lekku

The Complete Wermo's Guide's
to
Lekku

Wermo (wer moh) n. 1. A stupid person, an idiot. 2. One who is pitiable, contemptible, or weak-willed. 3. Worm. 4. slang Boy.

Oola last danced for Jabba on April 2, 2008

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LEKKU MAKING GUIDE

The following is a guide to the way I make my lekku. I was too lazy to take more pictures along the way but you get the idea. :P

Started out with one way stretch cotton lycra/spandex fabric. It's not the most ideal or accurate material for it, but time was running out and it did work pretty well.
Next I cut it down the middle to about the length I wanted the tails, leaving space for the bottom to go on my head like a bathing cap.

I then folded over the edges and using a yard stick, made a straight edge line with chalk of where I needed to cut to give me an elongated triangular shape laying flat.

Then I sewed along that edge, and the two edges that were folded over meet in the middle to form a seam in the back of the head that will be altered later.

Turned inside out to prepare for coat hanger wire and filling.

Two metal coat hangers were unfurled with pliers, straightened out and then the ends folded over about and inch, covered with the same vinyl material I used for my costume, secured tightly at ends so that I could stick the vinyl coated end to the bottom then handsew it to the tips so that the wire would not slip out during movement or poke thru at any point. Next cotton/polyester pillow stuffing was stuffed from tip to head. It may seem a little lumpy at first but just massage it and smooth it out and it gets better.

The bottom unstuffed cap part was altered through trial and error to come to the right point on my forehead and back of my head, allowing enough excess to fold over, sew, and insert a drawstring which ties in back and can be stuffed under. Tied tight enough the drawstring placed over forehead, under ear lobes and tied in back with double knot keeps in place securely, too often my first lekku slid back on my forehead and that is a fashion faux pas. :P
As you can see, because of the use of coat hanger wire, these lekku are bendable!

My first lekku, made for Celebration 3 but featured at Wizard World Philly here. These were made of linen, no stretch, basically because I needed flesh color and they had no stretch material in that tone. These lekku are attached to the headpiece however, and the ear is too low. :`(.
Please note lines on ear as Twi'leks have.

The final step is adding ears, which I made out of round pieces of fabric, then folded into a cylinder shape the way chemists use that filter paper, then glued them then stuffed them, then folded edges under and handsewed to sides. Make sure you have them in the right place before you sew them on! . If you use fabric you can pleat the lines, for more realsitic look. I may alter these eventually. I advise against using orange juice squeezer cones, doesn't look right to me. : x

My lekku didnt budge once all while I had them on, but they do hurt under the ears and forehead after many hours. And you will have a arched red indented line on your forehead for an hour or two. lol Also, these lekku are not heavy and allow a good range of movement and move with you naturally.

These lekku came out pretty well, I think instead of making a new lekku for every color I plan to be, I will just see how a lekku cases will work, like just like these but unstuffed and then placed over the stuffed ones, etc, like a pillowcase!

Something I have yet to try is painting these with liquid latex or whatever its called for more flesh like quality, or using a more fleshy fabric like soft vinyl.

Also, I made a headpiece which I decided not to wear because Darth Talon does not really wear one.

In the future I will always make lekku and headpiece seperate so I can mix and match!

Hope this guide was a little help and hope to see more Twi'lek costumes cuz...

Twi'leks Rule!

I have finally gotten around to fixing my Darth Talon ears so here is how I fixed them with a pleated look. Begin with two round pieces of the same fabric you used for the lekku tails.

Fold over and starting in the center, pleat a very thin stitch to the end.

You can see the first finished pleat in this picture, and how thin it is, and how it starts in center and goes to edge. You will want to make about 15 pleats all together. They do not all have to start from the very center but to give it an organic look, be sure to vary their length and width from each other.

Here is one finished ear and another about to be sewn.

When you have both ears finished, you will then get a little stuffing and fill them and then pin each ear on to the lekku, making sure you attach them in the right spot so you do not have to cut them off and reaffix them. They should be sewn about where your real ear is located. Use a mirror. :P Shove the pin's end under and up into the stuffing so that you can try them on before the final step of handsewing around the edges withhout hurting yourself. When you handsew, be sure to bring the thread through the layer of fabric closest to the lekku head, and not through the domed outer part. No thread should be visible from the outside.

Lekku and original design headpiece I had the honor of making for an upcoming French fan film, link to be provided once it is completed.

http://www.plutonsrising.com

Their first production:
http://www.dailymotion.com/Plutons_Rising/video/x36l7y_le-jedi-revele-v02_creation

AImee writes in with these extra tips!
"I did try something a little different from the tutorial, though. I added a tablespoon of rice grains to the end ofeach tail for a bit of extra weight. That and I also used 1" wideelastic around the bottom of the cap, which really holds the lekku on well. These things are awesome, they move with me when I jump around, I can't wait to see how they react when I actually try to fight whilewearing them. There's also the fact that they weigh almost nothing, so no sore neck!"

Here are some other sources for Twi'leks and lekkus:

1. Pam's Twilek Creations http://chucrew.com/Twilek/Twilek.htm

2. Frosty's lekku tutorial http://www.peak.org/~jhyde/hydecodolls/horns.htm

Finished ear.