Han Thunder Solo

Character: Han Solo
Costume: Sparkly soul singer
From: Star Wars by way of Dreamgirls
Made: 2007
Awards: Part of a skit that won a Lucasfilm company award (2007 San Diego Comic-Con Masquerade)

I made this costume for our 2007 Comic-Con Masquerade skit, "Rebel Dreams," a Star Wars/Dreamgirls mashup. (Lots more pictures, plus video, are available on that page!)

I had so much fun designing and making a James Thunder Early-style Han costume! I kept coming up with ideas that involved more and more sparkly and shiny things, a few of which Rogue wisely talked me out of. I'm very pleased with the final product, although I still want to add all the front pockets to the vest, and my husband really wants a gun belt. (A SPARKLY gunbelt, I say!)

San Diego Comic-Con 2007
(thanks to grimreaper4u, Kel and Corli, red_tzar, and Eurobeat King for the pics!)

Dragon*Con 2007

(thanks to Michelle and Kay Dee for the pics!)

Construction

Dreamgirls Leia

Character: Princess Leia
Costume: Sparkly diva senatorial robes!
From: Star Wars by way of Dreamgirls
Made: 2007
Awards: Part of a skit that won a Lucasfilm company award (2007 San Diego Comic-Con Masquerade)

I made this costume for our 2007 Comic-Con Masquerade skit, "Rebel Dreams," a Star Wars/Dreamgirls mashup. (Lots more pictures, plus video, are available on that page!)

We had quite a lot of discussion on how to best Dreamgirl-ize the Leia costume. At first we thought of doing three different Leias, one from each movie, but then decided it would work better if we all did the same outfit, and of course Senatorial Leia is the most recognizable. Gentle Giant has a cool animated Leia maquette that provided some good inspiration, but we worried that the sleeves might not work with the choreography, so Kel and Corli came up with the halter-top-and-gloves idea. We each "claimed" a different Dreamgirl-- I was Deena, by virtue of being the shortest!

San Diego Comic-Con 2007
(thanks to grimreaper4u, Kel and Corli, red_tzar, and Eurobeat King for the pics!)

Dragon*Con 2007

(thanks to Michelle and Kathy for the pics!)

Construction

Masquerade: Rebel Dreams

Entry Title: Rebel Dreams
Fandom: Star Wars/Dreamgirls mashup
Convention: San Diego Comic-Con 2007
Awards: Lucasfilm company award (a giant R2-D2 drink cooler)
Cast Members: Caitlin, Corli, and Kel (the Leias), Rogue (Han Thunder Solo)

We were brainstorming for the Comic-Con 2007 Masquerade via email, and Kel and Cordelia said, "Hey, we've got three girls and a guy, so what about Star Wars Dreamgirls?" I replied with "Spangles on the Leia dresses and sequined bloodstrips on Han's pants?" and we were off and running. Cordelia whipped up a parody medley, we all recorded our parts, and I endlessly rewatched the movie to learn the choreography and teach it to the others. We had a great time with it, and we were very excited to win an industry award from Lucasfilm!

Performance and Photostage Pictures courtesy of rickpickett and insearchofheroes.com:

Lyrics

Sith Cheerleader

Costume: Sith Cheerleader
From: Star Wars and our crazy brains!
Made: 2004 (original version), 2007 (official version)

When they announced the title of Episode III at Comic-Con 2004, and then started selling shirts, I was thrilled. I thought they looked awesome. However, by the time I got one, all they had left were extra-large and extra-extra large. So I got an XXL, figuring I could cut it down to a sort of mini-dress, as I'd done before with a huge T-shirt.

And then the idea sort of...mutated, as I started thinking about modifying the skirt and adding some color and suddenly it became the most obvious idea in the world-- I should clearly be a Sith cheerleader! It fit perfectly with our group's Friday activity at GenCon Indy 2004, a sort of silly mock-Olympics. I had lots of fun brainstorming ideas for evil Sithly cheers with my teammates. ("That's all right, that's okay, we're gonna kill you all someday!")

Right around that time, unbeknownst to me, another group of ladies were getting "official" Sith cheerleader uniforms made. In summer 2007 I finally took the plunge and bought one so I could join the "team" photoshoot at Dragon*Con 2007. I love my super-sharp cheerleading outfit! It's even more fun to wear it as part of a big group.

Dragon*Con 2007, "official" version
(thanks to David for the pics!)

GenCon Indy 2004

(thanks to Brian for the pics!)