Leaderboard

I ordered a Deluxe Darth Revan from My Wicked Armor. I modified my hood and capelet to tuck under the front armor plate and attach with Velcro. This same mod would work for magnets or other attachments. To check my measurement, I put on the chest and back armor and my cape. I put on the hood and capelet piece on and brought the fabric around the front of my front armor piece in place so I could identify where I would need to place the Velcro inside my armor. I have plenty of extra length, so I was able to use fabric clips to clip and hold the ends in place. I moved a bit as I would on a troop so the fabric wouldn't be too tight. I measured and noted where on my chest armor I could place small rectangles of Velcro inside where I would want to tuck and hold the top and bottom edges of the fabric in place. I inserted safety pins in the fabric to measure where I would attach the rectangles of Velcro onto the fabric. I didn't take photos of this, but since I didn't have help, I just stood in front of a mirror. I needed small fabric rectangles to place the Velcro onto the hood and capelet so I could easily remove the fabric to replace the Velcro if it wore out. I removed some wide belt loops from some cotton Dockers I had. These already had a seam in place to avoid fraying so this worked nice. I cut the soft part of the sew-on Velcro to match slightly smaller than the belt loops. I stitched the sew-on Velcro onto the loops. A bit sloppy by hand but they're holding. I made four, two for each side. I cut out the rough side of the Velcro roughly the same size for the upper part of the fabric. For the bottom part of the fabric, I placed slightly wider strips of the rough side of stick-on Velcro so I could have some flexibility if my weight changed, for fit, etc. I placed those inside my armor. To place the top part of the fabric, I placed a stick-on Velcro inside the armor where the top part of the capelet would wrap around in front and reach over the armor buckle, in and down inside to hold. I'll need to add a photo of that area. I didn't completely stitch the rectangles onto the fabric, but rather "tacked" them on into the seams, so I could loop my finger underneath to grab them and to make it easy to replace if I needed without too much puncturing of the fabric. I tacked them onto the fabric facing outward so they could attach inside the armor to the Velcro. The hood and capelet are laying with a side view here and the Velcro areas will follow. The upper and lower Velcro on the fabric: You can see here that I can reach behind the Velcro with my finger: Might be hard to see here, but I put the hood onto a pillow as if facing it being worn and wrapped the edges of the capelet how they go to show more of the Velcro. I added an extra attachment if I'm at an event with a lot of movement, a button and elastic loop to hold the hood in place as I move my head. I used small buttons on each side and cut out some cotton fabric with pinking shears to house them. I used round cord elastic to make the loop. I measured a small length of the loop for each side. I attached a button inside the Velcro, sewing it onto some vinyl reinforced with some cotton fabric and stitching in place into the existing housing. I stitched the loop into the seam of the hood. I tucked some of the extra upper fabric over and tacked it in place. You'll see I added a snap but found it wasn't necessary when using the loop. When putting on my hood and capelet, I wear a ball cap and let my hood drape and hold in place on the cap so I can see. I leave my armor belt unbuckled so I can reach inside the armor to find the other half of the Velcro. After I get the capelet secured, I then secure my armor belt in place. I leave my gloves and mask for last. Wearing the cap, I can simply bend over at the waist, reach in and remove my cap, put on my mask and attach the hood to the mask and then straighten up. Everything stays in place.

I was thinking about suspenders or straps like this https://www.amazon.com/YiwerDer-Adjustable-Fastening-Reusable-Organizer/dp/B0C68Z6ZQP/ref=sr_1_5 But your suggestion is much better. Thank you.

