Padme Amidala Padme light blue Tatooine dress/cape

Tally--

I'm not the best to ask about material... Naboo Girl's tutorial had an amount of fabric on it... but I can't remember what it was at the moment.

Before you buy fabric, check at your local walmarts. I have two in relatively near locations, and one of them had the PERFECT jersey fabric... same drape, everything... and the color was beyond perfect. I used it for my Midriff doll costume, see here:
http://theroyaltailor.com/midriffdescription.php

But it was a great price, and it was awesome material in the perfect ice blue color.

Good luck with this!!!

~N

 

Hey thanx. I definately didn't think of Walmart. I'll check it out and keep my progress posted in here.

 

Unlocked for recent query.

 

Well, these are not at all accurate, but I saw them and thought they would be a beautiful alternative! They're freshwater pearls. [image=http://www.firemountaingems.com/images/P1535PLB.jpg] http://www.firemountaingems.com/details.asp?PN=H201535PL

I can't find clear silver lined discs I searched for hours last night! I got a bunch of alternatives from the Fire Mountain Gems site to try them out, but nothing's exactly right. If you search "coin 10mm" you can see all the different options.

I don't know if everyone's seen this photo, but Darth Manos took it while the exhibit was at LA and he sent me a PM. He says it's ok to show it around [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/PrincessofMars/47b5ce08b3127cce94b4aeaf7b120000001.jpg]

 

Browsing through this thread, and I saw that several people were having trouble finding the right beads for the skirt. I've given myself migraines doing bead searches online (thanks to my always-in-progress-but-never-finished Pre-Senate Kimono project), and I've gotten pretty good at keywords. So, here's a few that I found (google search "coin beads"):

Clear crystal coins (doesn't state the size, would have to ask seller)
Rainbow moonstone coins (again, size isn't noted)
That particular seller has a gazillion different coin beads in their store. Might be worth checking out.

8x6mm flattened ovals (these might be too small, but wasn't someone here looking for ovals?)
8x3mm "dime" beads (again, might be too small)

The silvery finish that most people want is often called "Luster" or "Lustre" finish, depending on the seller. But this can also refer to a pearl-like sheen, so look carefully, and ask if you're not sure. The rainbow-ish finish is usually called "AB" (for "aurora borealis"), and "fire polish."

Also, when you get to a bead store website, use their "search" function first, and look for "coin" or "coin beads." This will save you a lot of time and headaches. If the site doesn't have a search, then these are almost always under "pressed glass," "Czech glass," or "Czech pressed glass."

Here's a few more:
Faceted quartz AB coins (REALLY pretty, but not the smooth coin)
"Puffed" coin beads, 10mm (I think "puffed" means that they don't have the flat surface, but are slightly rounded instead)
10mm AB crystal coins
10mm plain crystal coins
10mm silver finish crystal coins

I hope that helps everyone!

P.S. The silver lining problem could easily be solved with metallic silver thread, especially if you loop through the last bottom black bead, and double back.

 

I had thought of using silver thread, but I wasn't sure if they make metallic. You've seen it? I guess I'll have to look around. That's the only way I can think of fixing it too, since wire wouldn't give the right fall to the beads.

I did order some AB finish beads, but I think it's pretty clear from the picture that the beads do not have any kind of luster to them. The flashing comes from the silver lining. Still, I love AB finish and I want to try it out!

The first two e-bay auctions say that they are 6mm. Someone said earlier they got 6mm and they were way too small. I think 10mm will be a pretty good bet, when I get mine in I'll be able to judge better. Thanks for doing some research for us!

 

My guess would be that it is white thread through metallic lined glass beads and finished off by a very small clear glass bead or knot at the end.

 

Yes, you can find silver metallic thread at most fabric stores. Just go browse through their thread selections. I recommend finding one that's an actual thread, rather than a thin strip of plastic. The thin plastics will look quite a bit shinier than an actual thread, but they are horrific to work with (I can't remember the brand at the moment, but they come on the skinny white spools - stay away!), and will break. Metallic embroidery thread will probably work too. Most companies *do* try to make their metallics shiny.

You're welcome for the research. Figured I might as well share some of what I've learned.

P.S. Also check out Kreinik threads to see if there's a store close to you that carries their threads. They have some REALLY beautiful metallics.

