had sewed together, plus 3 more pieces from the solid black- one to use as backing for the front, and 2 to sew together for the back. Does that make sense?

DISCLAIMER: I was totally winging this project without a lot of knowledge or experience, so you may have a much better way of finishing this project!

• I sewed the 2 front pieces with the right sides together, leaving the bottom open, and then flipped them right side out. I did the same for the back.
  
• Tuck the bottom edges in and sew securely.
• Sew the front and back together at the shoulders and one side. To make this easy to get on and off, I sewed hook-and-eye sets to the remaining shoulder and side. Velcro would have been a better choice...
• I sewed an additional eye on top of each of the shoulders, near the neck. This is so you can hook the cape on securely.
• Now you get to paint the front! I used those puff paints that come in a squeeze tube. Just trace what you want on first with one of those chalky pencils and go slow. Or just use the Force. =)
  

For the cape:

• Take a 3'x3' piece of fabric, hem or serge the edges, make a 3/4" hem across the top , leaving the sides open.
• Guide a 12" piece of 1/2" elastic through the top hem and sew each end into the edge of the cape. (Sorry, I'm not very good at this describing thing, am I?)
• Put a hook at each end of the elasticized neck so it can hook onto the awesome top.

You're going to have to buy a mask and lightsaber (unless you're more talented than and creative than I), but it shouldn't be too hard to find some black pants and a shirt to wear underneath.