GDMorti

Very slick.  Love it! Thankyou for posting these up, really good to see!
Please could we get a photo of the back of the gloves that you are using? It's tricky to see the backs while you wear them in these photos! My only other point to raise would be the seams on the backs of your boots as I've mentioned over on your FOSB costume thread. Otherwise this looks really nice.

I'll be sure to say when I have a source for the headsets! It's just finding them at the moment proving tricky.
 
I appreciate that the fabric having a noticeable sheen does mean that folds and wrinkles are more apparent, however I would worry that if there are a lot of wrinkles or the wrinkles cannot be avoided or controlled, then the fabric choice for the costume might not be the right one. For Hux, a lot of costumers are using black bengaline faille. You will need to interface it with a good woven interfacing, especially for the jacket, in order to get it to behave. However we've been using it for these costumes for some time. It's not perfect but it's very very close! You need a subtle sheen without an obvious shine, if that helps. Plus it needs to be heavy enough and sturdy enough to make a suit out of, without creasing/wrinkling/folding a lot.

I have copied below the image of Petty Officer Unamo from the TFA Visual Dictionary. It's helpful to see the costume on a female figure since that better matches the costumer!
 

 
There are a few folds and creases in the fabric, yes. However you can very clearly see:
- Flat front, no bunching of fabric around the upper shin, knee or thigh area. They are neatly fitted to the wearers legs and hips.
- The side flaps are very well defined and sit almost perfectly straight, you can see where they are stitched together, along the outer seam of the trouser legs on both thighs.
- Even with the slight creasing or waves in the fabric due to the actor having slightly more curves than the thin male officer pictured next to her, you can see the pintuck detailing on the front of the pants, on each leg.

A couple of other things to note:
- A very clearly visible front fly closure.
- Just at the bottom of her jacket, you can see the same metal hook and eye closures that feature on both Lieutenant Mitaka and General Hux, leading us to believe that this closure type was standard across all jackets and tunics in the First Order.

I had known of the existence of the 501st for a while, but only really became interested in joining after I left my first viewing of TFA knowing I wanted to make a Kylo Ren costume.
I've always been a "If you're going to do something, do it properly" sort of person. I found that I was a sucker for the details, that I wanted to replicate the costume to the best of my ability, as a personal challenge to myself. There was a lot of information out there about Kylo when I started my research, and the 501 CRL documents were a useful checklist for all the little areas I needed to "hit" in order to be the best Kylo I could be, to a fairly well known level of accepted standard.
If your costume was 501st approved? Oh wow! That meant something! To me, anyway. It was a badge of honour worth working for. Something you could be proud of!
 
During my time researching and building Kylo and in my early days of trooping, I got to know people both local to me and further afield in my garrison. I also started my second costume build for Hux. More research. More networking. More connections and more friends. Around the world! One Celebration went past, in London. Another in Orlando. Orlando Celebration was possibly one of the best experiences of my entire life, purely because of my friends and my big loud Legion family (with all its brothers and sisters).
 
Costuming with the 501st is absolutely pushing me to better myself, learn more skills, know more stuff. I love the challenge, to be honest! It's also put me in touch with friends near and far who I very likely would never have met otherwise, and who I don't know how I ever went without talking to or hanging out with. It's a costume club that definitely makes the most of passionate people (for better or worse) and it's had its ups and downs, but I've honestly never felt more at home.

Regarding TLJ references: The jacket for the most part remains very similar in design. As with all of the FO Uniforms for TLJ, structurally they were all improved upon after TFA but design-wise it's the same base jacket.
There are numerous changes in the pants design though. These changes also differ between Petty Officers, through the Gunner/Engineer and other personnel. If the maker is after specifically a TFA build, it's probably for the best just to focus on TFA references at present.

If possible, the wide hook and eye closures should be used for the front closure, rather than snaps or the "bra strap" style hook and eye closures which have been used here.
In the visual dictionary images of Chief Petty Officer Unamo, you can slightly see the same metal closures used on Hux and Mitaka, just visible in the opening of her jacket.
Thankfully these are easy to source and should be a case of replacing with the closures already there. In Europe they are wide hook and eye closures sold by Prym, I believe. In the USA, they are the same, but sold by Dritz.

I'm currently looking into sourcing the headsets used for TFA. They all use the same one, there are a lot of them, and they do not look fabricated for the movie. They have to exist somewhere! I'll share what I find out.

