Padme Amidala Rainbow dress

Well i am sorry that i misunderstood with the several thousand different things being said about the nude material. I was under the impression that either would be suitable.....I guess i just need to keep out of others conversations and stop offering help.

 

Okay, a couple of questions.

1. Has anyone here used Dharma Fiber Reactive Procion dyes? I'm looking at them for dyeing my fabric (silk chiffon and crepe-de-chine or flat crepe), since they come in 2oz powders, and a teaspoon makes enough dye for about 10 T-shirts.

2. What are you ladies using for the armbands? I haven't looked for anything quite yet, but it'd be great if someone could give me a suggestion (preferably in silver..it might not be entirely accurate, but gold looks really bad on my skin).

Christine
- Giving thanks while handing money over for the sewing machine.

 

I have just found these great dyes at a high end fabric store. They come in a million different colours and are called DYE IT!! Each package contains like 3 envelopes -one is the dye, one is put on the fabrics before hand to prepare it, and one is to set the dye. I have the package at home, and will post later what each of them contains. It is advertised as a professional quality dye, and claims to do many pounds of material.

For the braclets on the upper arm-they look to made of abalone shell (mother of pearl) Perhaps you could search some sites for braclets made of this. They don't sell for too much and are usually combined with either gold or silver. It's a pretty common type of jewelry, and goes with the whole shell hairdo and all.

 

I saw someone make the jewelry out of stained glass. It looked really good actually! It was white lined in silver. But I wouldn't even know where to begin with doing that. That's out of my realm of knowledge.

 

For the necklace, you can buy some organic glass, cut the pieces, and paint them with pearl like acrylic. It's quite easy, not really expensive, and the effect is acurate enough.

 

Organic glass?? Where do you find that?

kreleia ^.^

 

Kreleia, I found it in a local store, it's used for framing.

You can cut it with a Stanley knife. Mind you though, it's quite difficult to cut it round, it goes into a lot of splinters, so the trick is to make a lot of litle straight lines, and when it's cut, use a lighter to smooth the edges.

It's not the perfect solution since it can't work for the arm bands (you can't keep it bended), so I'm going shopping again to find another material, and I might eventually redo the necklace identical to the armbands.

Are you also making the dress?

How many are there paining over the sewing machine, and how is the work going for everyone?

One last question : which material did you use for the underdress?

CU guys!

 

Good info! Thanks for sharing.

I *might* make this dress - I'm thinking about it. But I kind of have my plate full at the moment. I'm always on the lookout for ideas and materials to use in costumes, though, and the organic glass struck my fancy.

Thanks a bunch!
kreleia ^.^

 

as for what to use for the arms bans and necklace, I just bought sintra and painted what I made silver.

 

***waves*** hi everyone!

i hope you don't mind me sticking in my 2 cents here - i've just discovered this message board and i love this costuming section it has been so helpful!

anyway - well, i am still a beginner at sewing but i hope to make this dress for the San Diego Comic Con (with help from my mom) - is anyone going to that? i would love to see your dresses and costumes!

sticking back to the subject - i just wanted to say that i tried the ombre technique and it worked out quite well (i actually used it for the flame handmaiden gown - my first hand-made-from-scratch costume ever! i feel sorta embarassed about it cuz it's not really any good but it was fun making it ). i do recommend checking it though from time to time to "rewet" the fabric if needed. i was doing the dying in my garage in a large bucket (so that it didn't discolor my tub or anything) and obviously since it's summer, the fabric would dry out at times and the dye sort of created a "line" where the dye reached it's high point. i just used a spray bottle with water to rewet it and it was fine again anyway i'm sure this technique will work well for this pastel dress

anyway good luck to all of you making this beautiful dress!!! please post pictures if you have a chance! here are some i found - maybe it's one of you?

http://www.afansview.com/2002/starwars/sw04a0007.html

http://www.afansview.com/2002/starwars/sw05a0012.html


~PA

 

Kreleia, if you ever make that dress, I shouldn't want to compete against you at Celebration 3! Your white celebration gown is just gorgeous, good luck with the umbrella.

I'm actually planning to wear the rainbow dress at a wedding this summer, but I definitly need to find something to wear over my back in the church. Any idea someone?

 

Why not make a rainbow-dyed shawl or wrap to match? If you double or triple the material it should camoflauge just how low the back of the dress is, and it shouldn't look odd since the entire dress is flowy and drapey.

 

Thanks Aliabes!! You're sweet! I worked pretty hard on the thing, and now I'm watching it disintegrate in my closet - I wasn't able to treat the organza that I used for the petals, so they're fraying terribly, and the main dress has a nice rip right along one of the seams due to use. But I have a grand plan of re-doing it out of nicer fabric at some point (whenever that might be).

As for the rainbow dress, everyday I convince myself a little more that I should/need to do it. It's not in the schedule yet, but I have a feeling it will work it's way in there somehow.

^.^

 

:-( I'm sorry to hear what hapened to your dress Kreleia I hope you can redo it without too much difficulties.

StormtrooperPrincess thanks for the great idea, I'm going to figure this out when I go shopping for my material.

Padme_Abe, what is the "ombre technique"?

Princess1, I saw some picture of you in another board, your dress looks dress, but I'd really like to see a picture of the back, pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase!

CU guys

Violaine, painig to figure out some arm pieces?

 

Yes, what is the ombre technique? I've been overloaded by all different dye techniques in the past few days, what with looking at low-immersion, gradation, ziplock-baggy, spray, paint, steam-to-fix... Ahh! So, what's the ombre technique?

