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"

Classic Battlestar Galactica Jacket Swatch

I got my Alova Suede swatch today from Sy Fabrics and it is the closest match to the screen used jacket material that I have seen! In person, it is actually a closer match than the pictures show.



Flash off:




Flash on:

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:

Hoth Snow Speeder Swatch

I ordered a swatch of orange lining taffeta from Sy Fabrics to see if it might possibly work for the Hoth Rebel Snow Speeder jacket. Unfortunately, it was too thin, and too pale...

Here it is on top of my flight suit:




Here it is on top of the quilted nylon I found for Jason's & my jackets (I think that fabric is pretty much perfect color, thickness, sheen, and texture-wise except for the quilting stitches I have to pick out):

Update on Battlestar Galactica Warrior Uniform

I'm 99.9% finished with my Colonial Warrior uniform (I just have a bit of hand sewing on the inside to finish), so I thought I'd post a progress picture:

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"