Han Solo Cosplay Tutorial: The Shirt and Pants (Part 1 of 3)
*NOTE* To skip to other tutorials for this cosplay, check out the links below!
Vest
Holster and Belt
Belt Buckles, Accessories and Gun
*Also, due to popular demand, you can custom order your own shirt here in my Etsy store!*
Cosplaying as Han Solo was a blast. Not only was I comfortable wearing the cosplay all day, but I received some extremely nice compliments from my handiwork. I never thought wearing such a conservative cosplay outfit would result in so many sexual innuendos (and more here), but hey, it’s all in good fun. Plus I am pretty immune to it from being an ex-FragDoll and all.
Anyhow, I promised tutorials so I am bringing tutorials! I imagined cosplaying as Han Solo would be fairly “easy” since I could buy many of the parts and just reconstruct them. Of course I was wrong and I probably spent just as much time on this cosplay as I would if I had made it from scratch. I ended up making 2 gun holsters and 3 shirts, but that’s besides the point. I guess with cosplaying, you never know if you’re going to find something better along the way. In a way, I felt like I was leveling up my armor each time!
So this tutorial will cover a few things – the shirt and pants. Part 2 will cover the vest and part 3 will cover the more complicated part – the holster and belt.
The Han Solo Shirt:
In my opinion, the key to a good Han Solo shirt is finding the right material. He wears an off-white, almost beige, 3/4 sleeve loose v-neck shirt with a half-collar. I initially checked eBay and some thrift stores, but couldn’t find anything I liked. Eventually I went out and bought some fabric. My first mistake was buying a linen type fabric that looked more like something for a Tattooine farm boy than for a bounty hunter. Linen does not stretch and you would have to add a zipper to put it on. I learned this after cutting and sewing the main body of the shirt. Oops. My second mistake was buying some ivory jersey fabric, which was incredibly stretchy. If you’re going to make the shirt from scratch, this pattern will probably work, but I would definitely choose a different material.
First I copied a pattern from another long sleeve shirt to make this basic sleeveless v-neck.
Then I followed this tutorial to add a simple v-neck.
I then added about a 1 inch half-collar around the whole thing. And for those of you who were wondering what the pie container was for, I cut all the way around the container and put that piece into the collar to make it stand up. Here’s what the shirt ended up looking like.
Not too shabby, but I was still kind of “meh” about it. It was too stretchy and thin and also the collar looked a bit fake. So here I was at square one again! But somehow, luck was on my side because a random visit to a vintage boutique in a nearby town resulted in finding an off-white polyester disco shirt that looked just like this (the dude in the pink)!
Now all I had to do was tuck the collar in a bit, slim down the puffy sleeves, and trim the sides! If only I had found this shirt first! See what I mean about leveling up along the way?
The Han Solo Pants:
For the pants, I bought about 8 pairs of navy pants before finding the right one. I would hate to buy some really nice khakis only to destroy them so I tried to stay on a budget for this. I initially thought the navy work pants from Dickies would be perfect, but they were way too dark. I tried Banana Republic, Gap, and Old Navy, but no luck. Finally as I was returning my online purchases to the Old Navy store, I happened upon their kids uniform section! Navy pants galore! I tried on a pair of size 16 girls pants and they fit! LOL. Great to know that I have the body of a little girl. :\ And you can’t do much better than a $12 pair of pants. So if you happen to wear a women’s 0-2 pants, definitely check out their pants here.
I knew I didn’t have the right machine to embroider red bloodstripes all the way down the leg so I decided to buy some red seam binding (about 3/4″ wide) and draw the stripes on the strip. I marked about every half inch down the red strip allowing about 1/16″ room for the thickness of the lines. This was pretty tedious, but I’m sure it beats embroidering! I decided to use a blue permanent marker (not a Sharpie because it runs funny). Make sure to test this out first to see if the ink will run!
And since I was wearing long boots, I knew I didn’t have to do the entire pant leg. In fact, I decided to cut the pants up to my calves just to keep my legs cooler and prevent having to stuff my pants in the boots.
And I really hate glue-gunning fabric, but there was no way I was going to take apart all the seams and sew this on. If you can find the iron-on version of this seam tape, definitely buy that one! Otherwise, you’ll have to glue gun everything like I did here.
25 Comments
Mike Polizzi
Pleaseee where can I find that polyester shirt with long sleeves?? And how did you put the sleeves on the v neck you made?
emilyo
I found mine at a vintage store. I would definitely check a thrift shop or maybe ebay. If you’re making a shirt from scratch, I would recommend following a pattern if you’re just learning to sew. There are tons of patterns available at stores like Joannes or other fabric stores. Good Luck!
Mike Polizzi
Thank you! My blaster just came in the mail. I have alot of work to do before I can pull this off correctly. Thanks for responding, your awesome!
first timer
First time to be on your blog! I swooned over your Han Solo outfit. Makes me want to dress up as Han over Leia anytime!
