For starters, I gathered a TON of references into a folder on my computer for easy access. These I found primarily through The Padawan’s Guide and google searches for the Star Wars Exhibitions that had happened throughout the country. I also got a copy of Dressing a Galaxy from a friend, which helped immensely due to the sheer amount of high-res images (and it being a physical copy was a huge plus). I would use these references when it came to choosing fabrics online or in-store.
The Gown
I came across an amazing analysis of the costume on Naergi’s website, as she was in the process of recreating the costume as well. She had drafted a pattern to fit her measurements and it was incredibly close to my measurements, even the height. I blew her pattern up in Photoshop and resized it to fit my height, then printed it out using a poster-printing program. There were a LOT of pages. Luckily, I ended up labeling each piece in Photoshop prior to printing so that it would be a lot easier to figure out which pieces go where. This is a perfect situation to demonstrate just how complex the pattern and costume itself is – the amount of pieces and how they fit together is immense, so knowledge of pattern drafting is an absolute must (I’m quite proficient, so it wasn’t hard for me to figure out how everything goes together without any notches present).
Once the pages were printed and pieced together, I began cutting them all out and laying them on my dress form as I assembled the pattern. Obviously, with it being paper, it wouldn’t lie perfectly but it was good enough for me to make sure of what adjustments I would need to make. Once I assured my pattern was good, I was ready for cutting out the fabric.
Dress pieces draped on my dress form / A sleeve pattern laid out
Now, this pattern was for half of the dress, which is typical of any pattern really, so I needed to cut double of everything (unless it was on a fold), which takes some planning when it comes to pre-purchasing fabric. I purchased an entire bolt (9-10 yards) of red sateen for the outer layer of the gown and an entire bolt (9-10 yards) of red lining fabric for the inside. That was just to ensure I would have enough for the gown, not including the sleeves or collars. I also tried to stay about 3 inches away from either side of the folded fabric’s edges (on both sides) so that I could use that to cut continuous strips for piping. I cut several 9-10 yard strips so that I could just run piping instead of doing a ton of individual sections. Once all of my pieces were cut out and my piping was made, I began attaching the piping to one side of each outer piece, making sure to not overlap on sides when it came to getting to the back center of the dress where the zipper would go.
Gown panel and piping progress
One thing I want to mention is that I made the mistake of using upholstery-grade piping for automotive upholstery – in short, hard plastic piping. I used it because at the time, I was working in an upholstery shop and had easy access to get a roll of 500 yards for $20. So I did. However, after finishing the gown and wearing it, I realized I DEFINITELY should have gone the soft-piping route, like any basic cotton cording you find at a fabric store like JoAnn. It would have made my life SO MUCH easier (and the dress would have actually folded instead of remaining rigid with all that plastic piping it in, lol). So don’t go that route like I did. Buy cotton cording for your piping!
I sewed together the lining in the same way as the outer layer, just without piping. I the two layers together at the bottom of the gown (where the fur trim would cover it), the sleeve holes, and the neckline (which I would eventually bind with sateen bias tape later to cover). After the dress was attached to the lining, I attached some quilt binding bias tape to the bottom edge of the dress so that I could slip the hoop steel into (I harvested a hoop from an old hoop skirt I had laying around). From there, I attached the fur trim (measuring 4” wide after being folded over) by sewing right above the previously attached quild binding bias tape. I folded the fur trim over that, folding the edge under that (to create a seamless bias tape-look) and handstitched the edge of the fur trim on the underside of the dress. I did not stitch the overlap closed so that I could slip my fingers inside to pull out the hoop steel if needed.
There are 3 sleeves on this gown, all attached at the sleeve hole on the gown. I took an easier route to the construction of the entire gown, and felt it was easier to complete the main body of the dress completely and attach the 3 sleeves together and last since the lining is only present on the main gown due to the inner-most spandex sleeve being a contrasting material. The outer-most sleeve is made like the dress but lined in fur with the cuff also being fur. The middle sleeve is much thinner than the outer and has a very slight bell-curve towards the wrist, lined in matching ted sateen with a fur cuff. The inner-most sleeve is a 2-way stretch knit and is serged on the inside and has a rolled hem on the edge. The 3 sleeves are attached together and then attached to the dress via serger.
In the left photo, I had not yet attached the fur trim on the inside.
I rolled the edge and hand-stitched it closed for a seamless finished look.
Once the sleeves were attached, the main gown was complete. I added a zipper in the very back to finish it up and added a hook and eye closure at the top of the zipper. The neckline is finished with handmade red sateen bias tape to match the rest of the gown.
The Collars
There are 2 collars that Amidala wears with the dress, despite it only looking like one. The under-collar is simply flat with a fur trim, which is what the tabbards are attached to. For that collar, I simply cut out two of the same pieces, fused the topside piece to pelltex fusible interfacing (the SUPER heavy duty stiff interfacing - $9.99/yd at JoAnn), sewed the lining directly the the edge, and added the fur trim. Done! There is no actual collar on this one since its on the underside. I then made the two tabbard pieces for the embroidery (which a friend was making for me) that would attach to the collar I had just made. Each tabbard piece had a layer of dacron/sheet batting in between for added dimension. Then the fur trim was added.
Embroidery was to be added later, which my friend Kevin was working on for me.
After those pieces were completed, I began working on the much more intricate collar, which is the most visible. It included hand-sewn piping details in squiggly patterns, a hood, collar, zipper, and again, fur trim.I started by cutting out the outer layer and lining, as well as a layer of dacron/sheet batting to be sandwiched in muslin to give the dimension needed for the details to pop. Once I stitched my muslin sandwich together, i free-handed a squiggly pattern in sharpy (since this layer is not visible. From there, I attached the muslin layer to the outer-most layer and began stitching the design. After finishing that, I began the 15 hour adventure of hand-sewing the piping detail to the collar.
After finishing all the hand sewing, I had to make and attach the actual collar and add the detailing once again (luckily this time it was a lot less). After I attached it, I stitched the outer layer to the lining and hand sewed the fur trim to it. The collars were finished by adding a zipper to the back to be able to take it on and off. I actually had to use an industrial machine to sew through all the layers + trim, so be forewarned that if you take this route, it will be a LOT for a normal machine.
The "eggs" on the gown are made from using halves of these easter egg bowls and spray painting the insides lightly with orange paint. For the bottom halves of the eggs, they're solid, so I lightly painted the outsides of them and used them on the backside of the dress since they were less transparent and also had a flattened portion (since they are bowls, after all). I then glued black craft foam pieces to the bottom halves on each egg to resemble the official costume. To attach them to the dress, I glued a flat craft foam piece covered with velcro to the back side of each egg half so they would stick to my gown, which had touchlights stitched to it in 6 places with velcro on each side of the lights so that I could simply stick the eggs on top. This would allow me to change out the batteries of each touch light as well as turn them on and off as I pleased.
✩ And with that, the dress is complete (sans embroidery obviously)! ✩
The Headpiece
Coming Soon.
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