I must admit that I am extremely proud of these costumes.  They represent my first attempt at reproducing movie costumes and the furthest I had ever deviated from commercial patterns.  (I suppose the next step is drafting my own patterns.)
 
 

The Jedi

The pants I actually made from a very simple pants pattern that has an elastic waist.  These took less than an hour each from laying out the pattern to finishing up the hem.

The tunic was a little more complicated.  I ended up digging through my mothers old patterns and found a pattern from the '70's that I though would work well.  I know that won't help anyone else, but I would assume that any pattern that has a kind of kimono or robe styling to it would work.  I made two separate layers, lowering the neckline of the outer one (so that both layers would show) and making one without sleeves to reduce bulk.  Neither tunic has any fastening since the belt holds everything together.

The next layer was the two tabards.  I simply cut out four long rectangles (long enough to hang down below the belt both in front and behind) and sewed them together to form two long tubes.  Once I had turned them and finished the unsewn edge, they were ready to go.  A shorter third one of these tubes is used as a sash around the waist for under the belt.

The cloaks were also fairly strait forward.  I used a pattern for a fleece jacket and lengthened all of the pieces so that the finished cloak would reach down to the ankle.  I gave a little bit more fullness to the sleeves (enough so that each hand can be characteristically tucked into the opposite sleeve and still have plenty of room).  Looking back, I also wish that I had made the hoods a bit fuller and a bit longer.  (I think too that a wool fabric would have helped here; the polyester just has too much perk and doesn't quite drape the way the hoods do in the movies.)

I was thrilled with how the belts turned out until my brothers started hanging things from them and the straps started to stretch.  There were two problems here, both of which I could have solved.  We made the belts out of brown vinyl using a clasp and jean buttons purchased at the local fabric store.  One of my brothers created the pattern which simply consists of three strips of fabric, one of a larger width than the other two.  The larger one should be just a few inches shorter than the waist measurement and the narrow ones should be about four to five inches longer (any excess length in these needs to be adjusted while attaching the buckle).  I folded over and stitched down the edges of the larger strip and sewed a narrow strip to each end.  Here is were I made a mistake; I should have folded over and stitched the narrow pieces just as I did with the wide piece.  This would have prevented some of the stretching you can see in the picture.  I place the jean buttons equidistant from the front center and then did a fitting to adjust the placement of the buckle.  The finished belt wraps around the wearer with the narrow pieces wrapping back around to the front and clasping in the center.

The light saber is my brother's creation, so I can't give you any idea as to its construction except that it involves a piece of pipe and a bicycle grip.
 
 

Amidala's Picnic Dress

The easiest part of this dress was the skirt, even without a pattern.  Because my fashion fabric was so sheer, I lined it with a lavender polyester lining fabric that helped to bring out the design in my fashion fabric.  I started out by sewing the two pieces of fabric together on the selvage.  (I didn't cut gores or anything.  There is only one seem in the skirt and that is in the back.)  I also cut out a waistband and then pleated the sewn-together-selvege-edge of the skirt to the waistband.  I wanted the skirt to be VERY full, so I used six yards of fabric and used rolled pleats at the waist to take it all in.  The result was exactly what I had hoped for, although not entirely in keeping with the original costume.  The original costume appears to be a gored circle skirt (or perhaps a little more than a full circle), which keeps the bulk out of the waist and still gives a very wide hemline.

The blouse probably took the most problem solving.  I wanted a blouse that was separate from the corset, unlike the original costume.  I ended up using a pattern from a Renaissance blouse that has an elastic neckline and raglan sleeves, but left the elastic out of the neckline and adjusted it to fit just off the shoulder.  (I should insert a note here.  In the pictures you may notice that my sleeves are two layered; I honestly thought that was how the original costume is.  I know better now that I have seen better pictures, so please forgive me.)  I made the capelet by holding a length of fabric with the selvage around my shoulders hand having my mother mark off where to cut it (I know that is very untechnical, but it made sense at the time and it guaranteed that the capelet would have the exact shape and drape that I wanted).  I then sewed the capelet right in with the bias that finishes off the neckline of the blouse.  For the crisscross sleeve ties I took several lengths of grosgrain ribbon (approximately three yards each), doubled them over so that I had two strands at half that length, and then sewed them into the sleeve seem just above the elbow.  (One thing I discovered while waiting in line to get into the movie theater for six hours is that grosgrain does not stick to polyester even a little bit.  My crisscross lacing was sliding down my arm all night.  I went to my local fabric store and picked up some stuff that is supposed to be like the adhesive on the back of post-it notes.  I haven't tried it out yet, but hopefully that will solve the problem.

The corset probably poses the greatest challenge for the beginning costumer, especially if you have never made a corset before.  A few tips before you begin: measure before you cut, do multiple fittings before you even go near your fashion fabric, work slowly and have patience.  Now I worked from a modern Simplicity pattern, but if you have never made a corset before you would be better off purchasing an historically accurate pattern; the measurements for modern patterns are completely different from historical reproduction patterns.  If you are determined to use a modern pattern (since they do cost quite a bit less) make one at least two sizes smaller than you usually make and plan on making some adjustments as you go along.  (Two sizes is kind of arbitrary and depends on the pattern and your own body.  Depending on the pattern, I can often go down four sizes because I'm so squishable.)  Also keep in mind that if you use an historical pattern you will want to eliminate the front opening by cutting that piece on the fold (remember to eliminate the seam allowance too!).  Another problem with modern patterns is that they are usually only two layers, so your bone casings show on the outside of the final garment.  I did not want any stitching to show on the outside of my final corset, so I added an interlining.  The fashion fabric I used is a purple silk dupioni that I embroidered with roses.  In order to save on costs, I used duck cloth for the lining and interlining rather than the traditional, rather costly, coutile.  I fully boned the front of the corset using half inch wide electrical ties and then reinforced various stress points with additional boning of the same material.  (One caveat that I found a bit troubling with the electrical ties is that they are thicker than regular spring steel boning and ended up showing through my fashion fabric a bit more than I would have liked.)  The back of the corset laces up instead of having a modern zipper, and I added a modesty panel so that I can wear the corset without the blouse underneath sometimes.
 
Here are a few more pictures.