Han Solo Riding on a Tauntaun Costume.

This project was a Halloween costume that took on a life of its own! It started with the Han Solo outfit from the first movie and then the realization that he'd need more on to trick or treat outdoors, coupled with the challenge/request of having a Tauntaun too.

I had seen one done for an adult, but it was way to intense for a child's costume that needed to get to school and Comic-Con in the back of my VW Beetle. I also thought that a child's costume would be more suited to something akin to a wearable stuffed animal. I am also not a professional designer of any type, just a mom who like sewing and making Halloween costumes.

I watched the movie, looked at the toys we had and also the Star Wars Visual dictionary and drew patterns on craft paper, bought a couple of meters of fun fur and miscellaneous fabric, thread and notions, as well as harvesting other items from around the house as the project unfolded, which includes the aluminum air duct used to keep the head and neck stable.

Never anticipating the opportunity to post to a contest like this (thank you Leslie for directing me to this site!), I didn't document the process other than to update friends and family through Facebook posts, because I went missing from social interaction for about 6 weeks with all the sewing (I had four other costume on the go as well) and needed to demonstrate that I was alive and sewing and not a missing person.

The first costume was pretty straight forward clothing construction, it was the Tauntaun that was the challenge.

I cut out and constructed the lower body by doing the legs first, attaching them to the tail and torso sections, the stitched in batting to shape haunches, calves, tail and torso. With that done I made paper mache claws and horns and then built the feet as boot covers and attached the saddle and fake leg/boot combo. There were of course various tweaks along the way to adjust for my son getting in and out. Once it all seemed good, then I moved on to the suspenders that hold the Tauntaun up and the parka that covers the suspenders and creates the illusion of the rider.

With this part done, it was possible to move on to the head which is constructed out of a one piece pattern, that when stitched together, became a full head and neck that was then filled with batting and had fishing line to pull the jaw together. I shaped the head and then moved on to creating the facial ridges with combinations of paint and adhesives in areas where the fun-fur had been shorn. Once the head was done the aluminum air duct was wrapped in batting and inserted into the torso and the head slid over top and secured into place, complete with bridle.

He's really enjoyed the costume: wearing it to school, trick-or-treating and to the Central Canadian Comic Convention last weekend where he wore it to meet Billy Dee Williams, who took a picture of them together & posted it to his Facebook page! (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Billy-Dee-Williams/37666298202?fref=ts - See Nov 4th post) We were in total geek heaven!

We're looking to modify the costume for next year, where I may change the head for a moulded skull integrated into the fun-fur and more detailing on Han's winter wardrobe, plus some tweaks that we've factored in based on anticipated growth of my son over the next year.