Spectre of the Past . . .

So, I'm a huge geek.

My parents owned and operated a science-fiction store when I was born, and I slept in a crib in the back room surrounded by comics and toys from Star Trek and Dr. Who to X-Men and Star Wars. My parents actually met through a Star Trek fan club, and I have been raised on Kirk and Spock and Vader and Skywalker. So, I have a special place in my heart for doing Star Wars costumes. When a friend of mine from Faire approached me about doing a Grand Admiral Thrawn costume for him for Halloween, I jumped at the chance; not only is Thrawn one of my all-time favorite Expanded Universe characters, but I nearly did his costume for myself a few years ago.

If you are a fan of Star Wars but have somehow not heard of Thrawn (gasp!), go out immediately and buy Timothy Zahn's incredible Heir to the Empire trilogy, and the later sequels, Spectre of the Past, and Vision of the Future, in which Thrawn returns. He is a kind of evil Sherlock Holmes: cold, methodical and brilliant, he nearly single-handedly brings back the Empire, and does it all while talking about art and drinking tea. He's fascinating, and I couldn't wait to delve into the costume.

I started with the McCall's Civil War Uniform pattern for the jacket, M4745. It's a very good base for an Imperial uniform; it even includes a piece for the taberd in front. I had to heavily modify it, or course, but I'll be posting on that soon.

It's nearly done, and I can't wait to post pictures of him in the costume (I'm doing his makeup too!) Stay tuned for more to come!