Build Thread: Double Trouble from Down Under

[Arminius]

Very nice,would you mind if I save the pics as references for my costume? I'm doing an AOTC but the only thing that changes is the outer robe and boots,the rest is the same.

Hi Arminus, thanks very much. You're most welcome to use the pictures for your costume. I hope they are helpful. All the very best with your build.

Thanks,they surely will.Good luck!

[RedWraith]

One small criticism...that I noted straight up. Make sure you have your gloves tucked into the sleeves as per CRL when you submit.

Good luck

Hi BuddyLove, thanks very much for the tip. We hadn't noticed that detail in the CRL. We've now updated the previous posts with corrected photos (and added some more close-ups too). Thanks again!

[Crimson8]

How did the approval go? Were you approved?

[RedWraith]

How did the approval go? Were you approved?

Unfortunately not. We've had a number of difficulties along the way, but are now stuck on one point in particular - the inner lining of the outer robe. Although it is there and the correct colour, as per the CRL which states "The robe is lined with burgundy or wine colour velvet or velveteen", it is only sewn in down the sides and is loose (but still hemmed) on the bottom edge. Apparently our GML enquired about this with the DL here and was told "The lining of the outer robe has to be attached fully", even though the CRL did not specify this anywhere (and still doesn't).

The problem for us is that there isn't enough material to have the lining sewn in along the bottom (they came from IB with the inner lining being much shorter than the outer lining). Even if we had enough excess material from offcuts, the amount of unpicking, hemming and resewing is non-trivial and has set us back months when we thought we were ready to go.

It's just incredibly disheartening to be rejected (indirectly mind you!) after spending so much time and money trying to make sure we got every costume detail right. We read the CRL, took all our measurements, acquired all the best gear we could find, tailored our costumes for our heights, dressed up about four times for photos, posted here (for which we have not got any feedback from the DL) and then went for approval. I just don't know what else we could have possibly done to avoid this. If the DL's advice is so crucial to approval, how can these things not be explicitly stated in the CRL, given as feedback on our build thread or have come up before for the 50+ Royal Guards with IB robes? I just can't understand it .

Anyway, hopefully we'll get some time over the Christmas break to make the required corrections and see if we can be approved next year instead!

[Sith Lord]

Yeah, unfortunately you won't get any/much feedback from the DL here. He's made 60 posts in 4 years! There's one or two command staff that chime in on a regular basis, but not often enough....

Unfortunately things like that come down to interpretation. Aspects of all costumes need to be looked at in terms of the CRL, screen references and interpretation of what looks 'right'. Personally in my mind, "lined" means fully stitched on all edges. If it was only 1 edge it would be a cape, if it's all 4, it's obviously lined. If it's only 2 or 3, then it gets in the grey area. So, I can understand both the GML and DL's decision.

Just watched ROTJ again and you don't really get any great shots of the inner robes, but Sideshow have done well with their model:
Screen Shot 2020-01-05 at 8.09.20 PM by https://www.flickr.com/photos/158941806@N05/, on Flickr

From memory, was there an image provided that showed the inner white lining/padding? I think it was that image that made the GML/DL question the satisfactory completion of the robes.

Did IB come back with any resolution for you? Are they liable, do they guarantee 501st acceptance?

[OCD_Chad]

I did not know that about the Imperial Boots robes. Have they always been like this and are just getting approved anyway?

[Crimson8]

Ok had a good look at my guard robes. The inner lining is same length as robe and is stitched all the way along the edges of arm slits and all around whole robe. This is so it hangs right, a certain heaviness is needed for robe to drape down cascading from shoulders to ground. The inner lining is cheaper material, being broadcloth and is same material as the thawb. Same burgundy colour. A seamstress could sew the inner lining around the robe and approval photos taken and hopefully all will be up to standard. Don't worry as these things happen to all of us, for instance my robe at first wasn't approved as the seamstress put the arm slits too far back and I had to get her to unpick the whole thing and redo the slits which took a fortnight but after that it was approved. Good luck.

[Batsk]

So any update on your approval? If not then perhaps you can have your gml contact us so that we can help. Plus it never hurts to know that the detachment is there when needed.

[OCD_Chad]

Here's the lining on mine. How about we update the CRL with something like "The robe is lined on the inside with the same cloth and color as the Inner Robe. This inner lining is attached to the outer robe along the edges of the outer robe"?

[RedWraith]

Well it has only taken us a bit over two years, but we finally got around to doing another photo shoot of our corrected Royal Guard costumes. We actually fixed the inner lining of the outer robes some time ago and ended up replacing our gloves so they fit better under the inner robe sleeves, but with everything else going on hadn't finalised our photos until now.

Unfortunately things like that come down to interpretation. Aspects of all costumes need to be looked at in terms of the CRL, screen references and interpretation of what looks 'right'. Personally in my mind, "lined" means fully stitched on all edges. If it was only 1 edge it would be a cape, if it's all 4, it's obviously lined. If it's only 2 or 3, then it gets in the grey area. So, I can understand both the GML and DL's decision.

Yes, we agree with you. It was a pain in the neck to restitch the lining, but despite the effort it took us, it definitely looks better. We're happy with the end result.

Did IB come back with any resolution for you? Are they liable, do they guarantee 501st acceptance?

IB didn't really resolve it directly for us, and deferred to the GML saying that approval was their decision, but they did send us their new gloves and some extra material so we could go and sort it out ourselves. Definitely better than nothing, but I did expect they would want to correct the significant flaw in their design for the future.

I did not know that about the Imperial Boots robes. Have they always been like this and are just getting approved anyway?

IB only said that they had never encountered this issue before with the 50+ Royal Guard costumes they'd sold previously, so perhaps our GML was just more attentive than others (ultimately for the better).

Don't worry as these things happen to all of us, for instance my robe at first wasn't approved as the seamstress put the arm slits too far back and I had to get her to unpick the whole thing and redo the slits which took a fortnight but after that it was approved. Good luck.

Plus it never hurts to know that the detachment is there when needed.

Thanks for the encouragement, hopefully getting over the line is straightforward this time around.

Here's the lining on mine. How about we update the CRL with something like "The robe is lined on the inside with the same cloth and color as the Inner Robe. This inner lining is attached to the outer robe along the edges of the outer robe"?

We completely agree. This should definitely be cleared up, but I notice that despite our experience and in all this time that the CRL still hasn't changed. I might push for it once we're approved.