Peli Motto: The Coveralls

Most women who watch The Mandalorian and cosplay would chose to make a Cara Dune costume, and while that also might be me (I’ll come back to that later), I love love love Peli Motto even more. This spicy space mechanic, played by Amy Sedaris if you squint, repairs ships at the spaceport of Mos Eisley on the planet Tatooine, and showed up for the first time in chapter 5 of season 1. By the time she showed up again in chapter 9 and 10 of season 2, I was ordering orange coveralls on Amazon, completely consumed by making her costume. This post focuses on the coveralls. Here’s how I made them…

[The teal shirt (or dicky, aka false shirtfront) underneath is posted here: Peli Motto: The Teal Dicky and the wig/accessories/etc. is posted here: Peli Motto: The Finishing Touches]

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Currently there are no official 501st/Rebel Legion (organizations dedicated to the construction and wearing of screen-accurate Star Wars replica costumes) standards for this costume, so I’m going on screenshots, the costume designer/artist’s rendering above, and my skill level alone. But for me, this costume isn’t intended to be 501st/RL approvable, just a fun “close enough” costume intended for costume conventions and May the Fourth parties, in hopes that my friends that are in these organizations won’t be embarrased to be seen with me. The silly wig and my terrible dancing will be a different story though…lol!

I tend to not start from scratch if I can help it. Although when I finished the coveralls, it might have been the same amount of work as sewing coveralls from a pattern. But I’m terrible at pants and pockets, so I ordered orange coveralls in 100% cotton a size larger than my measurements to allow wiggle room with all the modifications needed to make shop coveralls into a Peli Motto jumpsuit. Here’s a quick rundown of the main supplies, with a few more links peppered in the rest of this post (warning: it’s a long one!).

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Updated 2/1/21: I ended up joining Rebel Legion and submitted this costume, and I’m proud to report it has been the first Peli Motto approved in the Legion! Thank the Force! Looking forward to Kessel Base troops in the Houston area when it is safe to gather in person again.

Supply list for converting existing coveralls

Coveralls: Red Kap Men’s Snap Front 100% Cotton Coverall, Oversized Fit, Long Sleeve, Orange

Textured fabric for collar and sleeves: SyFabrics large sports jersey mesh fabric 58 inches wide Brown (I purchased utility mesh fabric in brown from a vendor on Etsy, but that item is no longer available and the shop appears to be closed, so this athletic mesh would be my second choice)

Quilt batting (or felt or a few layers of t-shirt fabric) for knee padding

Brown thread (dark)

Dye: Rit All-Purpose Liquid Dye, Dark Brown

Floral paint: Design Master Color Tool Spray Paint 11 Oz Can (Walnut Woodtone) and Design Master Colortool Spray Paint, 12-Ounce, October Brown and Design Master 725 Garden, Flat Black

Pattern (optional build your own): Simplicity Sewing Pattern 8722 Costumes A (XS-S-M-L-XL)

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After pre-washing/drying the coveralls, I tried them on and made notes for everything that needed to be modified. For reference, my measurements are 36-30-40″, so I purchased size 42 coveralls, which were at least one size too big. This was intentional. I needed material for the knee pads, so I was glad for the super long pant legs. I cut 8″ off each leg and seam ripped open the hem for maxium fabric usage. These were set aside for knee pads, sleeve cuffs, and belt loops. The coveralls were also way too long in the torso (droopy crotch), so I removed the ~1.5″ waistband and set that material aside to be used for the belt liner. The tipped/camp collar needed to be changed to a band collar, so I seam ripped the collar off and open, then cut the wings off the front. The sleeve cuffs were stupid and wrong, so I cut those off completely and used them as fabric strips for dye testing. And then I removed the sleeves completely.

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The existing collar was too tall, so I simply cut about an inch off and ironed it open for the mesh fabric to be added. Peli’s sleeves at the shoulders have mesh fabric in a triangle section, which I’ve affectionately named “sleeve pizzas.” I drew a line down the center of the sleeves opposite the underarm seams and drew a pizza with an angle of 60 degrees using a protractor in the top quarter to thirdish of the sleeve. The angle is exact but I eyeballed how low I wanted that point to be. Then I opened up the 8″ of pant legs at the side seams, which gave me 4 rectangles. The smaller rectangles were used for the knee pads and larger rectangles used for sleeve cuffs. For reference, my knee pads measure 9.5″ wide by 8.5″ sewn in place.

This is a long post and I know it’s a lot of annoying scrolling, so I’ve broken it into three pages. Now that all the cutting is covered, let’s proceed to the sewing (click the page 2 button below), and dying/weathering (click page 3 below)!