Unfortunately all scenes featuring petty officers within TFA, which is the uniform type and style specified, have this headset in place. I'd imagine that this would need to be a non-optional accessory. Hopefully it will be a non-issue once a source for the headsets can be found!

At least there are no gloves, boots or hat to deal with!

I agree with Dawn in that the fit of the pants looks very strange. They would need to fit in the way you can see in the visual dictionary, which gives two good front-facing references of this uniform. There are minimal wrinkles and folds, unavoidable with this sort of fabric with a sheen, however they are straight-leg and smooth at front and sides. Photos showing the side flaps of the pants and the front pintuck from the upper thigh down to beneath the top of the boot would need to be provided also.

I had known of the existence of the 501st for a while, but only really became interested in joining after I left my first viewing of TFA knowing I wanted to make a Kylo Ren costume.
I've always been a "If you're going to do something, do it properly" sort of person. I found that I was a sucker for the details, that I wanted to replicate the costume to the best of my ability, as a personal challenge to myself. There was a lot of information out there about Kylo when I started my research, and the 501 CRL documents were a useful checklist for all the little areas I needed to "hit" in order to be the best Kylo I could be, to a fairly well known level of accepted standard.
If your costume was 501st approved? Oh wow! That meant something! To me, anyway. It was a badge of honour worth working for. Something you could be proud of!
 
During my time researching and building Kylo and in my early days of trooping, I got to know people both local to me and further afield in my garrison. I also started my second costume build for Hux. More research. More networking. More connections and more friends. Around the world! One Celebration went past, in London. Another in Orlando. Orlando Celebration was possibly one of the best experiences of my entire life, purely because of my friends and my big loud Legion family (with all its brothers and sisters).
 
Costuming with the 501st is absolutely pushing me to better myself, learn more skills, know more stuff. I love the challenge, to be honest! It's also put me in touch with friends near and far who I very likely would never have met otherwise, and who I don't know how I ever went without talking to or hanging out with. It's a costume club that definitely makes the most of passionate people (for better or worse) and it's had its ups and downs, but I've honestly never felt more at home.

I had known of the existence of the 501st for a while, but only really became interested in joining after I left my first viewing of TFA knowing I wanted to make a Kylo Ren costume.
I've always been a "If you're going to do something, do it properly" sort of person. I found that I was a sucker for the details, that I wanted to replicate the costume to the best of my ability, as a personal challenge to myself. There was a lot of information out there about Kylo when I started my research, and the 501 CRL documents were a useful checklist for all the little areas I needed to "hit" in order to be the best Kylo I could be, to a fairly well known level of accepted standard.
If your costume was 501st approved? Oh wow! That meant something! To me, anyway. It was a badge of honour worth working for. Something you could be proud of!
 
During my time researching and building Kylo and in my early days of trooping, I got to know people both local to me and further afield in my garrison. I also started my second costume build for Hux. More research. More networking. More connections and more friends. Around the world! One Celebration went past, in London. Another in Orlando. Orlando Celebration was possibly one of the best experiences of my entire life, purely because of my friends and my big loud Legion family (with all its brothers and sisters).
 
Costuming with the 501st is absolutely pushing me to better myself, learn more skills, know more stuff. I love the challenge, to be honest! It's also put me in touch with friends near and far who I very likely would never have met otherwise, and who I don't know how I ever went without talking to or hanging out with. It's a costume club that definitely makes the most of passionate people (for better or worse) and it's had its ups and downs, but I've honestly never felt more at home.

Hi, i'm here to propose you a new uniform from the First Order - TFA for the CRL. I'ts wear by Carla Messeri, she would like to be a member of the Italica Garrison. Waiting your judgment and advices, thank you in advance. It is Bridge Personnel costume. Thanks.
 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/155582262@N05/?
 
 

Hey there! 
The costume looks very nice and well made, good job there. 
 
Would you mind providing references of the character as well so we are able to compare and advise a little easier? 
 
Thank you!!

Problem of Soviet boots is that their leather is not as sturdy as others, so the top tends to fall and cause flaps

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It might have already been mentioned in this thread but I've heard of people having luck finding boots over on Sovietboots.com, could be worth a look?

The flat top boots are ABSOLUTELY ok for Level 3.  Preferred, even.  It's not made clear in the CRL, as the wording is muddled.
 
The flat top boots are German, in addition to being similar (but not the same as) the Russian boots.  Most of the boots used for Imperials in the OT were German.

I'm with you, love to talk about this crl stuff, notice I've posted examples before

Best regards!

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Very fair! I'd just worry that as the zippers were not seen on screen, there is no real guarantee that those boots were screen used, but I see what you mean! They're a good representation for the "spanish style" you see referenced on CRL texts. It confused me back in the day too. XD

I would take those boots with a pinch of salt, as I don't think anyone has managed to catch visual proof of boots with inner zips like that on film at any point for the OT.

I still say call it - First Order Admiral/General.
 
Both of the other uniforms have followed this trend. It's also a trend we have seen on screen. We have no visual proof of anyone else in Hux's specific uniform, regardless of rank. He's also the only one with that coat.
I entirely appreciate that, back in the day, you could have looked at Hux (especially with all the officers behind him during the speech scene, and "word from cast" that others wore the same uniform type) and said that we could have a generic FO General. However as is stated throughout many discussions, new information does and should affect CRLs and we respond accordingly.
 
New information is:
- We've gone another full movie, nobody else in Hux's uniform. Nobody else in that coat.
- We've been given another shot of the black fold-over uniform. We've seen it on an Admiral with Admiral rank bars, We've now also seen it with General rank bars. FO uniforms so far have all covered TWO rank bars. The black foldover uniform now covers TWO ranks. The pattern fits.
 
There has been no issue with the FO uniforms in grey and teal. I don't see any issue with the black foldover being Admiral/General, since that is what I feel they are. The spanner in the works comes from decisions made in the past to create a generic uniform for Hux's CRL, which turns out might not actually be a rank and file uniform. I'm not saying that decision was wrong, not at all. Heck, back then I would have supported a generic General in that uniform. How were any of us to know that this would happen?

But it has happened.
 
I don't know what to suggest to solve the Hux uniform issue. I don't really want to delete a CRL (can you even do that?) I don't want to render the handful of cleared "Generic FO General" costumes into a weird grey area (They would be grandfathered and still get to troop in them, I presume?). But, new information has arisen. This particular discussion regarding what to do with Hux's uniform and the "generic" version of it, is something that maybe does need looking at. Ignoring that issue, purely to make life easier for -this- CRL and not naming it "Admiral/General" - which is what it is - is not a particularly good solution. Not for the new CRL, and not for the issue with the current Hux-Generals.

Like I said. I don't know what the solution is for the Generic FO General. I'm a little bit uncomfortable with renaming it and allowing people to continue to clear with it, when we have zero proof that anyone but Hux wears that uniform. It's along the same lines as "lets have a generic Director so that people can make and wear that uniform with their own facial appearance and hair, or if they're women who don't want to look like men". Not that I'm pushing for that, by the way... That would be ridiculous. But, you see my point? -If- the generics, as they stand right now, can be removed? And existing generic Hux-General's grandfathered so they are still able to troop? It sucks... but it works? It's accurate? It's, I feel, correct? Others may disagree with me, that tends to happen a lot, but I just want to do right by the IOC CRL's and not have any weird fruity inaccurate stuff happening. I also want to do right by the First Order IOC CRLs, and giving the black foldover uniform a silly name because of not wanting to handle the Hux uniform situation doesn't feel right.

I need to open by saying I could not have drafted this pattern without the help/photos Ellen Streichfuß provided, and the helpful tutorial thread by Joey Lim. I just wanted to drop photos of my work here in case it is helpful! 

Your measurements will vary! These are based off my measurements but this should give you a better idea of the pattern pieces & proportions. 

Front bottom layer:

Note: The finished bottom layer sits roughly 3" higher than the finished middle/top layer. 

Front middle layer:

Note: The flat-felled seams belong to the top layer, I just show them here for the sake of positioning. 
Feel free to give yourself MORE of a bleed at the sides if you would like. I had to measure extremely carefully. If that worries you, feel free to make the bleeds a whole 2"! 
To make the pocket I Just traced the left side but stopped 5" into the pattern. (so 2" for a nice large bleed, 1" for the side thing, 2" for the pocket) 

Front top:


I kept calling them flat-felled seams but honestly I just wound up folding them under, pinned it to the middle, and sewed it down roughly 1/4" from the edge. I was going to get fancier but the more I looked at the refs and what others were doing the less I felt it was necessary. 

