Peli Motto: The Coveralls

This is a continuation of a 3-part Peli Motto: The Coveralls costume/cosplay build. If you’ve jumped to this page from an online search, you’re on page 3 of 3. You can jump back to the beginning here: Peli Motto: The Coveralls

Continued from page 2 (sewing)…

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I purposely bought 100% cotton coveralls so I didn’t have to fight with dye. And these dyed really well! From the sleeve cuff scraps that I saved, I did test dying for concentration of dye, and time. If the coveralls weren’t already as red-orange as they were, I’d have had to include red dye with the brown. But to get the desired color, I only needed brown. I dyed the coverals (and belt) for 4 minutes in 3 gallons of super hot water with 4oz dark brown dye. Then I sprayed them with a hose in front of my house like a weirdo (just imagine me waving at my neighbors like Cousin Eddie from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation), washed and dried in the machine.

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Years ago I learned the brilliant usefulness of floral paint as a weathering agent from my Rey partner-in-crime, Aimee. For these coveralls, I used walnut, brown, and black paint (links are at the beginning of page 1) to ombre stain and dirtify as if I’d been working in a machine shop and wearing these things every damn day. Every section got walnut, and as I got closer to seams, I added brown and black. More black was used on the sleeve cuffs, around the knee pads, pockets openings, and collar. It’s just supposed to look dirty as hell, and I had fun with it!

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At this point I was drunk with success, so of course I went ahead and nearly fucked everything up. Pardon my language but it’s appropriate in this case. The front section of Peli’s sleeves have a slight sheen, almost like faux leather or the feel of varsity letter jacket sleeves. I didn’t want to use leather and try to match color with all the weathering, so my plan was to just add a little bit of mod podge to that section to crisp it up. I mixed mod podge glue with a ton of water and brushed the mixture onto the front section of the sleeves. It basically turned it to plastic…DON’T DO IT!! I tried blow drying them, steaming them, and wiping off excess glue, but it still cooled hard and phyically hurt my arms. Shit!!

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So I did what any panicked idiot would do and ordered orange cotton twill fabric from Amazon Prime. I took the sleeves apart, flattened the messed up sections with steam to use as a pattern, and re-dyed/re-painted the new sections. I berated myself and gave my bruised ego some wine, and it worked out in the end. I sewed the redos back in place and all was right in the world again. I can do without the sheen on the front sections.

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Floral paint did make an already thick fabric a little stiffer, so I stitched the collar open and down on the sides. I also added velcro to the bottom legs and where the comm badge would go above the pocket. And that’s it for the coveralls!!

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This post got really long with just the coveralls, so up next are finishing touches (accessories, wig, greeblies), and photos of the entire costume on me.

“Thank the Force! This little thing has me worried sick. Come here, you little womp rat.”  – Peli Motto

from The Mandalorian

Other Peli Motto posts on Red Shoes. Red Wine.

Peli Motto: The Teal Dicky

Peli Motto: The Finishing Touches

Costuming Peli Motto from The Mandalorian

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