I bought these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08BYFXMKV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1 If i remember right, I put the two hole one on, but it wasn't holding tight enough so I put a single hole one on after the two hole one.. holds pretty good now

I ordered a Deluxe Darth Revan from My Wicked Armor. I opted not to get the shirt with the order. Since I'm a woman I was concerned about how the piping would lay. I couldn't find any women's styles that would work, but I found a men's long sleeve shirt with a mock turtleneck that was the same black hue and sheen as the balaclava. This shirt is a bit warm, but it is designed to keep you dry. (Walter Hagen Redmond l/s golf polo pure black 41361476 from Dick's Sporting Goods To determine the placement for the piping, I put the front and back armor on and measured where I needed the piping to cross my chest. I determined my piping needed to lay about 4" below the bottom of the collar seam. I originally planned to use pre-made polyester piping, but I personally found it a bit difficult to work with. When it came time to pin it in place, it tended to move easily and roll into a wavy line instead of a straight horizontal line. It is designed to be inserted into a hem or a slit in the fabric, and I didn't want to cut into my shirt in case I needed to adjust the placement. Someone else might have better luck with the pre-made piping, but I decided to use something more cooperative. I took a polyester slip that I have that is a match for the hue and sheen of the shirt. It hangs above the knee and was a good length to cut enough material out to make some piping. I cut a strip about 3" wide from the slip along the vertical seam to make it easy to measure. Then, on the side of the fabric away from the seam, I folded the fabric 1" and pinned it in place to sew. I sewed a 1/4" seam into the pinned fabric. I trimmed the sewn fabric leaving enough room to fold the fabric over after making the first seam onto the shirt. To get the piping placement, I measured up from the even line of the bottom hem of the shirt, not down from the collar hem and top of the sleeves. I measured the vertical length of the shirt from the bottom of the collar seam down to the bottom of the shirt hem, then deducted 4" from that measurement to determine how many inches up from the bottom hem of the shirt to place the piping. I pinned the piping material in place. I sewed the fabric in place. I folded the seam over and re-pinned it to sew the final seam. I sewed a seam right along the lower folded edge. My shirt now has piping where I needed it. http://www.mywickedarmor.com/

I ordered the Deluxe Darth Revan from My Wicked Armor. The suspended bands holding the large O ring were made out of painted vinyl. I tore one of the edges while taking the armor on and off trying to adjust the fit. Not a fault of the the quality, but rather due to my not being as careful as I should. I was interested in adding some length anyhow to give myself more flexibility with the fit and suspension of the large O ring. With that, I asked a saddle maker to make some new strap pieces for me out of leather with Velcro attached to the backside of the long pieces. I only replaced the suspension straps and left the original dark pieces that are adjacent to the adornment lighter silver pieces. I kept the 6" length on the long pieces and increased the short pieces to 3 3/4". He tried to give me a sprayed color match to the original dark grey, but they came out too light. This meant painting the pieces. Lucky for me, my mom is an artist and has loads of metallic paints. She made a mixture of Folk Art Metallic Sequin Black and Decoart Dazzling Metallic Shimmering Silver to get the right shade. http://www.mywickedarmor.com/ http://www.plaidonline.com/folkart-metallics-2-oz/58/product.htm?keyword=sequin%20black%20paint https://decoart.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Session_ID=75b4e90e3a6be765d9ccda1914c1671c& To make painting and drying easy, I used wire coat hangers, untwisting the wires away from the hanger hooks. Both ends of the short straps and one end of the long straps were folded under to create a gap to attach to the small rings on the belt (attached later and described in Part III.) I slid the straps onto the wire through the gaps in the folds and reattached the end of the hanger wire to the hanger hook. I bent the hanger wires to make small dips to prevent the straps from sliding. The straps were sponge-painted while they were hanging on the wires and the hangers were hung up to let them dry. (This photo was from the first attempt of paint mix which was too black, but just showing the drying method.) After the right mix, here's how they looked after they dried. (Lighting better on comparison photo below.) In comparison to the original pieces, these are a fairly good match. (The original vinyl piece is on the bottom right with small ring attached. An original piece is also connected to the large O ring.) Due to the saddle maker's attempts as well as my own attempts to get a good color match, I do have more paint on these new straps than what is needed. I realize this may cause some stretching or stiffness in the leather, and time will tell me how they hold up. I did need to be careful how they lay when stored to avoid misshaping.

