Senate Guard Progress!

I started sewing my husband's Senate Guard robes today (he wasn't feeling well, so I thought this might help cheer him up). I got the velvet and lining for the robe cut out and the velvet outer portion of the robe sewn together. Here are a couple of pictures, I would have taken more, but the process was so quick, I didn't even think about it.


Using the velvet of the robe as a "pattern" for the lining of the robe:



My husband modeling the velvet portion of the robe after I had it sewn together:

Senate Guard Helmet

After more than two years of wanting this costume, we finally took some of the tax return money and purchased a Senate Guard helmet for my husband. It came a couple days ago. It will require some work, we got a "raw" helmet because it was about $100 cheaper. This way too, we can choose the color of paint to match the robes more closely. The "spine" is rather crooked, so we'll have to fix it, or create something new. The "lens" is just wrong, it should be black and a more rigid plastic, like sunglasses lenses.


The Helmet:

Front

3/4 Front

Left Side

Back

Right Side

Top

Inside

Spine side

Spine Back

Spine Front

"Lens"

Blue Senate Guard: It can begin!

My husband's Senate Guard fabric came from Sy Fabrics today!






Left to right (all in Royal Blue) : cotton/poly for the under suit, taffeta lining for the robe lining, plush velvet for the robe:

More Senate Guard Observations

When I first started researching this costume to make it for my husband (over two years ago now!) I just assumed that the Senate Guards wore an inner cloak like the Royal Guards did.

This behind the scenes image shows a Royal Guard (on the right) without his red velvet robe, you can clearly see the burgundy colored robe with sleeves:

However, one time while watching "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace" I noticed a scene where the Senate Guards were on Naboo with Chancellor Palpatine. The wind was blowing the outer robes while the Guards were walking and it was very clear to me that they were wearing some sort of blue pants! I couldn't find any picture evidence of this, and I lack the programs that would allow me to do screen captures from the DVD, so I put the movie in my DVD player and took a digital picture. The images are pretty rough, but you can see what I saw: the Senate guards do not have an inner robe, they wear pants! It appears that the "shirt" and "pants" are all one piece like a coverall. The coverall does not appear to have a waist, there is no kind of belt, and no pockets. I did notice that one Senate Guard is wearing his pants tucked into the top of his boots while another is wearing the pants untucked.
(Click on an image to see it larger)
In this image, the Senate Guard on the right of the image is taking rather large strides. The wind is blowing his robe away from his legs. Pants can clearly be seen (untucked):



The Senate Guard on the left just behind Palpatine is another good example of clear evidence that he is wearing pants. If you watch the movie, the robe blows enough to show his waist...I believe there is no waistband, which leads me to believe this is a one-piece coverall sort of thing. His pantlegs are tucked into his boots:



The other Senate Guards in the background are also good evidence that they are wearing pants (tucked or untucked).

Another noteworthy thing that I noticed in several pictures, and should be replicated by anyone making/wearing this costume is that the sleeves of the under-"coverall" are worn OVER the gloves. (This can also be seen in the screen captures of mine above.)




*Update*

I learned something new that was pointed out to me. Senate Guards also used Force Pikes! See this image from "Star Wars: Attack of the Clones"

Blue Sentate Guard Fabric Studies

I have been struggling to find a blue velvet that satisfies my "mind's eye" for the Blue Senate Guard costume for my husband. As a result, I have collected a few swatches and thought it might be good to do a fabric study with all of them in one image under the same lighting. I chose to lay the swatches on top of my "Dressing A Galaxy" book on the pages that feature the Blue Guards, as a reference since I figure if people obsess about this costume like I do they will have this book as well and can use it as a color guide because all computer screen displays are slightly different.

(Click on an image to see it larger)

• The top left swatch (the largest one) is from an eBay vendor. It is the closest I've seen to the actual color of the robes which is a more dusty blue than royal blue. However, most people think of this costume as royal blue because that's how it most often photographs.

• The bottom left is from JoAnn's in a royal blue, but I think it is too dark.

• The top right is from SyFabrics in Royal Blue triple plush velvet.

• The bottom right is the Navy blue triple plush velvet from SyFabrics which is definitely too dark.

I think I might go with the Royal Blue from SyFabrics, even though it seems a bit too purple, just because it's fairly inexpensive, and readily available -which means that more people can purchase it and we can all match and look uniform. Sy also carries a lining fabric and poly/cotton fabric in Royal Blue that can be used to line the robe and create the inner garment, respectively.

Here are the swatches without flash.

Swatches with flash, different angle.

Senate Guard Images

Senate Guard/Blue Guard Images:


Episodes 1 & 2:










Episode 3:



Senate Guard Blaster:

TPM/AOTC [Blue] Senate Guard Costume

After a Rebel Legion event the end of March 2008, my husband (who was dressed as Episode 2 AOTC Owen Lars for the event) informed me that his original thought about the Senate Guard costume was indeed correct: He did want a Senate Guard Costume. Since I am the Star Wars fanatic in our household and always drag my husband along, I thought it only fitting (and smart) to make him a costume that he actually chose for himself. I have made him the Ep 2 Owen and a prequel Jedi costume but they were my choices. My next choice for us was going to be a set of X-wing pilot costumes from the original trilogy. However, my husband's desire for the Senate Guard has got me digging into research for it, and also for a costume for me that would compliment it (see my post about the Senator Amidala gown)

Here are a couple images of the costume I will be making, as money permits:



The costume will be fairly simple to make (with the exception of the helmet, if I can't find a helmet maker with a reasonable price) but will not be cheap as the floor length robe is velvet, lined with a satiny blue fabric. There also is an "under robe", you can just see the sleeve of the under robe of the arm the guards use to hold their blasters. They also have matching gloves. Thankfully, I found out the boots are just black instead of blue as I was fearing. Black boots are much easier to come by than blue ones, especially in 11.5 size mens'!!

We both think the blaster (seen here:)will be relatively easy to make out of wood, so that is what we plan on doing ourselves.

I was wondering how I would find velvet, cotton, lining fabric, and stretch material for the gloves that were all the same, or similar, blue color. This costume is beautiful, but it wouldn't be as lovely if the blues didn't match. I think I came to a conclusion: purchase all of my fabric in white and then dye everything to match. It will require the purchase of dye which will add cost, but when all things are considered, I think we'll both be happier with the end result if we go that route and it all looks uniform. It is, after all, a uniform!

I will be updating this post as I have more to share, but for now this costume only exists as research. I did purchase a robe pattern from Butterick (when JoAnn's was having a $1.50 sale!) that I will use as my base: B4050

I'll need to leave the hood off, and re-do it so it doesn't have sleeves, but has arm slits instead. I think I won't make it as full as the pattern calls for either. I haven't gotten down to the nitty gritty of altering the pattern yet, but I'll be sure to post my findings when I do.

Someone who had made the red Royal Guard costume (which is almost identical except in color and helmet to the Blue Senate Guard) said he used Simplicity 4942 View A as his under robe and I agree that it looks like it would work perfectly with very little modification. As an added bonus, I had already picked up the pattern when JoAnn's was having a 99 cent sale! View A is the "elf" in the bottom right corner wearing the white robe with brown belt: