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Maia's Lumiya build


Guest Maia

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This is one of those projects I started on ~20 years ago, but never seemed to be able to get back to. I finally finished the armour this summer.

 

This is Lumiya:

 

Lumiya_partial_armour_9.jpg

 

Lady Lumiya is an EU Sith who first appeared in the old Marvel comic books 30 years ago. She reappears in the EU novels, eventually becoming Jacen's mentor. Luke Skywalker, her old love interest from the comics, eventually kills her, blaming her for the death of his wife, Mara Jade.

 

This is definitely NOT a costume for a novice seamstress or costumer. Lumiya is one of the most difficult costumes I have taken on. I have gone through numerous trial and errors in getting the look of the different costume components correct. My version is based solely on the Marvel comics depiction of her because I don't like how other artists have interpreted her look. Outside of the comics, she is probably the most inconsistently drawn character in the EU.

 

I am going to post up what I have done so far with this costume, but not develop any tutorials for it. What worked for me construction-wise might not for someone else.

 

 

Bodysuit basics

 

The most important consideration for this is seam placement. You do not want those to be obvious and a zipper or back/front closure won't work! I went with opening the seams at the shoulders and putting snaps along that to keep it closed because the shoulder seams are covered by the chest armour and not visible. The pattern I used has no side seams, just center back and front ones, which are concealed by the 'circuitry' in the back and front, and chestbox in front. Stirrups at the feet are necessary to keep the bodysuit from riding up when you put the boots on.

 

This is the pattern I used view A (without the collar) from:

 

scan0001.jpg

 

I made the right arm in a solid silver spandex and the rest in black.

 

The silver lines on her bodysuit are not shown the same from one illustration to another, so I tried to put those onto the material randomly, and over the seams. A few of the pictures have a consistent feel to them, but I didn't follow any of them exactly. The silver lines MUST be made of silver spandex so that they stretch with the underlying black spandex. Fabric paint will flake off and it looks like, well, paint. The lines cannot be sewn on in a way where the stitching is visible. What I did was cut strips in various widths, create a bias tape from that, and tack it in place every 1/8" with a knot. This is a huge amount of work, but the end product is perfect for this costume. Note that you do not need to put the silver lines anywhere which is covered by the chest armour or thigh-high boots. I did anyways, then had to remove some of the ones from underneath the boots. The lines do need to go underneath where the chestbox sits, since you fit that after the lines are all in place.

 

Chestbox

 

This is not consistently shown outside of the Marvel comics, so I ignored any versions not sourced there. The clearest image of it for colors is this one:

 

Lumiya_partial_armour_8-1.jpg

 

 

Based on that and other comic's images, the greeblie layout looks like this:

 

chestboxtemplate.jpg

 

Two square panels to the left (light blue above, red below), three Vader-type coin slots on the right, and a solid brass/gold colored bar at the bottom. Mine has the same light sequencer as a Vader chestbox would use.

 

Finished chest box (thanks GB :) )

 

lumiyachestbox.jpg

 

I attach this to the bodysuit using industrial style snaps. There are NO straps on the chest box. To prevent damage to the spandex, put the male side of the snaps through four pieces of lightweight black leather. The leather is handsewn to the spandex, with a piece of reinforcing fabric inside the bodysuit. You don't want to risk damage to the bodysuit because repairing a tear is miserable. On the chestbox, use industrial glue on the four corresponding female snaps and attach them to the corners of the chestbox. I covered the back of the chestbox with thin black leather, held in place with velcro, to protect the electronics in it. I can open that to change the batteries and turn the blink sequencer on/off.

 

chestboxback.jpg

 

The chestbox sits below the bustline, but not as low as the stomach. Placement of the snaps on the bodysuit has to be done while the bodysuit is on. I sewed one on at a time, trying the bodysuit back on between each one to get the fit exact.

 

Lightwhip

 

The best reference image for this:

 

Lumiya_partial_armour_2.jpg

 

GB built the handle for me:

 

lumiyawhip1.jpg

 

Depending on the image, the whip has anywhere from 5 to 9 lashes of varying types. I opted for five since that is about all that could be fit inside the handle. Two of these are a four part rolled braid, two are flat leather with silver greeblies of different shapes pierced through, and one is a flat rein braid. The round braids took me an entire afternoon, required a number of leather splices, and killed my wrists to make. Each of the lashes is 8' long, which I based on body proportions (Lumiya's and mine versus the length the whip is shown in the comics).

 

To get the lashes into the handle, I added small rings to the handle end of each, looped those through a D-ring which was small enough to fit in the hilt, and anchored them in place with the same long screw which holds the Covertec clip in place on the hilt. The screw needs to be just long enough to go right through the hilt to the opposite side. Luckily I managed to catch the D-ring with the screw on the first try.

 

Finished whip:

 

DSCF1745.jpg

 

lightwhip2.jpg

 

This is NOT a whip you can use as a whip. It is strictly for hanging off your belt. It is also quite heavy, which is another reason I only used 5 lashes on it and didn't bother coming up with a way for it to light up.

 

Belt

 

There are two versions shown in the comics, one having more (inconsistent) detail on the boxes, and the other with solid boxes. I opted for the latter for the sake of simplicity and to avoid having replace greeblies. Note that the belt sits on the hips, not at the waist.

 

Belt reference images:

 

Lumiya_partial_armour_8-1.jpgLumiya_partial_armour_2.jpg

 

Belt

 

The belt has two narrow black leather bands to which the boxes are attached. I used a 1 3/4" wide black leather belt and cut out rectangles in the leather between the boxes to give the same effect. Between the center front box and triangle boxes on left and right, the leather is cut differently - solid behind the rectangular box, tapering to a point behind the triangular boxes. The belt closure is in the back. I used a ring and snap set-up for that since there is no belt tongue visible in any of the images.

 

Belt Boxes

 

One altoids/mint tin in the center front (it was the right shape and gives me a place to put things). Two triangular 'boxes' to the left and right of that. Mine are made of wood, but I will eventually replace those. Five other square boxes with a raised line inset from their edges. I was fortunate enough to find a bunch of plastic boxes in a dollar store which were perfect for this. The Covertec clip for the lightwhip goes on the left hip. I attached the boxes to the leather belt by carefully drilling through them, then using small machine bolts and with washers on the inside where the nut goes to distribute the stress on the plastic. I bought more boxes than I needed and painted those at the same time as the ones on the belt, so I have spares if any of them break.

 

Finished Belt:

 

lumiyabeltnew2.jpg

 

lumiyabeltnew1.jpg

 

Cloak and headscarf

 

These are not consistently shown in terms of color or style. Rather than make yet another black cloak, I simply adapted an old one I already had. There is no cloak chain or attachment system shown in any illustrations, so I opted to use Vader cloak chain and a leather collar for strength. Easy-peasy.

 

The head scarf is shown variably as blue, slightly purple, grey, or black. In a conversation I had with Jo Duffy, the editor at Marvel who created Lumiya, I was told that the correct color is an extremely dark grey or black. To cut down on heat and weight, I commissioned a friend of mine to hand weave a piece of wool gauze in an very deep charcoal grey. The scarf is rectangular and narrow in shape. I hand hemmed the edges of it to prevent unraveling.

 

These two things are perhaps the simplest of all the parts of Lumiya's costume to put together.

 

Arm Guards

 

Reference images:

 

Lumiya_partial_armour_3.jpgLumiya_partial_armour_10.jpg

 

These took four separate tries to get correct. The first go was having the gloves and guards separate, which didn't look right because the paint on the guards didn't match the spandex in the gloves. Second try, the guard shape didn't come out the way I wanted. Third try, the method for attaching the gloves to the guards wasn't practical. Fourth attempt did the trick, but is not easy to get on.

 

What worked - I made a pair of shoulder length, silver spandex gloves. They need to be this long so you can fold the material over the guard which comes up to about 2" past the elbow. Inside the gloves, I fitted a set of formed plastic guards in the correct shape, setting them into a handsewn 'pocket' in the glove. The guards are extremely tight at the wrists, so getting them on involves a bit of careful hand twisting, but they look the part perfectly.

 

The most important thing about the gloves + guards is that they must look like or be one single piece or it just doesn't come across the way it should.

 

DSCF1957.jpg

 

DSCF1956.jpg

 

Boots

 

Reference image:

 

Lumiya_partial_armour_7.jpg

 

These come up above the hips on the side, to the belt in the back, but are open in the inner thigh and front. Over the hips, there are kidney protectors which flare out slightly.

 

This is yet another costume component I had several trial and errors with. Separate boots simply did not stay where they needed to on my legs, so I ended up incorporating the boots into the bodysuit. For someone else, having the boots separate might work.

 

I found myself a pair of comfy, FLAT, round-toed, silver leather shoes with black soles. Lumiya is NEVER shown in heels, so forget about using those. The boots are not shown with any seams so I hid those as best I could at the ankle and inside the legs. First step was to create a shoe pattern to overlay the purchased ones with silver spandex. I made the pattern by laying a piece of scrap fabric over the shoe with my foot in it and cutting it to fit. It should lay smoothly over the shoe and your foot, but not be overly tight since you need to be able to walk with it on. It only needs to go to the top of the shoe at the ankle.

 

boot_1.jpg

 

Add a seam allowance to the pattern, cut it out of the silver spandex (I always check to make sure I have a left and right), and handsew to the shoe. I had to use a pair of forceps to pull the nylon (cotton and polyester and not strong enough for this) upholstery thread through the leather, and worked from the toe to the back. It will became more difficult to manage the fabric as moved towards the back of the foot, so I alternated the side I was are sewing on.

 

boot_2.jpg

 

After I attached the spandex to the bottom of the shoe, I sewed the inside seam from the sole to the top at the ankle. Once that was done, I cut out a partial bodysuit from the silver spandex. This consisted of the legs and torso to mid-chest only, and became the upper (leg) portions of the boots. I only sewed the legs' inside seams to the knees because the inner thigh is open and has to be fitted.

 

The seams at the inside ankle should look like this:

 

boot_3.jpg

 

The (not so fun) part came next. Fitting the boots to the bodysuit. On went the bodysuit and boots. The ankles were tight, and the seams nicely hidden there. I pinned the tops of the boots to the bodysuit along where the inner thigh is uncovered, then took the bodysuit off and trimmed the silver spandex back, leaving a generous seam allowance. On it went again for a second fitting, this time to roll the cut edge under and pin it in place for sewing. The silver lines on the black bodysuit which are covered by the boots had to be removed from it along this seam so that they don't creat bumps which are visible underneath the silver.

 

I was able to follow the inside leg seam of the black bodysuit for the back edge of the silver of the boot, but that was with the pattern I used, and with how it fit me. That might not work for someone else. The front edge of the silver begins to angle away at the front above the knees, and continues to widen to about belt level. These seams have to be done with invisible stitching, so it was handsewn (zigzag stitching to allow the material to stretch) to the black bodysuit to just below the hips.

 

Kidney protection

 

I used a similar pocket trick to what I did with the gloves, forming plastic to the correct shape (roughly the same shape as a small baseball cap visor) and then hiding it under the silver spandex. This is why the silver boots needed to bet cut to mid-chest height - to give enough material to fold down to the inside to hide those.

 

boot_4.jpg

 

The plastic should be formed so that it arcs over the hips, but is not form fitting to the body. I tacked the 'pocket' in place, sewing it in only a few places, so that that the spandex could still freely stretch. If you don't, it will be very difficult getting into the bodysuit!

 

Chest Armour

 

Lumiya_partial_armour_9.jpg

 

This was another case of repeated trial and error. I did make one version in 18 guage stainless steel, but the joins were too obvious, it didn't flex the way I needed it to, and it gave me armour bites. What I finally ended up with is silver fabric covering a heavy, flexible plastic.

 

chestarmour_2.jpg

 

I started by wrapping my torso in plastic and covering that with duct tape to create a body specific pattern for the chest armour. I took the duct tape 'cast' put it on my dressmaker's dummy and worked out where the armour overlaps with white string before marking those places with a Sharpie.

 

chestarmour_4.jpg

 

The pattern I created from this was traced onto the plastic sheet, adding a 1" underlap on the right shoulder and lower chest piece for where those lie under the central piece. After the plastic oieces were cut out, they were used as patterns to cut inner and outer coverings from silver spandex lame fabric, leavinga 1" seam allowance all around on the fabric.

 

chestarmour_6.jpg

 

I next taped the duct tape pattern back together as this was going to be my guide for forming the plastic, set it back on the dummy and heated shaped the plastic using a paint stripping gun. I formed the central piece first, took it off, then shaped the shoulder and lower chest piece. Once all three were done, they went back onto the dummy together and any places which needed adjusting were noted and corrected.

 

chestarmour_9.jpg

 

The outer covering went onto the plastic first. I held it in place with binder clips. I used upholstery thread to hold it in place before pinning the lining to the inside. That was sewn in place on the inside so that no stitching is visible once the chest armour is on.

