Costuming Rey from Star Wars: Shirt & Pants

Little girls and grown women alike were inspired by Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. So naturally, we want to build/buy/wear the costume(s), right? You may find the scavenger outfit all over the place, but my friend Aimee Miller wanted to wear the outfit Rey has on at the very end of the film, known & referred to by the Rey Costume community & Rebel Legion as Resistance Rey. We will most likely see this outfit at the beginning of The Last Jedi, just looking at the movie previews/photoshoots. Aimee and I worked on this project together and wanted to share the build with you all. While the specifics may not be 501st/Rebel Legion quality (neither of us are that good), we’re very proud of how the costume turned out. This blog post is specifically for the Shirt and pants build. Jacket and gauntlets can be found here, and the belt & accessories can be found here.

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Aimee did all the research and pattern sourcing online, mainly from the Rey Cosplay Community Facebook Group, so a special thank you to the contributors there. I was just the monkey at the sewing machine, and the monkey with the blog. Aimee is the real hero here. Our first obstacle was the shirt, which will forever be called Frankenshirt. I made this shirt twice – the first was a disastrous attempt with a terribly thick upholstery fabric and without any modifications to the sleeveless shirt pattern (Jalie Ladies & Girls Easy Sewing Pattern 2910 Faux Wrap Top), which is intended for stretchy jersey knit. Lesson learned. On the second attempt, we went with a lighter fabric and extended the pattern (above) and included a side zipper to accommodate a non-stretchy fabric. In retrospect, I should’ve extended the pattern a little more, since the overlap didn’t quite reach at the bottom. Aimee was okay with the flaw, and so was I. Also, I used interfacing in the collar only, I wanted that baby to be stiff.

Another necessary modification to the pattern was sewing in the half moon in the back of the shirt. I simply folded the back piece in half down the middle, cut an arc, then sewed it back together with a 1/4″ seam allowance. Aimee hand sewed the final detailing along the edges using a closed blanket stitch with a double thread of quilt thread.

The pants, unlike Frankenshirt, were fun and easy to make. Aimee bought two pairs of American Eagle AEO Denim X Skinny Pants in olive, but I can no longer find them online. If you’re building this costume, here are a couple similar pants on Amazon: Levi’s Women’s Slimming Skinny Jean, Sweet Olive Leaf, Gloria Vanderbilt Women’s Amanda Skinny Jean, Dark Moss, and Womens Straight Leg Dress Pants – Stretch Slim Fit Pull On Style, Velucci, Olive. My suggestion, if you’re buying these online, is to purchase TWO pairs in different sizes. One will be worn, and one will be used as fabric for the knee pads. So if you get two sizes, one is likely to fit, and you wouldn’t need to return a wrong size.

We followed emeraldB’s pants build and used her knee pad pattern, which we scaled for Aimee’s pant legs, and marked the placement on her with safety pins. I had some quilt batting left over from a prior project that we used as light padding, and sewed the knee pads (using the spare pare of pants for fabric) the way you would a pillow (sew 3ish sides inside out, turn right side out, sew closed). I freehand machined sewed the detailing as well, following emeraldB’s guide.

Rey has stitching at the top of her legs, so we folded the pants with the two legs together and cut Aimee’s pants into three sections: one cut below the crotch and one cut below the knee (which made Aimee very nervous). The section below the knee was discarded…well, I kept it for scrap fabric because I’m a fabric hoarder. We opened the middle sections at the outseam (the outer seam, as opposed to the inseam) so the knee pads could be added. I freehand machine stitched the knee pads to the pants as close to the edges of the knee pads as I could get, which was a nice border detail.

I sewed a hem at the bottom, closed up the outseam, leaving about a 4″ slit at the bottom of the outseam, and sewed the middle section back to the top of the pants. We both crossed our fingers while Aimee tried the pants on and squealed when they fit with everything properly sewn.

Aimee took the pants home and weathered them using floral paint applied to the pants (she used Design Master 12-Ounce Glossy Stain Aerosol Spray, Glossy Wood Tone first then Design Master 758 Walnut Wood Tone Colortool Spray over it, making sure not to apply to heavy in still wanting some of the original olive present). Look at the subtle difference!