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Screen Accurate Jawa Robe Fabric


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Hello future Denizens!

Late last year, a member of the Krayt Clan stumbled upon what we now believe to be the correct screen used fabric for Jawa robes.  While the monk's cloth that the CRLs call for is close, it isn't quite right.  The fabric is ironically fairly common!  Here is it's usual use:

B7354990-CCF2-413C-BCF8-DD7C497B8B17_zpsghwmaoq0.jpg

Always being on the lookout for ways to improve our costumes, I set the challenge of finding it in a more usable form to our illustrious garrison commander Lesley since she has access to many online sourced for fabric that most of us have never seem before.  Within a few hours, she had hit paydirt!

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Once washed and dried a few times, it becomes much closer:

IMG_3411.JPG

Being a natural fabric, it should take dye pretty well!  It comes in 36" wide bolts.  For the average sized person, a Jawa will take roughly 7-10 yards of fabric with shrinkage.

To get the best price possible, we will need to order 50+ yards at the same time.  Is anyone interested in putting together a group order?  Lesley is working on putting a cost to the professional quality dye that she used for dying her current Jawa robes.

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Jawas are a BLAST to wear...  You can get away with WAY more mischief than you can in stuffy trooper armor...  Here is the price breakdowns:

25 + yards  -  $5.05 per yard
50 + yards  -  $4.50 per yard
250 + yards  -  $4.25 per yard
500 + yards  -  $3.90 per yard
1,000 + yards  -  $3.15 per yard
 
This doesn't include shipping, so it will be slightly more than this.  Nor dye...  This is just for the yardage.
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Todd knows how much I like a challenge, so it was fun going through all my resources to see what I could find.

Finally got my dye tests done.

First round with the color combo I normally use on Monks cloth.

This is a mix of Chocolate Brown, Dark Brown and a tad bit of Rust Brown (All Dharma Procion dye).  Natural fibers take a LOT more dye!

It came out very red brown, but really deep color.

IMG_3486.JPG by Lesley Farquhar, on Flickr

IMG_3488.JPG by Lesley Farquhar, on Flickr

 

Second test with another brown called "Truffle Brown" also from Dharma.

Much more realistic color and will show weathering wonderfully!

IMG_3504.JPG by Lesley Farquhar, on Flickr

A comparison of the two swatches:

IMG_3503.JPG by Lesley Farquhar, on Flickr

 

To do a half yard piece of fabric, I used about 4 ounces of dye.  Now that's probably overkill for sure--but browns do take a lot of dye, and natural fibers like this just SOAK pigment up.  I'm going to stick with the Truffle brown as its likely the most realistic color!  It'll probably take 1lb of dye powder per robe!  We also have to buy SODA ASH (this is a lye fixative that makes sure that the color "sticks" and non-iodized salt.  Generally 6-8 containers of salt per dye batch.  

DYE cost:

1 lb 25.15
5 lb is 23.70 per lb
25 lb is 20.17 per lb

 

The dye is expensive, but worth it!

 

 

 

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oh, please sign me up, if there is a group buy on this.   I mentioned to Todd, before the Buttercup Valley trip, that I wanted to be a Jawa, just for those fun type of roll-in-the-sand kinda troops.    I got a little overwhelmed with the face mask and all the electronic tutorials online.   But, I gotta start somewhere. 
So yeah, I'd like to get in on the fabric and dye purchase and whatever else Lesley recommends.     Thanks ! :)

 

UTINI !

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Lesley - My wife thinks she might only need 3-4 yards, but wanted input before we add our order to the group.  She is 5' tall, and only 115#, so what do you think she will need for the fabric to complete her JAWA costume?  Thanks in advance for the help!

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2 hours ago, TK16421 said:

Lesley - My wife thinks she might only need 3-4 yards, but wanted input before we add our order to the group.  She is 5' tall, and only 115#, so what do you think she will need for the fabric to complete her JAWA costume?  Thanks in advance for the help!

This fabric is only 36" wide, and she will also need enough for a hood and sleeves.  And this material shrinks like crazy--I would honestly recommend 6 yards for most people.  4 for the body, .5 for hood, 1.5 for sleeves.

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