This is how the entire top looks together: 

It's clearer here how the back sits 3" higher than the front. 
Also there's no good way (I found) for me to tell you how to position the pocket & position this on the yoke. I did the yoke first and just kind of pinned the front where I thought it looked good and eyeballed the top of the pocket. This is kind of why I didn't do a full step-by-step tutorial. A lot of this is just "hold it up and see if it looks okay".  Same goes for where exactly you attach this piece to your yoke. When I was planning the above pieces, I wasn't sure of the length measurement, I wound up just kind of winging it by putting the finished yoke on top of my tunic then measuring from the front center of the yoke to roughly where I thought the front should fall. I added 3" to the bottom of the top, pocket & middle pieces so I could fold them under and attach it to the bottom piece, so there's no top seam.  (again this is was so, ridiculously, winged)

Yoke back:

So I feel bad, I should have put the pattern weights on this one because it's actually 18.5" wide. It just came up a little short because the folds weren't flat enough, sorry about that. The size will vary depending on your shoulder width, but this is the gist of the shape! 

Front left: 


Front top right: 


I decided to put a slight curve into mine. I liked it better when I was mocking up my test fabric on the mannequin. I thought it looked a little closer to the reference photos I was looking at. I'm not 100% sure if this is how they did it, or if it's actually straight and the camera was playing tricks on me. So feel free to cut it in whichever way looks best to you personally! 

Front bottom right: 


This goes under the top piece, the top piece will snap/velcro down to this. 

Roughly how the front goes together: 


I put a HUGE bleed in the front center because  I knew I had to top-stitch and I was afraid of not catching the fabric beneath it. Turned out to be a non-issue and I could have made that bleed smaller, oops. 

The neck is just a folded-over strip that's roughly 3" (so 6" total then fold it) so I didn't make or include a pattern piece for it. I have a quilting ruler I just traced for that purpose! 

I was going to post my cape but HONESTLY I like charlyselo's cape better. His tutorial wasn't live when I did my poncho, otherwise I would have used his method in this thread here.

Here's my final.

Everyone's basically covered everything, but as we've seen the ranking scheme go is one uniform, two ranks (Lt./Capt, Major/Colonel, and now this as General/Admiral) and it uses the rank stripes given to us in the visual dictionary which clearly states the ranks. To be quite honest, this seems like a no-brainer. We know the rank stripes mean X, we have seen both on this uniform in film and promo images. Ergo, it is these ranks.

The issue here isn't with this black uniform and its associated ranks, the issue is that we have a 'generic general' wearing Hux's uniform that is now, due to information shown and given in TLJ, an incorrect anomaly - imo that's what needs looked at, asking sources for clarification if possible (is it a dress uniform?is Hux just special?) and a revision in name so that this uniform with reference can be given its due. If anything is getting a non-ranked uniform description title as a CRL, it should be the one without canon source. This Admiral/General has canon rank information

You say let's not get bogged down with the rank, but the black foldover uniform has been seen with both the Admiral rank bar (stated as such from the TFA VisDic) and in TLJ with the General rank stripes.
As yet... we've seen no other personnel with General rank stripes. How exactly are we going to address the titling of this costume?
 
FO Uniforms have followed a trend so far of each style working for two ranks. The grey with code cylinders on the chest for Lieutenant and Captain. The teal foldover for Colonel and Major. The white FOSB tunic being worn by a Colonel I believe is more to do with his particular job than his rank (So that's going to be fun to deal with lol) but now we have the black foldover uniform worn by an Admiral and, it appears, a General. How will this be handled?

Finally yesterday could take new photos with new dosimeters and rank bar, hope you like it
 

lol I was literally going to say this
There's a more "realistic" version of the uniform on the cover of the next Thrawn book too, with those solid epaulettes.

I believe there have been posts about this exact subject from confused members previously, too. I love configs but yeah a little bit of tightening up is required here I think.

Hmm... You do have a point about the seam around the wrist. I'll do a little more digging before committing then. 

Boots unfortunately wouldn't work for a couple of reasons, the soles are the wrong sort of shape and have a visible grip, and yeah I do think they are too short unfortunately, or would be. They look to be about shin height rather than knee! The stitching patterns aren't quite right either. :S

Spike's covered the additional options for boots. Unfortunately the boots are a bit of a bespoke item, so they're a pricey part of an FO build but worth doing right to avoid as much grief as possible come clearance. 

Regarding the gloves, they are plain on the back of the palm however the large seam at the wrist might be overly visible and could become a concern. Additionally since they are gauntlet style gloves, the extra fabric around the forearm below the wrist might be uncomfortable, or bulky, beneath the sleeves of your tunic when you wear the costume. :S