 

chestarmour_10.jpg

 

The finished armour is held together with wide elastic straps between the central and lower pieces. The right arm has elastic at the front, but not the back to allow the armour to be put on. Once on, velcroed elastic holds the joins at the neck and under the right arm closed, and keeps the right shoulder armour from popping out in back.

 

chestarmour_11.jpg

 

Helmet

 

This is one of those best planned things which didn't end up as intended. I did pattern it to be made from metal, assembled that, then realized it was going to be too heavy, awkward, and uncomfortable to troop in for any length of time or in extreme heat. End result - I have a nice 3/4 finished metal helmet I will never use.

 

What I did end up doing was to create a hat/helmet. Since most of it is covered by the scarf, I decided that this was a far better way to go about it.

 

Firt step was taking a styrofoam head and creating the pattern with cardboard. It is important to get the angles correct and have this fit properly because the open area around the eyes and nose must fit fairly tight. Once I had the cardboard pattern, I cut the pieces out it plastic mesh and test sewed them together to check the fit.

 

lumiya_helmet_1.jpg

 

Next step - cut out the same pieces in a heavy felt. This goes between the plastic and the silver spandex to give a bit of weight and prevent the mesh from showing through.

 

lumiya_helmet_2.jpg

 

There really isn't a set pattern for the pieces as the helmet has to be fitted to the head shape. What I used is below.

 

lumiya_helmet_3.jpg

 

I have a technique for stretching and anchoring fabric or leather over plastic which I won't go into detail with. It is far easier to show how it is done in person. Each piece needs to be covered and lined with the silver before being assembled back into the helmet shape, and there is a specific order the pieces are assembled in - front face, nose, breath mask slats, breath mask screen, lower jaw, back of head, side triangles. The jaw piece and back of head need to have extra fabric extended downwards along the neck.

 

The side triangles are left open at BOTH back seams. I used a set of snaps to hold the front and back together.

 

lumiya_helmet_4.jpg

 

Finished helmet (hatmet?).

 

lumiya_helmet_5.jpg

 

lumiya_helmet_6.jpg

 

Finished costume

 

Lumiya_finished_2.jpg

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Guest Anonymous

Very nice! I'd love to Photoshop a picture of your Lumiya and my Darth Caedus together in a wallpaper type image. I got an email yesterday that my new Vader lightsaber is in the mail so I'll be getting it soon. I can then get a good pose picture of my costume.

 

If you would like to participate, let me know! I just need a good cinematic type pose in a picture, and if you have a solid color wall behind you, that would be optimal!

 

Again, very nice, I love it!

 

8)

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Guest Anonymous

First of all AMAZING costume! Lumiya is so hard to do and you knocked this one out of the park.

 

secondly I'm sorry but i don't know to post this. this is the only one where iv seen anything to do with Darth Caedus. Should we make a new Topic for him? Because i was thinking of making his costume.

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Guest Anonymous

Wow! Your costume looks awesome (especially with having so little references), and I love that you have put so much detail in your description of making it.

 

Respect!

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Awesome work :) Love all the careful finishing you have put into each and every step too :) It makes a huge difference and wow did all that work pay off :)

 

I can't quite tell, are all the silver lines on the body suit sewn on top or did you have to piece the black and silver and sew together? I recently made a bodysuit where I had to do reverse facings for the detail and piece it all... and had to incorporate boots as well so I'm really nodding along with so many of your comments about the progress of the building of your costume ;)

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I haven't been on here in ages.

 

A friend has cast a new set of belt boxes for me, and as soon as the weather warms up enough that I can paint outside, I will be painting and finishing them. I discovered after C5, that the plastic ones I had just can't take any rough handling at all. One of them cracked quite badly. The new ones are cast from one of the old ones I kept as a back-up and are solid plasic. I have a new set of the triangles for the front in plastic, too.

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I am finally getting back to this costume after not doing much of any costuming for several years. Too many work and research related commitments to deal with, and my Marfan's syndrome has been throwing medical issues at me, too....

 

Anyway, I finally found the metal equivalents for the square boxes on the belt, and figured out how to make the triangles in metal as well. Hopefully it will be relatively quiet after I finish marking exams and hand in grades so I can assemble it all.

 

M

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I can't access any of my old posts, but I have done some work to fix a few of the problems with fitting. I've started fencing competitively again, bulked up in my shoulders and had to 'spring out' the shoulder armour to make it fit properly again. Thomas has also asked me to prep the CRL for Lumiya, so that is my next item on the to do list.

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