When our family decided on Star Wars Return of the Jedi theme for Halloween my kids had fun picking their characters. Gandalf right away picked Han Solo. Can’t blame him. He’s cool, funny, and handsome. The boys love quoting, “Who’s scruffy looking?”. And let’s be honest, Gandalf is pretty cool. I had made Grady a Han Costume when we first got married. One of the first things I try to do when making my costumes is finding the right pieces. When you are sewing for 6 it’s nice to find parts of your costume already finished for you. Thrift stores are the perfect place to score such items. No sense in spending full price on a piece of clothing when you are only going to where it a couple of times.
Han Solo Tutorial
I headed to the Goodwill and scored these pants. They were a size smaller than he wears but I knew I would be making boot covers. Plus they needed to be tight. I went back another day and scored two more pieces for his costume. His whole costume was less than $10! And in case you haven’t seen his little brother’s Luke Skywalker Costume, I bought that shirt for $2, making it the cheapest costume this year. I love saving money and having costumes that are unique and handmade.
You can see the items I purchased above for our Han Solo Costume. I found a boy’s plain black long sleeve shirt. I simply removed the sleeves with my fabric scissors and cup a line up the center. Easy! And his vest is done.
To make his shirt, with his trademark high collar I opted to buy some sheets from the Goodwill. And a even bigger blessing is that on that day all blue tagged items were 50% off. So his shirt, or rather vest, was $1.50 and my sheet was $3.00. I don’t think I could have gotten that much material for three dollars at a fabric store. Plus I have all the extra material for a future project. (Yay hoarding fabric)
Grab a shirt for your pattern. Tuck in your sleeves and cut around the body of your shirt. Be sure to cut two. I purposely made the bottom of my shirt where there was already a finished edge. I didn’t want to have to bother with a hem. Another bonus of using a sheet.
Sew the top shoulders together as well as the sides, leaving holes for the arms and neck. I also cut a vertical line down the center of his shirt to give him that style. Just a couple of inches to achieve that open collar.
Next I measured his neck area. I didn’t want his collar to extend all the way to those now open flaps. I measured an inch or two away from that. I cut a rectangle of material along with some interfacing to make it stand up a bit better. Fold the material and interfacing together with the interfacing on the outside. Sew seams along the ends to keep your material folded and then flip it out so your shirt material is now on the outside. Sew your collar to the right side of your top so it will stick up. Don’t worry if your seams show a bit. We are in the middle of a rebellion. Unfinished seams aren’t important right now. We need to hurry up before that space station is operational.
Measure your arm holes to know the width of your next rectangle. Next measure your child’s arm to know the length. Cut out two rectangles. Notice again how I use the sheets seams to my advantage. If you are using regular material just be sure to hem the edges when you are done. Matching right sides together sew your sleeves to your shirt. I also went back and folded over the front flaps from my cut I made earlier and did a basic top stitch to keep it from fraying. I love the old sheet color for my Han shirt. It looks perfect. Then using leftover pleather from last year’s Halloween costume I made simple boot covers. I simply cut two pieces per foot and sew them together. Making sure to cut on a fold so your pieces match up properly.
He was pretty excited for his costume this year. That always warms my heart. And my hubby is so happy and proud that his kids are crazy about Star Wars. His blaster is a Nerf Gun my hubby spray painted black with some spray paint years ago. I think he purposely left the tip of the gun orange so everyone could see it was a toy gun. Taking pictures with a weapon is always a highlight for my kids.
I might end up making him that cool gun holster. We will see how quickly I can finish up the rest of the costumes. I thought these sparse desert plants would have to do for Endor.
We had to quickly take some pictures before the sun went down. And with all the Halloween sewing I had to scratch the meal planning I had and make Quesadilla’s instead. The kids were happy so it all worked out. Honestly I love how our Han Solo Costume turned out. It was easy and you have to love the price. Plus we could probably reuse that shirt for our next Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Look at how handsome he is!!! He is sure growing up fast. I still can’t believe I have a 10 year old kid. Things have been going pretty great for him too. He has met a nice friend and I have heard the kids in his class are really looking out for him. Love this funny boy with all of my heart.
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Check out our easy Luke Skywalker Costume here. And stay tuned for more Return of the Jedi costumes this next week. Or click on the side under the tag Star Wars to find more posts like this.