Padme Amidala Padme's Picnic Dress v2.0

Plastic boning is fine. In fact with the sheer number of costumes needed to be made you'd be surprised how much it is used in the film industry

Just make sure you use a good brand, and use as much as you need too. I mean I use a good 6m in my corsets and even that isn't as much as used in real whale bone corsets.

As this corset is made to be very straight up and down you'll need to iron it flat. The curves from being coiled are wonderful for making hourglass corsets where you want the top and bottom to curve back in to the body, but for this not really.

You need to lay the boning between two pieces of cotton, or even better in the boning channels of the corset and you simply iron over them. If you lay them so the ends touch the board but the middle curves up from it it is better. What does help is if you are able to lift one end off the board to reverse the curve and iron too.

Then you let them cool down and voila. Nice flat bones

I use a mix of excellent white german imitation whale bone, I think farthingales or grannd garb stock it, and a cheaper quality polyboning that is clear and ridged (*not* Rigiline).

Used properly plastic boning is the best substitute for whale bone there is as it behaves very much like it. There is a certain degree of molding to the body with it, but it is very easy to simply iron it flat again if needed.

Rigiline on the other hand is a pain to work with *if* you are making a long corset like this. I've heard good reports of it for conical corsets like in the 16th-18thCs but that is because they are not pulled in twists and curves like in a long corset. I had to iron a corset practically every night for a fellow actor who had to put up with a long corset made from the stuff...

Mind you if you zig zag two layers of rigiline it will work too. That is if you are in a rush and cannot get the other stuff, it is possible to use it well that way.

 

Hi! I usually lurk around here... never post, but today in Wal Mart I was flipping through the Simplicity Halloween Costume Catalog and I found this pattern:


[image=http://www.simplicity.com/assets/5843/5843.jpg]


I didn't think anyone had posted it, but I thought I would give you guy the heads up about it. It is pattern 5843A. I think with the right fabric choice and ribbions it would be a perfect match to the Pinic Dress.... What do you all think?


EDIT: Oops I'm sorry this pattern is already posted! I'm really sorry for taking your time!

 

I'm really confused about the corset peice on this dress. In some pictures it seems to have cut-outs, but in others it looks more like a metallic gold without cut-outs.

[image=http://chibiangi.home.att.net/picnic4.jpg]
[image=http://chibiangi.home.att.net/picnic9.jpg]

Uhm, so which is it? Cut-outs or no?

 

young_padme, no problem. Thanks for even thinking to post the pattern when you saw it! Contributions are always appreciated. Are you planning on making the dress?

chibiangi, are you referring to the fabric or the design on the fabric when you speak of the cut-outs? The cut-outs we have been discussing/debating here seem to be on the fabric itself, as pointed out in this pic:

http://www.angelfire.com/art/kathys/corset_gold.jpg

I'm a bit confused when you say it looks metallic gold without cut-outs. Are you talking about the embroidered designs or the corset fabric? ?

 

I think I'm going to have to go with my pat answer of "It's probably the difference in lighting."

In the meadow scene, the corset is much darker than the shot of Trisha holding the corset in the wardrobe department. (You can tell just by comparing the rose colors.)With the indoor shots, they probably had something like a spot light to make things light enough that they would show up on film, which in turn bleaches out the corset colors, making it that metallic gold and hiding any cutouts. But that's just my guess.

 

The metallic gold looks like the color of the fabric in the two pictures I posted. Also, those pictures seem to be lacking the cut-outs (the metallic embroidery is clearly seen). Yet, in other photos, the corset seems to be a plain yellow with cut-outs. What I can't decide is what is due to lighting and what isn't, I suppose.

Does anyone know if there was more than one dress made? I know that a lot of times more than one outfit is made because they get destroyed during filming. Maybe, if there was more than one dress, one ended up on film and the other for promo pictures? Far-fetched, I know

 

For the plastic boning, does anyone know what setting to use on your iron for ironing it. Wouldn't ironing it melt the plastic?

Obi-Dawn, your new corset pics look great, the swirlys look really good, so do your roses.

liannb

 

Thanks liannb.

I recall Trisha Biggar saying at one of her sessions at the Celebration that the costumes were mostly one-of-a-kinds. I don't know if more than one of this particular dress was made, but I doubt it.
As has been stated before, I think it just looks different in different lights too. I know the 'color'(s), whatever they be, of all the different fabrics has been an on-going issue for a lot of people while searching for suitable fabrics. In some pics, like the Vanity Fair cover, it looks pale yellow. But, in the film and promo shots, it looks more golden or ochre, marigold or whatever other name you want to give it.

 

Just to jump in on the color issue for a minute...

Outdoor and indoor lighting has a different effects on how we see color.

I'd also say that the color of the dress in the p-19 video shown on the web would not be an accurate guide for color. Video on the web is compressed a great deal and the quality of the colors as well as the resolution (being able to see details like cut outs) are usually severely compromised by this process.

Another factor that comes in to play is the way the photograph is processed for print. The 'photographer' (person developing the print) will play with the brightness, color balance, and contrast of an image. As an example, I increased the brightness of this hi-res photo of Padme:

http://www.angelfire.com/art/kathys/highres_light.jpg

Her dress starts to look more yellow.

ANOTHER problem is the web and scanners. Many scanners are not calibrated well and images do not scan in true to their original colors. There are monitor issues and printer issues as well.

This is more than probably any of you want to know about the color issue! In the end I think that the colors we see in an actual magazine or the movie theater will be better than what we see on the web. I think the color of the dress is somewhere inbetween the lighter gold we see on the cover of Vanity Fair and the darker color we see in the hi-res image.

