The story of this costume
Having watched a lot of bonus material on the Star Wars DVD's,
I saw many people that had been dressed up as the inhabitants of the Star Wars universe, located all around every planet such as Coruscant and Tatooine, I then started wondering what I would have looked like if I were to be an inhabitant in the Star Wars universe too.
Though I could never become an extra in any of the Star Wars movies now that all six movies have already been made, I started thinking about the possibility of making myself a costume that would simply just be myself in the Star Wars universe.
At first I thought that I could make a costume that looked as if I was from the city planet Coruscant, but since I didn't like big cities that much, I didn't know which planet to choose for a long while.
Some time before I started thinking about making this costume, I had made a Tusken Raider costume that had an outer cloak for it that I later discarded as it didn't really match the rest of the costume, but after having watched the movie Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace,
I saw that one of the main characters of this movie named Qui-Gon Jinn was wearing a poncho on the desert planet Tatooine where the Tusken Raiders also came from, and that the fabric of the poncho was very similar to the outer cloak I had made for my Tusken Raider costume.
The photo to the right was taken to see what I
would look like when wearing the outer cloak
now that I had finally decided to make a Tatooine
inhabitant costume where I would use the fabric
from the outer cloak that I discarded to make
a Tatooine desert poncho for the costume, similar
to the one I saw in the first Star Wars movie.
My plan was now to make a simple costume that
would have an inner tunic with a thicker tunic
over it, and that I would wear an optional poncho over these clothes.
I saw many people that had been dressed up as the inhabitants of the Star Wars universe, located all around every planet such as Coruscant and Tatooine, I then started wondering what I would have looked like if I were to be an inhabitant in the Star Wars universe too.
Though I could never become an extra in any of the Star Wars movies now that all six movies have already been made, I started thinking about the possibility of making myself a costume that would simply just be myself in the Star Wars universe.
At first I thought that I could make a costume that looked as if I was from the city planet Coruscant, but since I didn't like big cities that much, I didn't know which planet to choose for a long while.
Some time before I started thinking about making this costume, I had made a Tusken Raider costume that had an outer cloak for it that I later discarded as it didn't really match the rest of the costume, but after having watched the movie Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace,
I saw that one of the main characters of this movie named Qui-Gon Jinn was wearing a poncho on the desert planet Tatooine where the Tusken Raiders also came from, and that the fabric of the poncho was very similar to the outer cloak I had made for my Tusken Raider costume.
The photo to the right was taken to see what I
would look like when wearing the outer cloak
now that I had finally decided to make a Tatooine
inhabitant costume where I would use the fabric
from the outer cloak that I discarded to make
a Tatooine desert poncho for the costume, similar
to the one I saw in the first Star Wars movie.
My plan was now to make a simple costume that
would have an inner tunic with a thicker tunic
over it, and that I would wear an optional poncho over these clothes.
To the left you can see a sketch of what I wanted the costume to look like before I started making it.
As seen in the sketch, my original plan was to have a blaster pistol hanging from a belt in a holster, but later when I tried to build one, I realized that I didn't have enough parts to make the blaster pistol that I wanted, but since I had decided to make this character a pod-racer mechanic, I thought that he would probably need a droid caller to summon pit-droids when help is needed, so I built a droid caller instead.
When I started making this costume, the first thing I
As seen in the sketch, my original plan was to have a blaster pistol hanging from a belt in a holster, but later when I tried to build one, I realized that I didn't have enough parts to make the blaster pistol that I wanted, but since I had decided to make this character a pod-racer mechanic, I thought that he would probably need a droid caller to summon pit-droids when help is needed, so I built a droid caller instead.
When I started making this costume, the first thing I
bought was a pair of sand-brown pants that had the right color tone for this costume, then I later bought the fabric for the inner tunic shirt that was made of cotton with batik coloring on it.
The third thing I bought was the utility belt that I actually bought to replace the bandoliers of my Tusken Raider costume, but I couldn't use it anyway since I needed two of them, and later I realized that it actually looked very good as the utility belt for the Tatooine inhabitant costume since it looked as if it could store lots of tools, making it fit very well to the theme of the character being a pod-racer mechanic. It even had a hook on it where I could hang the droid caller.
Most other things for this costume were things that I already had, such as the poncho fabric and the fabric for the outer tunic, but the boots were actually found in an old abandoned work bunker where I had been many times before as a child, and had actually seen the boots standing there on the floor every time I was in there, but never bothered to take a closer look at them. Many years later after having seen them many, many times, I realized that I could actually use these boots for the Tatooine inhabitant costume as they were working boots made of real tan leather with sand colored soles, so I brought them with me this time. Surprisingly they were even made in the exact same shoe size as I normally wear, and the look of them fit very well with the costume too.