I bought the Deluxe Revan from My Wicked Armor. I wanted the back armor as described in "optional accessories" in the costume standard. The commissioned armor pieces have straps attached on the front and back armor that are designed to tie together over the shoulders. I added Dritz 3/4" parachute buckles with contour shape to the straps to hold my armor adjustment and to make dressing easier. http://www.mywickedarmor.com/ After determining my placement, I pinned the straps in place. I placed two clothing clips on the straps to hold them and then placed two more to mark approximately where I wanted to connect the buckles so that they would be hidden from view. The two higher clips sit where I wanted the buckles to connect. (Note-shirt in photos is not my costume shirt.) With the armor not secured at the sides, I lifted the armor off, keeping the clips in place. I then determined the length I needed for the straps, considering the added 2" length of the buckles. I ended up increasing the front length to 7" instead of 5" of strap length. I kept the back lengths at 2". Before sewing, I made sure the contour of the buckles faced the correct way. I put in some stitches by hand to keep the buckles in place, then used the sewing machine. I won't need to pull the fabric of the straps through to make adjustments since I measured where I want them. I can now easily clip the buckles to hold the armor together and slip both front and back armor pieces on over my head.

I posted an earlier thread regarding my modification to how the capelet straps attach to the front armor of my Darth Revan. I described changing the attachment so the capelet straps reach up out of the armor to feed through D rings attached to the capelet. This made it a lot easier to put on the capelet without help. I wanted to share additional images but was unable to add them in a reply to this earlier post: I tried this out on a troop and it was much easier. One could use snaps to hold the straps after they feed through the D rings, but I wanted the option of adjusting the height of the capelet when needed in case of wet pavement, grass, etc. or if I change boots or change armor fit. I wanted to add a stopper to prevent the capelet from loosening and lowering, but would still allow for me to easily raise the capelet. I put on the armor and attached the capelet. With help, I measured how much strap length was fed through. I then checked that measurement with the armor and capelet off to determine my stitch point for the stopper. Like in this belt example, I wanted to feed the straps so they were hidden and so the stoppers were against my body instead of facing out. I chose mushroom domed buttons that were small enough to fit through the D rings on the first feed-through, but would act as a stopper after the strap was fed through in place. I will black the chrome finish out on these: When I put the armor on, I make sure the straps are hanging outside of the front armor. I can reach up and grab the D rings to feed the straps. After feeding the straps through, I pull them forward to be hidden under the hood tuck. The mushroom buttons prevent the straps from loosening. I can also periodically check my fit without a mirror by feeling how close the buttons are to the D rings. I can also make quick adjustments to raise the capelet when needed without a mirror by measuring a finger width or two by feel.

I bought the Deluxe Darth Revan from My Wicked Armor. The red vertical drape or sash is designed to fold over and pin in place at the proper length. I store my black and red sashes hanging with my other soft cloths, so I wanted a method to attach the fold to the back of the sash that didn't need to be re-pinned and that was still adjustable, and not have to pin the edge of the black sash each time. RED SASH I attached sew-on Velcro to two narrow strips of pre-shrunk cotton, a bit narrower than the width of the red sash. I stitched a small square of cotton to the inside and outside of the foam, as I was able to reach my hand inside the opening. This gave me a mid-point for support and I tacked one strip across the underside of the sash where the top of the fabric would fold over to meet the Velcro. I tacked it at this midpoint and at the edges, stitching to the folded hem of the red fabric and not to the foam. The foam would not be strong enough (as I learned from an earlier method of a button and loop elastic that failed.) I tacked the other strip along the top of the red sash, tucking the open ends of the fabric over. Tacking the fabric pieces on instead of sewing the Velcro directly helps protect the fabric when it comes time to replace the Velcro. I'm then removing the tack and not the entire stitch from my red fabric. BLACK SASH After finding my measurement, I folded the end of the black sash inward towards the seam to achieve the tapering of the other end. I stitched the point in place, and tacked the folds in place. I then stitched sew-on Velcro in place to match the other end of the sash. No more pins. I kept dropping them at troops anyway! I use a garment bag and a multi-level hanger and just loop the sashes over one of the levels for transport and storage. http://mywickedarmor.com/

I wanted a way to disconnect it if I needed to to fit into the bin I have for it. I just reconnect the buckles and lift it on. In hindsight, connecting two D rings on each strap would have been better and I might change it to them later. Slipping the strap through D rings is really easy to adjust the fit.