Han Solo Disney Bounding

Ever heard of Disney Bounding? Well, until this year, me neither. However, I took my family to Disney World for a week. While in the parks, Disney now has a policy of not allowing adults to dress up in costume. Kids can do it all they want, but not adults. Apparently, some people had costumes so good patrons mistook them for Disney employees. It distracts from the Disney actors.

However, in response, patrons are allowed to dress "inspired" by a character. This means you dress with representative cloths and colors, but not in full costume. It is apparently what they call Disney Bounding.

I already had a basic idea on how to do something like this as I previously built and posted an Instructable on a Han Solo cosplay outfit with Han's belt and holster built from scratch. The Instructable can be found here.

So, for our trip, my wife and I decided to dress up for two days. One day we Bounded as Han Solo and Princess Leia inspired outfits, and the other as Arial and Prince Eric.

Most of the Han Solo costume is very straight forward. I have an official Han Solo vest licensed by Lucas Arts. Just wear a white T-shirt, jeans, and boots.

However, I wanted the full feel, so I decided to replace the traditional park "fanny pack" or belt bag with a leg bag "inspired" by Han's holster for his DL-44 blaster. This is how I made the bag.

I prefer using the medium to heavy tanned leather, but you can use any type, including light. I measured the side of my leg to get a general feel for the width of the bag. I then cut a long strip I would fold over into the bag. Once measured, I used leather tools to groove then punch holes for the thread.

I folded the leather as a tri-fold with two sections being the same height and one being about half a high as the other two. The two identical heights folded together and made the bag while the shorter section would fold over and make the flap which closes the bag. I then measured two strips of leather from the front belt loop in my jeans down to where the bag would hang. I did not take any pictures of the threading, but lots of other great Instructables exist on how to sew leather. Mine was rather mediocre so not having photos is not that big of a loss.

Han's holster is a "quick draw" design, which means the gun grips are just above where the hand lays normally if you rest it down along the side of your body. This allows for a quick pull of the gun without having to cause the hand to go up to your belt. I wanted the flap on the bag to hang where the gun grips would be. This means the bottom of the bag nearly touches my knee area.

The one strap will connect to my normal jeans, go across the front of my body and down to the bag, while the second will connect to the back loop of my jeans, go across my butt and down to the bag. The straps you see in the picture above were originally designed to be attached directly to the bag as individual pieces.

I folded over the ends of each strap over a metal craft ring and attached a caribeaner clip to each.

I then realized the straps could not be adjusted in this position and decided to alter my design.

So, instead I cut the strips into four. Two smaller strips would attach directly to the bag and have triglide buckles on each end. The longer strips would then have the caribeaners and would attach to the buckles. This allows the ability to adjust the position depending on differences in the jeans and placements of the belt loops (not all jeans are created the same).

I constantly measured the straps, buckle placement and the fall of the bag on my leg to make sure I was getting it right. I was making adjustments the entire way through.

During the sewing phase, I also attached a belt loop to the back of the bag. The bag will have to be affixed to my leg to prevent it from flapping around and most holsters have just such a leg belt strap. After first using a leather belt strap I decided it looked better if the leg strap blended into the jeans. So, I replaced the leather belt strap with a black Velcro strap. This also allows better adjustments while walking or adjusting to different jeans.

I then found a great vector image of the Millennium Falcon embedded with the rebel symbol. I do not know who created it, else I would give them full credit. But I decided to take the image, use my laser cutter and engrave the bag with it. I ran several test pieces before getting the sizing and intensity of the laser correct. Above is the last test piece I used, then finally engraved the leather on the bag itself. I'm glad I ran through several tests since I screwed up on several and if I had done that with the bag I would have been required to trash it and start all over.

Again, I did not take any photos of the staining process. it is essentially just taking the leather, taking the stain, and using a cotton leather brush to take long strokes on the leather until you get the depth of color you want. I then use a leather gloss to help seal it up, although the stain has a sealer in it.

I need the flap to close and stick to the bag as tightly as possible as I will be on roller-coasters. So I sewed Velcro onto the flap, then the bag. I never trust the self-adhesive of the Velcro as I've had too many bad experiences where it does not stay. But even with sewing the Velcro directly onto the bag, I was concerned the coasters may be too much or the constant movements of walking may steadily work them free. So, I also punched two holes and threaded some leather strings through. I attached a metal swivel lanyard snap hook on the flap and a jewelry hook on the bag. This should keep the flap closed even if the Velcro comes undone.

Wallah! A halfway decent Han Solo "inspired" outfit that they will still let me take into the parks. I also have some extra carrying capacity (which will probably be a power-pack for my phone and the itouches the kids use while waiting in lines).