-Kay Dee

 

OK, I am doing a complete overhaul of my tutorial, complete with pictures and everything (it's not up yet, so please don't flood my poor little geocities site to look!).

I have a section for links to other picnic dress websites. I am including all of the links from page one of this thread, but if anyone else has a website or knows of one, please email me (link in profile) of PM me!

I want to include lots of sites!

Thanks, guys!

 

Mrs Mayim That sounds cool! Can't wait to see it
I totally agree with the lighting issue. I know just w/the fabric I bought for the senate dress I would swear it is purple one minute and blue the next. They also do a lot of things to costumes for filming that is necessary for the lights and cameras-that if you were to wear the actual garment in public-it might seem a little strange (example: The titanic "jump dress" which appears black and red on film-is actually heavily beaded with stone colors such as pale blue, yellow and silver--just to reflect the light properly. On camera you just see the sparkle, but if you were to make the dress 100% accurate to the original people would look at those stones and think you were nuts!)
I say go with your gut. If you think it's gold, or yellow. With cut outs, without cut outs. We all see through different eyes, and will probably see it all different ways.
Just my lengthy 2 cents Ferd

 

Very wise 2 cents FERD.

 

LOL -- would you expect anything any different from her?

I know for my own corset, I used the Vanity Fair cover as a guide. The VF issue is what originally made me fall in love with this dress back in February, so I wanted to make my dress true to that.

Other pictures have made it appear more golden in color, but I am sticking to the VF cover.

 

Okay, good! I'm happy I didn't make anyone mad! I was just trying to help....

Obi-Dawn Kenobi I don't know if I'm going to make the dress or not.. fabric is very expensive after all.

 

I have uploaded a few photos of my cape to the web if anyone wants to take a look:

Kay Dee's Cape

http://www.angelfire.com/art/kathys/cape.htm

I think the overdyed sulky floss I used for the cape trim did not have a dark enough green in it, but I still like the effect even though it's more subtle than the *real* costume.

If I have time I will embroider over the roses on my cape to make them the correct color. That's last on my list though!

Hopefully I'll have photos of my blouse to post in a week or two.

-Kay Dee

 

Kay Dee, Your cape is so beautiful, It looks perfect, It hangs so nicely. liannb

 

Kay dee, I love how your cape hangs, the net has such a nice drape!

I have a picture of my cape on the floor like that and apparently a very similar color carpet, so I was startled for a second when I saw your last picture

Do you have a main site address that I can link to?

Katherine

 

*gasps of delight*

It's so pretty! And not to mention PERFECT!

Kate

 

Thanks for the kind words about my cape I cut 4 trial capes before I finally decided to cut the real fabric. I wish I had made the back a bit more rounded, but otherwise I'm happy with it.

Katherine, in the next few days I'll make a home page for my little Picnic dress site. (nothing fancy unless I can turn it into a project for my multimedia design studio class!) I figure I'll just keep adding pages as I complete each part of the costume. I'll give you the link once I put it up.

-Kay Dee

 

Kay Dee,

Thanks I'd like to get as many links as possible on my site.

I have the sites from this board linked, if anyone knows of any others, please PM me!

Katherine

 

kaydee....WOW-eee!!! It's so beautiful! I just want to whisk it around my shoulders and run around a field!! ;-) And THANK YOU for taking a picture with it lying flat--I'm so bad at picturing what pieces look like when you actually cut them (as opposed to when they're being worn) so I'm glad I can see that too!!

*deep announcer voice*
"And now, an idea..." (and my first real contribution here, so listen up y'all! :-D)

While ordering my Letterman jacket today, it just hit me that the embroidery they do is the same embroidery we've been talking about here. (yeah I'm kinda slow sometimes...) So I was thinking, "Why hasn't anyone mentioned going to one of these embroidery places for the corset?" It seems like it would be cheaper, faster, more accurate, and a TON easier than doing it by hand, or ordering the $40/yd fabric...

When I finish the order tomorrow, I'm going to ask the people if their machine can handle delicate fabrics. The price, I know from their website, varies with the number of embroidery stiches, and as to that I have NO idea. Prices goes from 1 stich to 100,000!!! So to those of you who know something about embroidery, how many do you think it'd take for all the embroidery on this dress?

And am I missing something here? Is this crazy? Has anybody else looked into this?

-sky

 

skywalker,

When I intitially started getting my fabric together for the costume I thought about going to one of those embroidery places that specializes in monogramming. In the end I think I'm such a control freak that I wanted to try to do it myself.

It would be interesting to see what they tell you, if they are willing to do such detailed work as the corset embroidery. I have a feeling they might charge quite a bit, but I could be wrong.

-Kay Dee

 

Kay Dee,

Sorry if you've already answered this but what material did you use for you cape and did you embroider it yourself?

-Khan

 

Kay Dee, your cape is beautiful!! I am still cutting out my pattern on old scrap material following Katherine's dimensions that she sent me (thanks again ) and I was wondering what the dimensions are on your cape? I would like to try a more "curved" one on scrap material to see which one hangs better.

 

I know it's been mentioned, but I found Siam fabric at JoAnn's yesterday. It was PERFECT!
But it's EXPENSIVE, too! This costume is quickly becoming an "I don't think I can afford it" item.

Oh, by the by, Obi Dawn, I saw your picnic dress was for sale! I'd buy it if it weren't too small--it's so pretty!

Kate