I got an email from a fellow Ahsoka fangirl asking for more information about my Ahsoka belts. I tend to get overwhelmed writing a bunch of pages on here, so when people ask questions, it helps me finally write it all out! So all the information below is brought to you courtesy of the fangirl who asked. Don't hesitate to email me if you have a question! You can reach me anytime at becomingahsoka@gmail.com.
I think I might redo my belts a little bit later, but they're the one part of my Ahsoka costume right now that I'm relatively ok with. I'm a big perfectionist, haha.
For the belts, I went to my local goodwill and found 4 belts that were the same width. Length doesn't matter because you're going to cut the buckles and the ends off to make four pieces that are long enough to go from where Ahsoka's buckle is in the front around to where her pouch is in the back. Measure the top two and the bottom two separately with a tape measure since the measurements will be different.
When I was at Goodwill, I also bought a red-ish brown button up shirt that was the right color that I used to cover all the belts. I just traced around the belts onto some paper for a pattern, added a little extra for a seam allowance, and then sewed two pieces that length together to make covers for the belt pieces. I sewed snaps onto the ends of each piece.
I used felt for the pouch in the back middle and then covered that in fabric from the same shirt as the belts. It's not the best way to do it, but it worked ok. My sewing skills have come a long way since I made those. Haha. The pouch had 4 snaps sewn to it for the belt pieces.
For the belt buckle, I used a photo mat paper material, like one of the mats that you put inside a picture frame. At least that was the thickness of the paper stuff, my Mom had it and I'm not sure where it came from. It was a full sheet of it, but a photo frame mat is the best stuff for the buckle I think, the thickness is great with it still being relatively easy to cut. And the paper makes it paintable. I just painted it gold and used two part epoxy to glue snaps to the back of the buckle that attach to the belt pieces.
The tabard, or purple hanging thing, needs to be redone for sure. I rushed it so badly! I literally made it the day I went to go meet Ashley the second time. The day we left I was painting it. The biggest problems it has aren't necessarily with the paint but with the sewing job. I have gained muchhhh more sewing experience since I made that thing. The first problem is that my fabric is too light of a color for Ahsoka. It needs to be a darker purple. The second problem is that the only thread I could find to match said fabric was a heavy duty thick thread. I didn't adjust my sewing machine tension accordingly, so the thread is super loose around the whole thing. Horrid. XP The third problem is that I didn't use fusible interfacing on it. Fusible interfacing is a type of thin, gauzy material that has a side that irons down to fabric to help thicken it. I didn't use any interfacing, so the two fabric layers are really thin. Definitely use some interfacing when you make the tabard! A simple google search will tell you all you need to know about interfacing. The fourth problem (like I said, it has a bunch of issues XD ) is that I top stitched around the entire tabard, so it has ugly top stitching showing all around it. I don't know what your sewing level is so forgive me if I'm giving you way too much information here. XD When you sew two pieces of fabric together to get a clean edge (like you're making a pillow, say), you cut two of the exact same thing and then stitch all around the two pieces of fabric, leaving just a small hole open. You then flip the fabric right side out and then you have clean edges on the front and back. When I was sewing then, I thought that then stitching all around that shape on the top was the only way to close the hole without it looking bad. What I now know is that there is a hand stitch called the "ladder stitch" (tutorial here http://www.positivelysplendid.com/2013/02/sew-a-pillow-closed-by-hand-blind-ladder-stitch.html ) that you can use to seamlessly close the hole and it's not visible at all. This is why I took a break from Ahsoka to strengthen my sewing skills on other cosplays! Haha, I know so much more now! I painted the decal on the front of the tabard with Acrylic paint. I found a close up picture of the design, printed it as big as I could on one piece of paper, cut all the pieces out, traced them onto the tabard in pencil, then painted them all in. It worked pretty well, all things considered, but the whole thing is not quite up to par with my personal standard.
