December 2021 - Robyn Withawhy

Drag Star Wars x-wing pilot cosplay outfit

For the latest Sink The Pink, I decided to make my very own drag Star Wars Luke Skywalker X-wing fighter pilot cosplay costume. It was a real labour of love. I ended up taking pictures as I made it, so I thought I’d share them here so you can make your very own.

Here’s how I made my very own DIY drag Star Wars X-wing fighter pilot uniform:

The Control Panel

This was a pretty simple bit to make. I went to the art shop and bought a bunch of foam board. I got a sheet of 10mm thick in white, and a sheet of 5mm thick which was black on the front and grey on the back. Looking at some pictures of Luke’s costume, I the chopped out a bunch of buttons and glued it together. I used 3 or 4 layers of the thick white foam to give it some depth.

The hose is from a local plumbing shop, I think it’s a drainage pipe for a washing machine or dishwasher. I chopped a hole for it and then used my glue gun to stick it in place.

Finally I got some grey webbing from the haberdashery up the road and stuck that to the back. I pushed a couple of nails through the webbing and into the foam to ensure it didn’t slip. On Luke Skywalker’s costume the hose goes into a pocket, but as I was planning on wearing this with essentially a swimming costume (no pockets), I ended up using a bit of EVA foam, and attaching the hose to the back of the webbing so it loops around my body a bit.

The X-wing pilot flak jacket

To make the flak jacket I bought a half metre of white canvas from the fabric shop, and a half metre of wadding (about 15mm thick. Then it was a case of using a bit of paper and drawing on my chest to get a rough outline of what the jacket shape should look like. I cut two out, sewed them on the machine with about a 1cm border, and then flipped it inside out so that it had a nice seam. Be sure to leave a little gap at the bottom so that you can stuff the wadding in later.

Next I cut out a wedge of the wadding, wedged it inside the vest front that I’d made, and then machine sewed back and forth and back and forth and back and forth until I had something that resembled the ribs on Luke Skywalker’s flak jacket. Finally I sewed up the gap at the bottom that I’d left to push the wadding into.

Next, I did exactly the same all over again to make the back of the flak jacket. I sewed on some velcro strips so that it’d be easy to adjust once I’d put it on. And finally I made some bits for the shoulders to hold the two sides together. These were a kind of angled piece as that made it sit correctly when I put it on. I hope the pictures make it clear.

Voila, that’s how to make Luke Skywalker’s x-wing costume flak jacket.

The Space Blaster Holster

This was pretty simple to make. I used 5mm EVA foam and cut out a shape based on the toy gun that I’d bought. Using a hair dryer I warmed it up, then bent it over the shape of the gun and let it cool so that it was the right shape. Then simply folded it over and stuck it down using contact adhesive. I folded over the top and bottom too gluing just at the edge to make some belt straps, then chopped it down a bit to make it a bit more like a holster shape.

The belt and thigh straps I made from some grey webbing that I’d bought along with some pom buckles. Simply cut the webbing with scissors to the right length, then use a lighter to melt the end to stop it from fraying. You can sew it really easily with a sewing machine and in minutes you have a Luke Skywalker X-wing style holster.

The X-wing fighter pilot helmet

To make the helmet I started off buying this Top Gun helmet from a fancy dress shop for around £30. I looked up all sorts of things, but this seemed the lightest (I had to dance in it) and closest to the real thing.

Next I removed the visor and sanded it to make it ready to paint, and glued on a strip of EVA foam to make it a bit more like the shape of Luke’s x-wing Star Wars helmet. Eva foam is great, it’s what lots of cosplay people seem to use, if you warm it, you can form it to pretty much any shape and when it cools it stays in shape. The best glue to use to stick it down is contact adhesive.

Then I gave it a few coats of white matt spray paint.

Once that had dried. It was a case of painting it up to look like an official x-wing fighter helmet with decals. I used some red electrical tape to add the stripes along the top, then a mix of posca paint pens and some acrylic paint to paint on the logos etc. Finally covering it with a coat of spray varnish to lock everything in.

Oh and finally, the helmet itself was way too big for me, so I used a bit of the wadding left over from the flak jacket and padded out the inside to make it snug.