Female Tusken Raider Costume Part 3: Skirt, Cowl, Pouch, Gloves and Shoes
After completing the female Tusken Raider mask and bib, I still had a lot of body to cover. Tusken Raiders leave absolutely everything to the imagination, covering their entire bodies to… I guess stay out of the sun?
The Skirt
I’ve made a lot of skirts in my day, so this was a very easy part of the costume for me. You can find a lot of quick tutorials online, including my instructions to make a simple drawstring skirt.
The Cowl
Female Tusken Raiders are covered mostly by a large cowl that covers everything from the helmet to the knees. It appears to have ribbing on the movie costume, so I had to figure out how to make this with the fabric pointing to the right angle.
Poor Corpse Bride was my model for figuring out how to make this piece on a small scale. I eventually figured out how to create two separate pieces for the cowl. One would be connected to the helmet, but would seamlessly look like it was part of the rest of the cowl.
Where the strips cross on this mock-up would be the back of the cowl.
The finished strips, ready to be stitched.
The Female Tusken Raider Bone Bag
Reference Photo
I’m calling it a bone bag because I’m guessing that’s what she would call it? “She” being the female Tusken Raider that appears for just a few moments during Revenge of the Sith.
I made the bag out of an old purse, part of a belt, and some really really weird thrift store art.
Someone had this hanging on their wall. Then they died and their kids were like… wut. Donate.
I cut the rectangular bottom out of the purse, then cut a fake flap from ol’ leatherface. I glued the flap to the front of the purse, which still closes via a built-in magnet. It was a quick way to get the flap look without having to sew it and make it functional.
Cutting the bottom from the bag
Added the flap. The bottom of the purse will be glued or stitched together.
I sculpted the bone out of Crayola Model Magic, then wrapped the middle with a swatch of felt and jute twine. I then glued small strips of faux leather to the edges of the jute.
The Tusken Raider Gloves
I sewed a pair of gloves from scratch for these because I wanted to make sure the fabric looked rustic and matched the look of the skirt and cowl. For these I also stitched on long strips of muslin so I could wrap it all the way up the arms.
Handmade gloves with muslin strips attached.
Fabric Strip Shoes
We covered my husband’s male Tusken Raider boots in much the same way as these crocs: Hot gluing strips of muslin to them, cutting them at the base of the shoe. It’s simple, but they look authentic and are actually pretty comfy.
After the gloves and shoes were done, I made them a bit more Tattoine authentic with a trip to the garden:
Tusken Raider Metal Bracelets
My husband kindly sawed a couple of slices off a PVC pipe. I used the Model Magic to wrap the bracelets and create the geometric panels that I picked up on in my reference photos.
Once dry, I painted the bracelets with the same gold, copper and bronze metallics as the bib and helmet.
We went on to MarCon in Columbus Ohio in 2014 and won Best in Show!
Horsing around with my buddy Mol after we won!
We actually really needed our buddy Mol to be our handler because these were VERY hard to see out of. Kind of like the mascot handlers you see at Disney World. Thanks, Mol!
