The family that Star Wars costumes together stays together

I have two boys who are very particular about costumes — it is pointless for me to even offer suggestions. It is just not a battle worth fighting for me. A few years ago they decided they wanted to be Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker. I’m not the biggest fan of dressing up, but we found ourselves invited to a costume party at which EVERYONE was supposed to wear costumes — kids and adults. I relinquished control and let the boys decide what the rest of the family should be… and of course they chose Star Wars characters.

Before we headed to the party I wanted to get a few pictures of us dressed up, so we decided to stage a mini-shoot for the occasion:

I don’t have specific tutorials for each costume, but I do have a few pointers:

• Yoda: I dyed an old white t-shirt and beanie. I created ears by cutting the tshirt into four triangles. There are a couple of layers of felt inside the ears. The ear layers are sewn together and then sewn onto the hat. The shoe coverings are just scraps of the dyed white tshirt cut to shape and stitched a little up the back to easily slip on. The jacket is part of the boy’s Indiana Jones costume, turned inside out.

• Jedi Knights: I used this tutorial and $4.00 bed sheets from Walmart

• R2D2: Large white long sleeve t-shirt and beanie with free-hand drawing with Sharpies. It would have been a lot cuter to make some kind of cardboard thing for him to wear, but he would have never worn it.

• Darth Vader: borrowed costume

• Princess Leia: I bought a $3 nightgown and silver purse from Goodwill. I cut off the bottom of the nightgown to make a belt and I also sewed a piece to the top of the dress to cover up a blue flowe.

We learned a lot that night — like we should have been prepared for people to think we were all peasants (and, apparently, that Yoda is an Elf Peasant). All in all, it was a successful costumed family outing, and I now know that based on my husband’s love of his Darth Vader mask, my kids will never outgrow the thrill of being warriors.