So, I got invited to a friend’s Star Wars themed birthday recently (I won’t say *which* birthday, I don’t think that would be particularly appreciated). Someone had joked about it being a costume party, with obvious consequences…

In terms of options, there was only ever one choice…

Harrison Ford is Han Solo in Star Wars

So, I present Bryn Solo!

Bryn Solo – Kessel Run in 12 parsecs or less

A few things I learnt from this particular escapade…

1) I really need to practice my had-stitching — Seriously, it’s terrible. The stitches are uneven, crooked and all over the place. It’s a miracle that any of it hangs together (the stripe on the trousers is stitched on by me).

2) Spray Paints are jolly good fun — The blaster originally came in a wonderful shade of white plastic, which rather ruins the effect:

The cheapo replica pistol sold by Amazon…

But after some painting…

Not quite the right shade of grey on the muzzle, but a lot closer than the original prop did…

3) The Holster — Possibly the most accurate part… an actual replica bought online from Jedi Robes.com

4) 80s beige shirts are hard to come by… even in London — Despite checking out all the places you’d expect to find such things in London (Shoreditch, Soho, Covent Garden & Camden Market, I’d not been able to track down a single place I could get a shirt & jacket combo that worked. Amazon listed a “deluxe” costume (this version came with a seprate vest and shirt…) which answered the requirement. The trousers on the other hand came with some ridiculous fake boots… speaking of which…

5) Knee-high boots for men — Another thing that turns out to be quite tricky to find. The only pair I’d been able to track down were a pair of rubber riding boots (essentially wellington boots). The problem was, whilst they were okay to the size of my foot, I couldn’t actually get the damned things on. So, in a fit of pique, I cut a 10″ slit in the inside edge, which fixed one problem, but created another…

The boots, one problem fixed but another created…

A zip was dismissed (since it wouldn’t add enough space for me to actually be able to zip them up). I opted instead to put in a large velcro tab type thing (which was initially glued in place, then re-enforced with stiches – again, appalingly stitched).

So… the stripe is badly stitched on, the boots are a travesty and the shirt comes from a cheap costume, but I honestly couldn’t be happier that it all hangs together. It actually *looks* like what I’d originally intended. My take-away from the whole thing is that I just need to take a bit more time to look at a problem, then implement it properly, rather than half-heartedly working on getting it done (because part of me didn’t fully believe it’d work). The solution I came up with worked, and a bit more effort on my part would have ended up with with a much neater-looking end product. I’ve also learnt a lot about how some of these materials work, how to attach one to the other, and where I can pick up supplies to get these jobs done.

Plus, I have a reasonable Han Solo Costume…

Achievement Unlocked: 1st Cosplay Effort
Skills:
+1 Sewing
+1 Prop Replication
+1 Botching & Making Good