Padme Amidala Padmé's "Sleepless Knights" gown

I have one on ebay that's up in a day or so, so I figured I might as well mention it too!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7522552825&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1

 

Can someone tell me what the dimensions of the "brooch" are? I just need a bit of help on where to start.
Thank you in advance.

 

I'm working on this brooch right now as well, what I did, as far as dimensions go, was take the cropped pic of the brooch from the exhibit photos and enlarged it to the size I thought would look right for the real brooch. I put the image in paint and increased the size by 150%, then 150% again.. to me it looks proportionate to the rest of the dress. I printed it out and cut out the brooch and put it on some flattened sculpy and made a cut out. That seems to be the easiest way to do this, at least right now.

 

Thank you- I wasn't sure how I was going to make it without knowing the approximate size across and deep. I will take your advice and work from there.

 

My favorite trick for figuring out sizes is to take a full-length shot of the actor (or mannequin) in the costume and then enlarge it to your height in Photoshop. (So even if the actor is only 5" tall in the picture, I enlarge it to 65", my height.) Then I crop out just the piece I'm looking for and check the image dimensions. It usually works pretty well.

Caitlin

 

You guys are the best!!! I get such great tips here. It's a great place for a noobie like myself. Thank you all so much.

 

has anyone found some good shoes for this dress? I found this pair of shoes that could work without being altered really. I can't seem to link the page, but to find them go to nordstrom.com, search mule under women's shoes, sort out the less than $50 shoes, and the pair I'm talking about are called BP. Sequined Mules.
They're $30 and I'd rather not spend that much on shoes that I'll only wear with a costume a few times. Anyone know of anything cheaper that could look just as good (even if it takes a little dyeing, sewing sequins, etc)?

Also, I found a nice pattern for the dress itself, Simplicity 5044. The seamlines for the faggotting stitching (or trim, however it's done) are in the right place. There's a godet piece that goes in the center front, but just don't cut it on the fold and there's another seam to put trim in. Two more would have to be drafted from the center to make all five, but with three already in place that shouldn't be too hard. So far on my practice gown, I've just used the skirt pieces and just tucked in the curves that match up for the bust pieces. I'm short so I didn't have to lengthen it any, taller people probably have to though =P

Thirdly, I found a nice little ponytail holder to cover in some sculpy to get the look of that little ring thing that can be seen in one of the reference pictures here. I can't seem to find a place online that sells them (maybe I'm looking in the wrong place), but I did find them at a CVS. So anywhere that sells scunci hair products is a good place to look I suppose. Coupled with a barrette with some sculpeyed butterfly wings (that's what I call'm) I think that can really nail the look seen in the photos.

 

I was also wondering about the hairclip. I think that you just solved my problem. I think that I saw one of those ponytail holders at my local CVS. I will have to take a field trip there later. Thanks for the great hints and ideas.

 

I used 5044 for my dress, it worked really well. What I did was not cut the godet on the fold, and then used the godet piece as a line for where to split the other, bigger piece. My big problem was lenthening it. I think I lengthened it 8 inches. However, I learned the hard way the front needs to be longer than the back. I would lengthen the back bits only half the length of the front.

 

cool, glad to be of service =P
anyone have a clue about any decent cheaper shoes though? hmm... maybe I'll get some cheap flip flops from Target and cover them in fabric. The foam or whatever they're made of can be shaped easily, they come in purple (and blue I think), are only a couple bucks, and once broken in they're comfy to wear =)

yeah that's Exactly what I did, I'm still deciding on whether or not to find some trim or actually do the faggotting by hand. I have a handy little embroidery book from my grandmother that has a few examples of hand faggotting, though they don't look like what's been used in this dress. I'll probably just criss-cross it, that's easy enough and'll get the look fine.

 

Well, if you're going for perfection, then try find how to do the stitch, or find a trim. I just sewed mine together because there was no alternative at that time. When I find the trim, I plan on taking apart the front and adding it.

 

niiiice, very niiice =)
I've been played with some pearls to find a cheaper way to get colored pearls, at least craft store plastic WHITE beads to look a little more pearly and colored.
I got a strand of 6mm pearls from Joanns and some glass paint. I started out with just the glass paint and added some water until the paint on the pearls looked the color I wanted. Even though it's glass paint it went on kinda dark on its own. That wasn't quite catching the pearly look so I borrowed my mom's Pearl Ex and it just sealed the deal. I mixed in just a dash of the Pearlwhite pigment and it made them so much better looking!
Sorry no pics but I'm still figuring out my camera =)

 

I was really lucky and found the PERFECT colour beads in a martigras bead set from Dollarama. They're like pearls, but look a bit metalic too. I'd recommend anyone looking for beads to check dollar stores first. ^_^

 

I finished this dress and wore it to Connecticon this past weekend:

http://photobucket.com/albums/a36/peorth559/

my hair completely didn't curl that day and I have no clue why, it's Never happened to me before.. but it still looks nice I think

The other dress is the Purple Clone Wars Padme dress I made for my sr. ball last year, I forgot about it til the last minute so I didn't get to fix it up much.

 

It's too bad you got some camera shake there. The dress is nice. I like the Clone Wars one too!

 

across0the0stars,you look lovely in your dress

 

across0the0stars you look great in your dress. Great job. Now I want to get mine started even sooner.

 

thxthx =)
I'll take some close ups of my brooch later, it's the only thing I didn't get a good pic of really =P

 

Well I finally webbed how one goes about creating waterfall drapery. I didn't actually show how to make these particular ones, but you should be able to create your own using the proportional method described a few posts back (using your measurements in place of an actors.)

waterfall drapery

Hope it helps someone

 

Mind if I link to you?

 

I used your one picture as a reference back in May when I made this costume for my friend's daughter. It came out perfectly Wish I had the sence to take a picture while it was still on the dress form . I took a look at yours and just tried a muslin to see if mine would work, thats the first time I've had a muslin work perfectly on the first try lol. Now if I can just get to work on mine (maybe after I move).

I can't wait to move, I'll go from having only 200 sqft to about 1000 sqft with my own sewing room/office (which I can lock the boys out of - cat and fiance hehe)

 

Just thought I'd bump up this thread since I was in Handcocks today, the McCalls patterns were on sale AND it just so happens they created one based on this gown.

McCalls # M4995 - it's called 'Star Princess.'

Doesn't look to be a bad base for this gown either.

 

can you find a link anywhere to show what it looks like? I can't seem to find it on the McCall's website.

 

Yeah, I noticed that it wasn't online, not sure why.

I'll try and get a better pic tomorrow, but my camera batteries were rapidly dying. Here's a shot to give you an idea: [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v128/HothGirl/Patterns/PadmeNight.jpg]

(and in case anyone is curious, it is lavendar on the envelope)

 

McCall's patterns are on sale at Joann too, this weekend. I'm mad I didn't look through the book more thoroughly when I was there yesterday!