 

There is a dealer right near my home, I'll go check it out! I think I've used that thread in crosstitch before. When you said metallic thread, I was thinking of my beading catalog, not of embroidery floss! And my beads are supposed to come tomorrow, I'm so excited!

 

Look at that texture to the fabric. It's going to be a nightmare finding something like that I know we've had other photos of the costume but this is quite high in contrast so the definition is clearer.

You can also get fine silver cord, you'd have to look around to find one that is both fine and quite soft so the beads drape and you'd need to be careful with the knots. Then again if you get glass beads or anything of an equal weight it may not be much of a factor.

I made a mock up of this costume a few months ago and put it aside due to lack of materials. I think I used about 9m of 150cm wide fabric to make a single layer skirt, double layer cloak and hood and top fabric to the body. That's about 9 yards of 60" wide fabric. I cut my cloak pieces across the fabric and it was just wide enough.

 

You mean the outer velvet type cloak? Maybe you'll have to make it in smaller sections

I know, isn't the fabric crazy? I have not even found mention anywhere of something like a "jersey crepe" *sigh*

 

The way the beads are strung has bothered me, but looking at the bottom one, I see that they must have used a double strand. If you looped back with just one strand, the bottom bead would be rotated sideways. They must come around either side of the bead to keep it horizontal like the other black ones. That'll be a problem with silver metallic thread, it'll really show

 

Heather, my personal preference would be to turn the last black bead sideways. But that's also just me. I love accuracy, but I also know that I'll never be able to duplicate something exactly. So when it comes to details that are that small, I tend to not stress. Again, that's just me. I completely understand wanting to do things right, and being unsatified if I find it sub-par - it just irritates. Either way, let us know how you end up doing the beads.

I just now did a quick search on Zappos.com for silver or gray boots, and found these:
http://www.zappos.com/n/p/dp/26301844/c/70011.html
They're a little pricey, but they look like they would work really well for this costume. I'll run a few other searches to see if I can find less expensive options. I know they exist.

 

Oo, those are nice! I just bought some silver flats cause I didn't want to bother finding boots, lol. Must take pics! Obviously these are not accurate... Kind of silly I get all paranoid about the beads and then I'm like, shoes, eh, whatever At least I know I can wear these over and over!
[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/PrincessofMars/Shoes.jpg] [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/PrincessofMars/Shoe.jpg]

 

Ok, so the beads! The candidates are, clear with silver thread, silver backed, and AB. Here you can see all three lined up
[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/PrincessofMars/beadcompare.jpg]

I believe that the AB is unsuitable. You get lots of colorful reflections, especially when the AB coated side is up, then it looks almost opaque
[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/PrincessofMars/AB.jpg] [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/PrincessofMars/ABrow.jpg]

These silver backed ones are awesome! The only way they would really work, though, was if you could make them stay with the clear side up. The silver backing is entirely opaque. I suppose you could glue them in some way once you strung them...?
[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/PrincessofMars/Silver.jpg] [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/PrincessofMars/Silverrow.jpg]

And here are the clear ones with silver thread. They don't quite live up to the silver foil lining, but I think they'd be the closest, and most fuss free option. You can kind of see the silver refractions in the bead when they're strung.
[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/PrincessofMars/Crystal.jpg] [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/PrincessofMars/Crystalrow.jpg] [image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/PrincessofMars/silveredge.jpg]

And for fun, my first attempt at the beads two years ago, before we knew about the coin shape and the little black beads! I thought they were knots in between... do you know how long that took me?? lol! And I used 6mm AB round beads
[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/PrincessofMars/Firstattempt.jpg]

 

I'm sorry, I don't think I saw your post! If you look very closely at the bottom bead in the photo, you can see the black thread wrapping around the side of the black bead. You're absolutely right about the metallic lining though!

 

Heather, I have to agree with the clear beads/silver thread option. I really can't think of any way to keep the silver-backed beads from turning, unless they're sewn down onto the skirt. And that's not right. :\ But the clear beads with the silver thread looks REALLY good.

I LOVE your shoes! How fun! Hey, if you ever decide to do Ceremonial Leia, you have the shoes ready to go. I actually have some silver flats from when I was entertaining the idea of doing that costume. I've never done the dress, but the shoes look really cute with a shirt I currently have.