Hooray for a fellow fan!
P.S. Carrie Fisher wanted first the role of Han Solo. :)
emilyo
No way! That’s some cool trivia! Looks like Dark Horse is also doing a comic with the original Star Wars concepts from Ralph McQuarrie where Han Solo is actually an alien! Kinda cool!
first timer
I’ve read this here:
http://inktank.fi/20-things-you-didnt-know-about-carrie-fisher-and-star-wars/
It’s the one wherein Carrie said she wanted to be Han Solo. :)
Vallie
What brand is the shirt you got?
emilyo
It was a vintage shirt from a thrift store so it’s from the 70s.
Bridget
Totally followed your tutorial and is was immensely helpful!!! I was bold and used an old leather jacket and worked with that for the vest part (and although it was sooo hard working with leather) it came out AMAZING! I finished this just in time for Halloween – first time ever making my own … Well, anything >_<!!! I wouldn't have been able to do it without you!!!! Thanks a ton for posting this ^_^
emilyo
That’s great! I would love to see if if you want to share it on my FB page!
Ian Mcdowell
hi i really want to cosplay Han solo i have an outfit its on my Facebook page i was wondering if it look ok if not what would you change
Bridget
Yeah I can Definetly do that!!
Anonymous
Looks great! What type of permanent marker did you use? I thought to do this as well for the bloodstripes or either glue gunning pieces of red ribbon on a thicker piece of black grosgrain.
emilyo
I don’t remember the brand, but it wasn’t a sharpie. For some reason the sharpie bled more. Actually I ended up re-doing all the stripes recently and cut up pieces of ribbon instead to use as the stripes. I think that’s a great idea if you go that way, but it’s definitely a little more work. Good luck!
Colin
How did you attach the ribbon strips? Glue gun again? Does that bleed through the ribbon? Does glue gun survive the washing machine? Have you tried any adhesive which isn’t so thick?
emilyo
I used a heat and bond, but fabric glue or glue gun might work. I can’t confirm what happens in the washing machine though. The best thing would be to take the pant seams apart and sew everything down to be safest. Good luck!
Jeannie
Your tutorial is so so helpful! My family and I are doing a group Star Wars cosplay for SLCC in September. I have referenced this many times. Thank you for posting this, and I will try to send you a picture (if you like) of how our cosplay turns out!
emilyo
Awesome! Glad it was helpful and can’t wait to see the photos!
Anonymous
Thanks so much for this! I’m going to be a female Han Solo for Halloween & for the Force Awakens premiere.. and this helped a ton. Just checked my local Kids’ Gap and they have those pants in stock. I wear a size 1, so hopefully they will work for me too !
Maria
Wow This tutorial was awesome. I just wrapped up making it. Thanks so much for all the great tips. The reference pictures for the belt were super helpful.
BELT/HOLSTER:
I ended up using pleather attached to an old belt I found, so It was a combo of 2 fabrics, but still looks decent. After reviewing how much I had already spent on sewing supplies, fabric (Yoda for my little, Jedi for my husband and my own) it was just adding up to too much. I ended up painting pleather silver with acrylic paint for the buckles also because of time constraints (even though I started 2 months ago!).
SHIRT/VEST:
The vest I used was from SAVERS and I just modified it to make it look like a decent piece. The under shirt is from Target.com
PANTS: (stripes)
I too, found them at Old Navy, but in the womens section. For the stripes, I improvised with what I have here at the house, and went with a red ribbon and painted blue stripes on it by hand.
BOOTS:
I already have a to the knee boot, so i will just use those
Anyway, What is the facebook page I can share my (you inspired) constume? I am so excited to use this costume tonight and this weekend. Thanks again for the pictures and helpful hints. :)
Maria
Mary
I know this costume and these posts are several years old but I just want to say awesome job. You made a costume that looks authentic and you didn’t overly sexualize it. I’ve been looking for inspiration for this costume and yours is by far one of the best I’ve seen period and the best I’ve seen made for a woman.
emilyo
Aw, thank you! Even if it’s an old costume, people seem to love it!
lisa
Han solo is no doubt on of the most iconic and famous character of the Star Wars franchsie after Dath Vader, I am huge fan of Harrison Ford perfomance as Han Solo which finally came to end with the Star Wars VII episode. For paying tribute to one of my personally favorite character from the franchise I’ve decided to dressl ike him in this upcoming Halloween, but I ham having trouble (deciding a perfect han solo boots. You suggessions will be highly appreciated. By the way you have written a great blog post!
emilyo
I would google “Riding boots” as you want them as plain as possible. I think 1-2 buckles on the boot is ok too, just depends how accurate you want them. It’s just about boot season so there should be a lot out there!
Rachael McCollum
This is so helpful! I’ve only closet cosplayed before and even then only once. I sewed the vest for this cosplay earlier today (I’ve never sewed before so it’s probably bad but it works for me) and soon I’m gonna do the pants.