Make a Medjai-costume of your own

This costume (on the left) I sewed by myself. It is very easy to make and resembles the Medjai attire but it is not exactly like the costumes in the movies. You should use a sewing machine.

First you need a long black cloth, ca. 3 meters x 1,40 meters, please considers your own body height. Take your height form toe to neck twice and you got the length of the cloth (for example: I have 1,50 meters from toe to neck, so my cloth is alltogether 3 meters long). If you don't want to have it as long you can cut it later. The breadth should be 1,40 meters. The cloth should not be too thin (no silk or taffeta or something like this!), thick black cotton wool is fine. (The original Oded Fehr costume is very heavy.) But for the two long shawls hanging over the shoulder you should take more thin black cloth.

Under the costume you should wear black pants and a black shirt, black boots (Oded's boots are grey, in fact). For making a turban and wrist straps/bands (bracelets) please have a look under "assessoirs"!

First step: Assuming that the cloth is 3 x 1,40 meters like on the drawing shown on the right. There you can see a dotted line in the middle, that is the middle of the lenght, so on that place there will be your shoulder. "VORN" (German for "in front") is the front side (chest) of the costume, "HINTEN" (German for "in the back") is the back side of the costume. I have marked the neckline ("HALSAUSSCHNITT" in German). This neckline as well as the line in the middle of the "VORN"-front-side you have to cut in, but do not cut the dotted line because it is only an imaginary line. (You can enlarge the drawing by clicking on it.)

Second step: Now cut in the lines 1, 2, 3, and 4 as shown on the drawing on the left. These cuttings are for the sleeves. Now seam all selvedges of the cloth. If your cloth is not so thick, seam it twice so it doesn't frazzle. Make sure that you have really seamed all selvedges, that are: the bottoms, the sides, the sleeves, the neckline and the cut in the front side. Now sew the sleeve parts together, but only along the lines where you have cut and seamed the cloth: part 1 and 2 togehter, and part 3 and 4 togehter. Now you can try your costume on, if it is long and large enough.

I have decided for myself to let the sides beneath the sleeves open. So I can move freely. The cloths of the sides will automatically fall together, that looks nicely. If you choose to sew the sides together, than make a cut half of the back part of the costum, from the bottom to the middle.

More tips: Along the neckline you can apply a silver braid (of your choice) which extends on both sides of the front piece (automatically, not disconnected like the jagged line on the drawing). It is due to you how long that braid will be, perhaps it should run some 20 - 30 centimeters down the chest. Under the numbers 5 and 6 (inside the costume) you can apply shoulder pads. (Oded's costume has pads too, because his costume is so heavy). If you choose to wear all the weaponry you will have to wear halters on your shoulder, therefore these pads are very useful.

At last aplply the thin shawls to the costume. I was lucky to find a rifflet piece of cloth which resembles the shawls of the original costume. It can be some 30 centimeters in breadth, the length is up to you, due to your body measure and how long it should be in the front and the back. The original shawls are nearly as long as the costume, so each of them should be at least 2,50 meters long. Remember: You need two of them. Fix them on the shoulder, exactly at the place where the shoulder pads are inside. You can connect these shawls at the top part of the back or fix them later inside your belt so that they will go together down at the back side and run parallel in the front side.

The sash (and the belt)

The sash of the original costume is 3,80 meters long (fringes included) and 55 centimeters in breadth. It is black with light dots on the one side and on the other side it is light with black dots. Because of this it looks like grey cloth. The sash will be attached around the hips, the ends fall down to the bottom. I have chosen a light cloth for the sash, colour is grey-blue. (It should actually not be so long, moreover if you are not as tall as Oded, and remember: it's the sash that makes a little bit fat, because it is a lot of cloth bound together on your hips.) Over the sash there is a belt, you can choose a black one with a silver buckle.
On the picture on the left you can see a dark sash, that is the original one (with fringes), the grey one is mine.