Now that I had most other things ready, I still didn't have the inner tunic or the outer tunic started, as well as the poncho since the only sewing machine available didn't work at all, but later when I was suddenly given another sewing machine, I could finally start working on this costume again and made all three parts in about a day each.
Now that most of the costume parts were finished, I still thought that it was bad that I didn't get to build a blaster pistol for this costume when I had drawn a sketch of the costume having one, and that I had also been planning how to build one for a long time, but later I was given a toy pistol from a toy trade fair for no particular reason that even had the exact same look that I wanted for my blaster pistol, so I started converting the toy pistol into a blaster pistol and finally got to have one for this costume after all.
Having tried to come up with a name for the costume that would fit the character, but never came up with anything good, I tried to make a name with many different Star Wars name generators, but still didn't find a name that fit, so eventually I just asked people at a forum to make me a name and eventually got a tip about the name Liam Starkiller that I later realized would fit the costume since the actor I saw wearing a poncho in the first place is named Liam Neeson, and the name Starkiller was the original last name of the hero Luke Skywalker, so I chose this name for the costume as a tribute to both these names.
Now that the costume is finally completed, I am very pleased with it and what it looks like, and it is one of the most comfortable costumes that I have, and I owe it all to trial and error as I would most likely never have made this costume if I hadn't made an outer cloak for my Tusken Raider costume that didn't work for it.
The third thing I bought was the utility belt that I actually bought to replace the bandoliers of my Tusken Raider costume, but I couldn't use it anyway since I needed two of them, and later I realized that it actually looked very good as the utility belt for the Tatooine inhabitant costume since it looked as if it could store lots of tools, making it fit very well to the theme of the character being a pod-racer mechanic. It even had a hook on it where I could hang the droid caller.
Most other things for this costume were things that I already had, such as the poncho fabric and the fabric for the outer tunic, but the boots were actually found in an old abandoned work bunker where I had been many times before as a child, and had actually seen the boots standing there on the floor every time I was in there, but never bothered to take a closer look at them. Many years later after having seen them many, many times, I realized that I could actually use these boots for the Tatooine inhabitant costume as they were working boots made of real tan leather with sand colored soles, so I brought them with me this time. Surprisingly they were even made in the exact same shoe size as I normally wear, and the look of them fit very well with the costume too.
Now that I had most other things ready, I still didn't have the inner tunic or the outer tunic started, as well as the poncho since the only sewing machine available didn't work at all, but later when I was suddenly given another sewing machine, I could finally start working on this costume again and made all three parts in about a day each.
Now that most of the costume parts were finished, I still thought that it was bad that I didn't get to build a blaster pistol for this costume when I had drawn a sketch of the costume having one, and that I had also been planning how to build one for a long time, but later I was given a toy pistol from a toy trade fair for no particular reason that even had the exact same look that I wanted for my blaster pistol, so I started converting the toy pistol into a blaster pistol and finally got to have one for this costume after all.
Having tried to come up with a name for the costume that would fit the character, but never came up with anything good, I tried to make a name with many different Star Wars name generators, but still didn't find a name that fit, so eventually I just asked people at a forum to make me a name and eventually got a tip about the name Liam Starkiller that I later realized would fit the costume since the actor I saw wearing a poncho in the first place is named Liam Neeson, and the name Starkiller was the original last name of the hero Luke Skywalker, so I chose this name for the costume as a tribute to both these names.
Now that the costume is finally completed, I am very pleased with it and what it looks like, and it is one of the most comfortable costumes that I have, and I owe it all to trial and error as I would most likely never have made this costume if I hadn't made an outer cloak for my Tusken Raider costume that didn't work for it.
_________________________________________________________
Costs spent
Outer tunic
Grey fleece blankets - $0 USD
Inner tunic
Batik colored fabric - $17 USD
Pants
Sand-brown pants - $5 USD
Poncho
Fashion fabric - $35 USD
Utility belt
Bandolier belt - $9 USD
Belt buckle - $5 USD
Boots
Tan work boots - $0 USD
Droid caller
Plastic tube - $0 USD
Lens - $0 USD
Grip material - $0 USD
Parts - $0 USD
Blaster pistol
Toy pistol - $2 USD
Parts - $0 USD
Black spray paint - $0 USD
Total costs
- $73 USD
_________________________________________________________
Costs spent
Outer tunic
Grey fleece blankets - $0 USD
Inner tunic
Batik colored fabric - $17 USD
Pants
Sand-brown pants - $5 USD
Poncho
Fashion fabric - $35 USD
Utility belt
Bandolier belt - $9 USD
Belt buckle - $5 USD
Boots
Tan work boots - $0 USD
Droid caller
Plastic tube - $0 USD
Lens - $0 USD
Grip material - $0 USD
Parts - $0 USD
Blaster pistol
Toy pistol - $2 USD
Parts - $0 USD
Black spray paint - $0 USD
Total costs
- $73 USD
_________________________________________________________
