Cool Homemade Oola the Twi'lek Costume from Return of the Jedi

I have always loved the original Star Wars trilogy. But as a woman, if you wanted to dress as someone from the movies, you were generally stuck with two options: Princess Leia in regular clothes or Princess Leia in slace gear. Not my thing. I decided to try making a costume of Oola the Twi’lek one year and it received huge reactions (for you Star Wars n00bs, Oola is the dancer that Jabbe the Hutt throws down to the Rancor at the beginning of Return of the Jedi).

Making this costume was super easy. For the body, you can either go the body paint route if you’re feeling brave but I went with a green zentai suit. I then bought a pair of black bikini bottoms and then began making the “overalls”. These were made with netting used in driving ranges at golf courses. Because they are hole-y, you don’t need to do any major sewing; just tie the pieces together with black thread. I do recommend tying on some elastic at the bottom of the foot holes so the bottoms don’t look like homie G pants.

For the lekku (head tentacles for you noobs) I bought a pair of green tight (I highly recommend We Love Colors to buy these at; their color options are amazing!) and stuffed them with polyfill. I did sew the ends of the tights a little narrower at each end so the ends didn’t look too big. I then attached an elastic chin strap to the waistline part to hold it onto my head. The headband was made from a piece of thick leathery looking fabric that was secured behind my head with Velcro. The little boney nubs on either side of the head were created from the bottom of egg cartons and then painted to look bony. I created the imperial symbol on the center of the headpiece with Sculpty and then attached it to the headband using a hot glue gun. I’m not wearing it in this picture but I also bought a face plastic chain with shackle that I wore around my neck.

Super easy to make and tons of fun to wear!