I also looked around a little more for gray or silver boots. I found gray Timberland ankle-boots on eBay, but the pairs are mismatched - one shoe is a half-size smaller than the other. But, if that would work for anyone, I believe they're still up - just do an eBay search for "gray Timberland." Since they were mismatched sizes, they were being sold REALLY cheap. They're also a fairly close match to the actual movie shoes. I honestly don't know what brand of shoes they got for Natalie, but the Timberlands are pretty close - maybe slightly more pointed in the toe, but not much.

Ah yes. One last thing. I checked out Spandex House to see about some fabric swatches for me (a costume I have in the planning stages), and they have a good selection of cotton lycra (there's your stretch jersey - the texture won't be exact, but the fabric will most likely drape the way everyone wants it to). The baby blue actually looks a little too blue, but swatching it would be a good idea. They also have white, and since the fabric is 90% cotton, it's dyeable. Which means, if you don't like the baby blue, you can dye the white to the shade you want. Happiness.

 

Woo! I found some fabric that is going to be great On a whim I went to Spotlight in Henderson here and their clearance tables had another 50% off marked prices. I found a still taped bolt of mint green stretch poly-crepe and it was $NZ 6/m. Which meant it was $NZ 3/m the same as I paid for my test fabric.
It's narrower than my test fabric though so the cloak will have to be cut along the selvages, but as the crepe isn't too obviously directional this will be fine.

The fabric does need to be toned to a bluer shade of course and usually you would then forgo the polyester. Polyester can be dyed though, it just takes cunning I plan on giving it a bath in a watered down acrylic paint (or pigment now that I know how much it costs and where to get it from.) So I'll need to test on some scraps to make sure it works as well on this as it has for me in the past on other polyester fabrics.
The other options are:
watered down fabric paints, not painted on dipped in like a regular dye bath but the liquid is slightly heavier. More like trim milk.
Multiple stove top dyeing, a bit messy and unpredictable as it can come out a very different colour. Blues ted to green I have found.
Leather dye. Very stinky. Not recommended unless you have a long time before needing to wear it.


So now I start hunting the materials for the rest of the costume, beads in particular

 

Woo!! Go Neimhaille!! Fabric on sale is the BEST find! And, would you be willing to write up some methods on dyeing polyester for the rest of us? Pretty please? Maybe even in one of the dyeing threads. Because that would be SO helpful!

 

Absolutely I'm in the process of shifting as we finally have a rental property to live in(I mentioned in the 2007 projects thread that my home partially burnt down and have been a bit unsettled and unable really to do any sewing.) I'll have to do dyeing experiments at the house site though (we have a large backyard fortunately) as this rental place has litterally just been completely renovated!
But I will get photos of the process The acrylic paint worked well for another project but I will try a bottle of pigment instead as I understand it is easier to get an even coverage for wig dyeing so it should work well for fabric dyeing. I will just need a cool blue as the mint colour I have has that slight grey tint the exhibition photos show.

I couldn't believe it, the texture is great even if it's not perfect. The stretch is only in one direction so my cape will need to be more carefully cut if I cut it along the selvages to get it to drape nicely there. But first I need to hunt out my test piece and make sure I like the pattern I developed still!

 

i will make this costume for SFX 2007

pic will come !!

 

I fixed my beads for CIV. Other people got some good pics of me, so I'll post some as soon as I get them. Here are my beads, I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out!

[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/PrincessofMars/SANY0966.jpg]
[image=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v285/PrincessofMars/SANY0968.jpg]

 

Clear beads: http://www.firemountaingems.com/details.asp?PN=H205100MD

Black beads: http://www.firemountaingems.com/details.asp?PN=H205221SB

Silver thread: http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog.jsp?CATID=cat2706&PRODID=prd13361&source=search

It looks like the thread is out of stock at JoAnn's but I bought mine at AC Moore. I'm sure you could get it at any craft store. I compared a bunch of different silver threads and I liked this one best.

 

They look gorgeous, Heather! The silver thread even makes the beads look really close to the silver-lined originals. NICE!

 

Aw, thanks! The only problem (I noticed when stringing, and definitely in photos of the costume on) is that the strands are too long! I think that 10mm is too big. But 8mm coins are harder to find than 10... They don't have clear 8mm or 6mm coins on the Fire Mountain beading site. I'm still not sure about 6mm, I'll have to look at shots of my old 6mm beads and see if they truly are too small.