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Hey, I'm back again! Finished my Tusken recently and now that I have some sewing skills, would like to revisit the Guard. Can anyone tell me exactly how they sewed their outer robe? I can look up how to do the lining easily enough, but how do you make the robe itself?

Also, I remember someone recommending velveteen over velvet because it wouldn't get ruined in the rain. Has anyone worn their velvet Guard in the rain?

The pattern my GF used was originally a cape where the sleeves were extended out to become part of the cloak itself.

I personally would recommend the velveteen as it can handle getting wet, wether that be from rain or to be washed after a troop.

Velvet does not like water and can easily be destroyed by rain or worse...

Thanks for the reply, Stripes. Do you happen to know if the red and burgundy here would be acceptable?

http://www.distinctivefabric.com/fabric ... VELVETEEN2

DarthMel wrote:Hey, I'm back again! Finished my Tusken recently and now that I have some sewing skills, would like to revisit the Guard. Can anyone tell me exactly how they sewed their outer robe? I can look up how to do the lining easily enough, but how do you make the robe itself?

Also, I remember someone recommending velveteen over velvet because it wouldn't get ruined in the rain. Has anyone worn their velvet Guard in the rain?

DarthMel,

Great to hear that you might be doing a Royal Guard. We definitely need more in Ohio. For my outer robes, I made my own pattern, which are basically 4 trapezoidal shape pieces (back and front are exactly the same and the 2 sides are the same) that are sewn together. The 2 side pieces were more narrow at the top then the back and front pieces and all the pieces had a slight curve to them at the bottom. I can show you my robes in a future troop if that would help. My inner and outer robes are velvet and I try to only wear my RG costume at indoor trooping events.

DarthMel wrote:Thanks for the reply, Stripes. Do you happen to know if the red and burgundy here would be acceptable?

http://www.distinctivefabric.com/fabric ... VELVETEEN2

Looking over them, the red appears to be almost pink in colour, but short of seeing an actual swatch of the fabric I can't say for sure. I know my velveteen is a nice crimson red, but if a flash hits it right can, it can show up a bit pink..

The dark burgundy looks to be the right colour though.

I would go with this Red shade which is listed under the "velvet section of the fabric listing"

Looks like I will be going with the velvet afterall. Bdgr, I would definitely like to see your robes. I think the problem I'm having is that I haven't been able to see how anyone actually stitched their robe together, so I can't visualize it. From the way you describe yours, you would have 4 seams, is that correct? I always pictured it being one or two pieces of cloth, but that wouldn't work if the velvet comes in at only 44" in width.

No. There would only be 3 full length seams for a ROTJ robe, since the front of the right side piece would be sewn partially to the front piece from the shoulder down to the arm pit. Remember that the ROTJ robe has a "slit" opening on the right side with the front piece slightly overlapping the right side piece. Maybe the following image will help. The red lines are where the 4 pieces are sewn together for my ROTJ RG Robes.

Oops! I was half asleep when I wrote that. I meant to type 3

That pictue really does help though. Thank you!

It also depends on how big the person is... For my cloak there are 2 back panels, 2 side panels and a front panel.... Anything less and it wouldn't fall with a proper drape as it would be tight fitting (44" fabric trying to cover a 54" chest and all). It all depends on your personal physique, though the above photo is a good rough starting point.