I'm not even attempting the neck piece, as I'll be simplifying the dress overall and raising the back a few inches (much to the dismay of my Star Wars-fan boyfriend) so that I can wear the dress more than once. How's everyone feel about the dress as a prom dress?

Anyway, I'm still looking at brands/types of dye. Right now I have Procion MX, Procion H, Pebeo Soie, and Washfast Acid on my list. All of which require different application and fixing methods. At least my sewing machine arrived in the mail last week..

Christine

 

The "ombre" technique is a method of dying fabric in a rainbow gradient. I will paste an excellent post made by Surlygirlie in the now-defunct Dye Techniques Thread. This is actually an excellent thread that I have bookmarked and returned to many many times. If you are going to be doing lots of work with fabric dyes, I would reccomend reading through it!

---

[i]If I'm not mistaken, I read somewhere that a technique known as ombre dye was used for the handmaiden costumes. It's a pain in the behind, but the effect is phenomenal. Here's a quick and dirty rundown on how it works:

Start with a fabric that's the lightest shade of your gradient (In this case, yellow). Prepare a LARGE size vat of dye in the darkest shade of your gradient (orange, in this case). If you have a house with enough bathrooms that you can spare a tub for a couple of days, that's probably your best bet. You'll need to rig a clothesline directly above your vat of dye. Now, wet the fabric and hang it over the vat so that one end sits in the dye solution. Wait for a long time. (A day or 2) The orange will creep up into the yellow fabric and create that cool gradient effect.

Of course, as with all dye techniques, this one benefits from testing, so if you have some spare fabric, you should definitely do some experimenting first. You may find that you'll have to re-wet the fabric as it hangs with a spray bottle to get the look you want. Every fabric seems to react to pigmentation a little differently, so again, TEST!

Hope this helps!

sg [/i]

 

The Ombre technique is where you completely immerse your fabric is water then you take you dye bath and put in a bucket or something. You then put you fabric in the dye--you gradually move the fabric out of the dye bath (an inch or two at a time) Keep ALL OF THE FABRIC WET WITH WATER (use a spray bottle or something) the dye will creep up the fabric (kinda like the theory where you stick the celery in a glass of food coloring and it get distributed up it) The end result of the fabric is that the bottom is darker and as your more up the fabric it get lighter and lighter. Keeping the piece wet will keep it from having the lines of varying shades.

 

The ombre technique is usually done on silk that has been stretched either by silk hooks or tape on a frame that accomodates the length and width of the fabric. Needless to say, for this dress this would be impractical, not to mention a huge headache!

The fabric is then painted with a brush in the right colors fading into another color as you go along. It isn't easy and it takes practice to get a really good gradation. For this dress, the dye-vat method would probably work best. I'm planning to use the stretch method since that's what I'm used to and I have the space to accomodate obsene amounts of fabric.

Are my eyes playing tricks on me or is the satin edging on the top part of the outer dress and the sleeves also done in a gradient?

Bath-Sedi

 

Yes the satin binding appears to be varigated as well (at least that's how I see it) I used a poly satin bias and dyed it in diluted pastel shades and it came out a lovely muted rainbow look. At least that was my take on it
It being poly kept it from dying too dark, and it's subtle but noticeable and pretty.

 

Aliabes: Thanks. And I'll try and post a pic of the back, as soon I can get to my friends house to use her scanner. I don't have one.

Well to be honest, I didn't do the satin binding, I didn't see the pic where you could tell what it was until I'd already finished the dress, two days before the celebration, I was not going to add anything to it at that point!

I've actualy thought about wearing it to prom, but it would be kinda hard to dance in, but I might anyway. I wonder if I could talk my date into going as Anakin?

 

That would be hilarious Princess! It would be for certain that no one would have the same dress as you. Just use some of your charm and I'm sure your date would gladly dress like Anakin That is if he's a SW fan.

 

Oh, I'd make my date wear a tux I don't usually like standing out in the crowd drastically, but in my school (private all-girl's school) I have the misfortune of needing to compete with other girls who wear $800 prom dresses- something I've never indulged in. So, standing out in the "rainbow dress" would be lovely; but I'd still need to make my date wear a tux, or he'd get kicked out by my teachers. Maybe I could talk him into wearing a robe over the tux..

Anyway, the ombre technique would be very difficult with this dress. I'm thinking of stretching out the fabric and using a big brush with different dilutions of the dye, or making a bunch of vats and laying them out over a plastic drop cloth, then draping the fabric over the vats so that it absorbs the colors and they fade into each other. I'd have to get a big spray bottle as well.
Ah, the things we women do to look pretty...

Christine

 

Padme_Abe or anybody else who can answer my question:
When you described the ombre technique, which fabric dye brand did you use? or any suggestion which brand is preferable?

 

Wow. Just by reading everyone's posts and seeing the pictures of the dress that people have made makes me want to make this dress. The only problem is that I have never made a Star Wars costume from stratch before. Does anyone have a suggestion on a woman's costume that would be easy for a beginner? I know that it will be a while before I'm ready to do this one! Maybe by Celebration 3!

Thanks!

 

Man, I still have a year till my prom and I'm begging my mom to let me have something like the rainbow dress for my prom. She keeps saying no, and something about me being remembered forever on as "That Star Wars Girl"... I'm still looking for the down side there, but, meh. I'll just have to show her the pictures and remind her that she was the one saying "Oh that dress is so beautiful.." lol