Upgrading the Rebel persona: uniform tunic

Over the years, I’ve acquired a number of different ‘in-universe’ garments. Some are based on examples from film or print sources, some are extrapolations based on planetary styles, some are just attempts to apply the generic ‘galactic aesthetic’ to my everyday wardrobe.

But so far, I haven’t tried to outright copy a specific example…the closest I’d come was the ‘bib’-front shirt I whipped up for the debut of my ‘Citizen Olis’ persona in 2017, meant to be a local take on the style worn by the Rebel ‘fleet troopers’ and Yavin communications officers seen in Episode IV:

It played its part well enough, but as I was under a tight deadline and my reference library was still in its infancy at the time, the shirt never looked quite right to me…even if I removed the top button from the collar, the whole collar area didn’t behave like those onscreen; I can now see that the bib needed to be raised up to the point where the collar folds and falls.
I’ve always loved this style of shirt with its strong Classic Trilogy pedigree, but I never quite understood how they were meant to be constructed. My 2017 attempt was just a button-up with the bib sewed over it; I was sure there was more to it than that, and I wanted a properly-made one to include in a Rebel partizan kit. Frequent blog commenter S.C. observed that this style of shirt is really only worn by characters who are serving the Alliance, suggesting it might be an issued piece of uniform. Further research suggested that a local resistance cell incorporated into Alliance Sector Forces would receive “support, supplies, and materiel” (Wizards of the Coast (2009) Rebellion Era Campaign Guide p91) from the Alliance, somewhat akin to the various insurgencies around the world funded, trained, and supplied by the USA during the Cold War.

While the folks who make higher-end replica clothing for costumers—your Magnolis, Corellian Dry Goods, etc.—keep their patterns a trade secret, at the end of last year a member of the SWLH fb group shared an excellent discovery: a FREE sewing pattern for a Han Solo-style double-breasted shirt—itself essentially a bib shirt with the front flaps folded down. The pattern didn’t look too complicated, but I couldn’t undertake another project…too many on the backburner already. It took 5 months of pandemic-lockdown to find the freetime to get on top of things, and by August I finally took a serious look at the pattern.
Because I’m a fabric hoarder, I had been saving a beige bedsheet for the specific purpose of making a muslin Rebel bib shirt, so I laid everything out, cut out the pieces (drafting a rear yoke that wasn’t included, and swapping the jacket-style sleeves for more a accommodating pattern from a military dress shirt), and got to work.
To make it more Alliance-issued style, I copied a fall collar off a dress shirt and—with no fusible interfacing available—stiffened it with an extra layer or two of fabric. It’s definitely not as neat as it would be done properly, but as I kept repeating during this project, “It’s just a prototype, unless it works.” Besides, this is a ragtag rebellion – we take what we can get!

The sleeves, sides, and shoulders assembled straightforwardly, but when the time came to do the front bibs I started running into the expected headaches. The sewing instructions had the bib sewn right-sides-together and then flipped to the inside, which would be fine if I wanted ‘close enough’…but the onscreen examples clearly have the outer bib stitched to the outside of the shirt. I tried sewing the bib onto the inside and then flipping it to the outside to get the same look, but this created an ugly exposed edge below the collar and at the waistline….so that couldn’t be right.

I reached out to another SWLH group member (who had actually sewed his own from the same pattern), and to a professional (didn’t hear back), so I decided to improvise a solution: ‘sandwiching’ the bib area of the shirt front between an inside and outside applied bib layer. This added an extra stiffening layer (still no interfacing, remember) and enclosed all raw edges.
However, once I got the first attempt sewn, it was pretty clear that the bib was way too small compared to the onscreen Rebel examples, and it still left the collar stand exposed:

I repatterned it and cut out new pieces…very thankful that I had an entire sheet of material to work with, instead of the usual 2-3 yards of fabric! (If you’re taking notes, the old applied bib was 9×13.5, and the new one was 11×15 inches). Eventually, I wound up with this:

It ain’t perfect, but for what I had to work with, it works for now. The material is pretty thin and doesn’t have much texture, and a flame test suggests a cotton/something synthetic blend that I would like to avoid. Obviously, midweight linen or perhaps suiting wool would be best, but that’s a decision for another day. I think I can use the excuse of ‘sewn by volunteer Rebel seamstresses with poor QC’ or ‘sewn by miscalibrated tailor droids’ to explain its workmanship errors. I know I probably won’t be doing any interpretive workshops until at least early 2022, so I’m in no hurry to overhaul this project.

While my perfectionist self is far from satisfied, the shirt definitely passes the ‘10-foot rule’. What do you think? Have you made a shirt of this style? Have any tips for construction? Leave a comment below, or join the conversation in the SWLH facebook group!

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