This is the single most complicated project I have ever done. I have made my own sequins, I have learn to zigzag embroider (I am still lazy and doing it by hand does not go with my usual last minute habit), I have dyed my own fabrics, etc. But I am SOOOO proud of myself.
I absolutely have to thank a few people here (I’m practicing for the Oscars you see): I’d like to thank the Goddess for giving me the strength to go through this… No Seriously, I need to thank Maggie from Padawan Guide for her wonderful Website and for putting me in contact with Obi-Dawn, who has the most wonderful tutorial and who patiently answered all my questions. Kay Dee’s website was also very useful for the roses’ embroidery, the great picture of her finished embroided corset and the measurement of the cape. I also really need to thank my wonderful boyfriend for being so patient with the sequins on the living room floor, the dye on the stove and the sound of my sewing machine at 6 AM on week days. Thank you honey for cooking dinner for me and supplying me with the best home made hot chocolate.
Darn, the music has started and the mic just went down in the floor. Guess that’s it!
Corset
Early on in the planning, I decided I wanted to use Dupioni Silk for the corset. When it came time to buy the silk, I could not find some yellow or golden one, so after a month of searching every fabric store I could get to, I bought some white silk and some yellow dye (of course I did find the right fabric at my usual store, but they only got it after I had dyed mine). I used Dylon Cold Dye in Sahara Sun colour for the corset.
The pattern I used for the corset is Simplicity 5953 view B and the only modification is I made the shoulder straps narrower and make the front on piece instead of two.
Originally, I did not intend on doing the whole embroidery. Maybe buy some tiny ribbon roses and that would be it! My need for perfection got the better part of me. I used Obi-Dawn’s drawing and Kay Dee’s finished embroidery, as well as her tutorial on how to embroider roses.
I figured I had no choice but to learn embroidery so I bought a book and practiced on a first version of the head band but I quickly realised it was going to take time, and I was already lacking some so I went back to my machine and did all my embroidery by zigzagging the design on. What I did is I drew the pattern on some tearaway paper, pinned that to my corset pieces and satin stitched in the right colour inside the lines. It took me three nights to do all the scrolls and one Saturday to do the rest. I embroided the roses following Kay Dee’s technique (the pentagon, although in most cases they were more hexagons by the time I finished). Of course, the thread is more expensive in bobbin than embroidery floss, but considering I managed to do it all in less than a week, it was well worth the price.
Blouse and Skirt
This is another part of this dress I originally thought I would just cut and sew. How wrong I was. For the cutting part, I used McCall’s 4090 view A for the skirt (cut twice – one of fabric and one of lining), Simplicity 9966 view A for the shirt and McCalls 3797 view C for the sleeves. I invented the cuffs and top pieces.
I used a great fabric I found for 1.50$ a meter at Fabricville. Sure, it was white, but I couldn’t find the right yellow fabric so this, I thought, will do great and I’ll just dye it. Unfortunately, my great find was polyester. Note to self: polyester doesn’t dye. Well, that’s not exactly true.
I got allot of experience in fabric dying with this project. First, I cut all my pieces, sew the skirt and serged the bottom edge. Then, I started the dye. What I have learned: Dylon Cold Dye does not really work on polyester and with such a fabric, you can leave it in the dye for 24 hours without fear. My fabric had two 24 hours bath in Dylon Hot Dye in Golden Glow. That got it a pale yellow, but it had a bunch of darker spots, like I had accidentally dropped Kraft Dinner all over it. I tried getting them paler with the Tide Magic Brush. I’m not sure it worked, but heck, I then hoped the next dye bath. Since I wanted it a little more antique looking, I tried a 12 hours bath in 24 cups of coffee (decaf if anyone wants to know). Then I hanged it to dry in the shower without rinsing it before for fear it would take out too much coffee. As a result, I unexpectedly made a tiger skin fabric. So I washed my fabric and went for the next best thing: Dylon Hot Dye in Coffee. After that dye bath, I decided it was good enough. The Kraft Dinner spots were invisible and the few brown spots could easily be hidden. Off to the laundry it went.
Next came the embellishment. Following Obi-Dawn’s tutorial, I ordered Shimmer Sheetz from the US and bought a butterfly punch hole to make little sequins, but unlike her, I decided to keep the head an tail of the butterflies and not transform them into flowers (told you I'm lazy). For a whole month, whenever I was watching TV, you could hear “K-clonk, K-clonk, K-clonk”. I broke two punch holes (but managed to exchange them both because I had kept the bill and it was within 30 days) and made myself a few blisters. Then I glued about a thousand of them on the skirt and a couple hundred on the shirt. It helps if you design your lines as you glue your sequins, it is faster when the sewing part comes around. So after the gluing, came the sewing: I zigzagged through each and every single one of these sequins with gold thread which took one and a half day. Finally, I added some lace flowers. I bought two meters of lace flower trim, dyed it with Dylon Cold Dye in Leaf Green and cut each flower individually before fixing them here and there on the shirt and skirt.
Head band and Snoods
I could not find some gold trimmed ribbon so I ended up using leaf green gros grain ribbon and satin stitching the edges and centre in gold to get the right effect. Next, I embroidered some roses on it with the same technique used for the corset. I kept a strip of tearaway behind until I was done. Finally, I put some Velcro on each end to attach it easily behind my head.
My sister Nancy has made a few hair nets with Simplicity 5740, so she helped me out by answering my questions. I made my snoods as two circles approx. 17 cm in diameters and drew a string around the circumference to tie them around the buns. I then just hang them from the head band.
I have a lot of hair but there is a limit. There is no way I could fill up the snoods without a little help. I bought two fake hair scrunchies (blond) to use as buns.
Cape and Brooch
For the cape, I used an expensive Organza embroided with little pink flowers. I basically followed Kay Dee’s measurements and adapted them to my shape. Then I pinned all the edges on tearaway and with a desert plate as a guide, I drew all the curves on the edge with and embroidery felt marker (that disappears after 48 hours) and satin stitched the edge with special thread that goes from green to white and green again. Finally I dyed my white cape with Dylon Hot Dye in Golden Glow. I think I could have gone with a paler colour and possibly a cold dye instead, but it’s too late now and it’ll have to do.
As for the clasp, I found a cute butterfly brooch at Ardčne (affiliated with Claire’s) that is purple and lilac in colour. The metal backing is even antiqued gold and brown, which makes it feel like it’s been in Padme’s family for generations.
Shoes
I bought a pair of rubber sole slippers at Zellers that will do fine. They are a slightly greyish white in colour with embroidery and lots of white sequins and tiny pearls on.
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