The least expensive way to do it is to make the costume yourself. While this may seem an impossible task, there's a huge number of resources out there for the Jedi Padawan or aspiring Sith. I've collected and organized all the ones I could find here to save you the trouble. If you know of anything I missed, Email me.
My Tutorials
Building a "hardware saber"
Rebels
Luke Skywalker
Return of the Jedi
Jedi Academy
Leia Organa
Tantive IV
Jedi Academy
Leia Costuming: Clothing A Star Wars Obsession: Beautiful site with good descriptions.
Ceremonial Dress
Jedi Academy
Leia Costuming: Clothing A Star Wars Obsession: Beautiful site with good descriptions.
Slave Costume
Azeem 2000
Ewok Village
Leia Costuming: Clothing A Star Wars Obsession: Beautiful site with good descriptions. Check out the Gallery for great pics of this costume.
Han Solo
Jedi Academy
Corellian Exports: Pieces for sale only.
Chewbacca
Chewie Costuming
Rebel Pilot
Richie's Armor: Only has tutorial on converting a APH-6B flight helmet (what the original prop was from) to a Rebel Pilot helmet.
Jedi Academy
Red Four
Rebel Trooper
SW Troopers: Mostly analysis of costume but has a few tips.
Studio Creations
R2-D2
R2 Builders Club: A Yahoo group dedicated to building astromechs.
Imperials
Imperial Officer
Imperial Costumes
Imperal Outfitters
Imperial Officer: Mostly analysis of costume but has a few tips.
Death Star Trooper
Death Star Trooper: Mostly analysis of costume but has a few tips.
Boba Fett
Prop Planet
The Dented Helmet
Jedi Academy
Boba Fett
Boba Fett
Azeem 2000
Mandalorian Warriors (more generic mandalorian info)
Barbie Fett
Scout Trooper
Jedi Academy
Studio Creations: Great site! Sells armor kits!
Sand Trooper
The Dented Helmet
Stormtrooper
White Armor: Very detailed instructions on taking a stormtrooper “kit” and getting it ready to wear.
TK 409's Page: Tons of info there but kind of jumbled. Mostly on the accessories.
TK 861's Page
Jedi Academy
Studio Creations: Great site! Sells armor kits!
Darth Vader
Vader Maker: The biggest Vader site out there.
Vaderkinde's Site: Vader made from placemats for a female Vader no less!
Vader Maker Australia
Sith Woman's Vader: Mostly on the body suit
Vader Painter: Sells some of the harder to find pieces for your Vader costume.
Robert Mackie's Vader Site: Info on building your own helmet from PVC piping. Still in progress being built.
Death Star Gunner
Jedi Academy
SW Troopers: Mostly analysis of costume but has a few tips.
Imperial Royal Guard
Jedi Academy
Crimson Empire
Azeem 2000
Azeem 2000: Canor Jax instructions (from the Crimson Empire comic series).
Imperial TIE Pilot
Steel's TIE Pilot Costume
SW Troopers: Mostly analysis of costume but has a few tips.
Jedi Academy
Fort Tuseken
Snow Trooper
Snowtrooper: Solid instructions on some pieces. Others were bought so no info is provided.
Sith
Darth Maul
Jedi Academy
Sithwoman's Site
Republic
Clonetrooper
Clonetrooper: Only info on modifying helmet.
Azeem 2000: Only info on modifying helmet is currently up.
How To Build a Better Clonetrooper Info on correcting the Kellog's helmet.
Qui-Gon Jinn
Sithwoman's Site
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Sithwoman's Site
Jedi Academy
Generic Jedi
Imperial Outfitters
Rebel Legion
Azeem 2000
Padawan's Guide
Jedi Costume
Jedi Belt
Food Capsules For belt
Barriss Offee (a Jedi from Ep II)
Barriss Offee
Jocasta Nu
Jocasta Nu
Nomi Sunrider
Nomi Sunrider
Padme Amidala
White Parade dress
Amidala Parade Dress
Ep II Arena Battle
Padme Arena Battle
Liann's Arena Battle costume
Picnic dress
Dajuan's Picnic Dress tutorial Well written with pictures. By a good friend of mine.
Obi Anne's picnic-dress
Liann's picnic dress
Blue Tatooine Dress
Obi Anne's blue Tatooine dress
Return to Naboo dress
Return to Naboo dress by Sister Sola
"At Home" dress
"At home" dress from Padawan's Guide
Fireside Dress
Padme's fireside gown
Aliens
Jawa
Jawas
Jedi Academy
Fort Tusken
Tusken Raider
Fort Tusken: Mostly on what was used and not much on construction.
Jedi Academy
Studio Creations
Tusken Raider The making of DZ-7602
Prince Xizor
Falleen Prince Xizor
Droids
Interrogation Droid
Studio Creations
Props
Thermal Detonator
Fort Tusken: made from 2 ice cream scoops!
Blasters
Studio Creations: Full Metal Blasters
PVC blasters
Lightsabers
Big Yellow Box: Probably the best known saber tutorial site out there. All custom sabers. No movie replicas.
Building your Own Lightsaber
Building Lightsabers
Obi-Wan Style Saber
Mike Chubb's saber page
Jedi Academy: Movie style sabers for those who have found flash tubes.
Project Naboo Sabers: Many examples with parts pointed out. Not much in the way of actual instructions.
Project Graflex: Another site for converting flash tubes into sabers.
Doright's PVC saber tutorial
Park Sabers: Sabers for sale. Have EL blades.
The Saber Works: Sells custom sabers with EL Blades. Also sells other important pieces.
Comlink
Jedi Communicator
Other Links
How to build a mannequin for cheap!
Building a Vacuuforming table
Vacuuforming
Parts of SW: What those props were really made out of.
The Costumes of MaddySo cute!
There’s some pages that just have so much costuming info that I just put the links directly to the specific costumes but if you want to see the rest of the sites here’s the main pages for those.
SW Troopers
Jedi Academy
Studio Creations
Azeem 2000
Sith Woman's page
Imperial Outfitters
Can’t find what you’re looking for here? Then Email me or stop by the TF.N Costuming forum. Just remember to do a search of the threads before asking how to do something. Chances are, your question has already been addressed.