Padme Amidala Episode 1 Kimono Pre-Senate Dress

Thank you so much kreleia and sister_sola!!

 

goodness! I've been away for a while and missed alot!!

Yeesha-- you did a FANTASTIC job!
I knew you could do it! It was fun, right?
Keep up the good work! I look forward to seeing more lovely work from you in the future!!

 

Thank you a-tastic! It sure was fun!
Someday I'll try to take better full-lenght pictures of the dress.

 

WOW! Yeesha, that beading is amazing. Lotta work for all those headdress strands and then the penguin sleeves. EEP!.

I'm still on the prowl for the fabric. I'm figureing I sould go ahead and do the headdress beading.

I have the rose-ish/cranberry-ish fabric for the under dress. It A berry colouring fabric with a cros weave being a purplish blue/indigo. Has a slight shimmer VERY pretty and seems to change colour in differant lighting. I think I can get away with this one. Now I'll need the periwinklish stuff, kimono,.(that darn Obi) and the other blue fabric that might be bonded to the cranberry. Akk.

 

I never got to see the actual gown in person, but I talked to a few folks that did while wearing mine, and they told me that my blue layer with the skirt, sleeves, and neck were very close to the original.
So, you may want to try a baby blue taffeta base, layered over with off-white crushed voile. It gives it alot of the gathered texture that the original gown's pieces have without as much of the work.

The obi fabric is just....evil. Two years later and I'm still looking!

Good luck!
You're going to learn to love pearls and beads on this project!!

 

I don't mind beading.

I picked the senate gown because it was pretty and would make me learn new skills. I've been doing hand embrodry on one of my jedi over tunics. 3 spools of thread used on Tabbords and 4 on the over tunic..

 

Hi all,

I'm new to the boards, but I just wanted to thank you for the great resource you've put together here. I'm about to start making this dress myself, and I've been looking all over for ideas. I hope you don't mind if I keep you all posted on my progress.

 

I havn't gotten very far yet, but I thought I'd share what I have. I was fortunate enough to be able to go to Manhatten to swatch and pick up a few items during spring break this year. I found quite a few good swatches. I was swatching for a few costumes; this one, the packing gown, and Arwen's coronaiton gown from LOTR.

[image=http://www.circvsmaximvs.com/imagehosting/1646377919be334.jpg]

These are the swatches I'm thinking of going with.

[image=http://www.circvsmaximvs.com/imagehosting/1646377922839a0.jpg]

The top is an oddly textured (polyester?) that I found. I'm thinking of using it in place of the cloque, but I'm going to try to make my own cloque first. The bottom is pretty much perfect, though it didn't show up well in the picture. It's a two-tone satin. It's a blue-grey with a lavender irredescent.

For the headpiece, I bought things as I found them. I went to a pearl wholesaler to get the smaller pearls for the headpiece and the sleeves of the outer layer.

[image=http://www.circvsmaximvs.com/imagehosting/164637792826d47.jpg]

The larger pearls and teardrop pearls would have been hideously expensive to get real, but I managed to find some convincing fabric substitutes.

[image=http://www.circvsmaximvs.com/imagehosting/164637792010dd3.jpg]

I'd been searching for months for a suitable beaded lace for the headpiece, but I couldn't find one. I've decided to make my own, using the pearls I got and these trims.

[image=http://www.circvsmaximvs.com/imagehosting/164637790b5a479.jpg]

I'm going to stitch them together in a way that mimics the headpiece. It won't be perfect, but it should look nice all the same.

The major thing that I didn't find was a fabric for the obi. Though after reading this thread, I realize that I'm far from the only one with that problem. When I first started looking at the obi, I thought it was millinery straw embroidered with silver ribbon. I've read multiple different things. So I'm thinking of creating the obi that way. Anyone have any suggestions about that?

 

Xath, your swatches look good. I look forward to seeing your progress!

 

I need a bit of help. (forgive my craptastic photography). I'm trying to recreate the obi fabric and I want to know which one of my samples you think is closest to the original.

Right: This was my base fabric, which I then embroidered a diamond pattern into with a matte silver ribbon.

Second-Right: I took my base fabric and then painted the diamond pattern on it with silver leaf. I then highlighted the areas arond and within the diamond with gold leaf.

Second-Left: This is a combination of the other two. I took the embroidered sample and then highlighted with the silver and gold leaf.

Left: Don't get too excited. This is the original.

 

Hey Xath, LOVE the fabric samples you found - that puffy blue polyester will probably look great for the second layer.

I was looking at your samples, and I think your best bet might be to go with what you did on the far right, but use a shiny metallic ribbon to embroider, instead of matte. The leafing seems like an awful lot of extra work... but then so does the embroidery. heh. (I completely understand your obsession, though. ) The other two pics don't really give a good idea of how the leafing looks - I think it's the lighting of the pics. If you can get better pics that show the reflection of the leafing, we might be able to give you some better opinions on how they compare. (I know this can be tough, but I thought I'd suggest it anyway. )

 

I'm getting paranoid that my fabric will go out of stock before I order it. Would you guys mind telling me how many yards of each fabric you ended up needing?

 

Er....
I think, but I'm not entirely certain, I used about 3 yards on the cranberry/sage underskirt and collar, 3 of blue taffeta and voile on the blue sleeves, skirt, and collar, about a yard for the obi, and about 6 yards on the kimono. My fabric was pretty much all 45 inches wide, and I wear a size 18W.
Hope that helps? I think that's right.

 

Aw, man... Manhattan Fabrics still has the violet and pale yellow diamond-pattern fabric available. **groan** I just wrote to find out how large the pattern is. Given what Xath is doing, it's so tempting.

 

I've been making some progress on the obi, but this embroidery is taking forever.

[image=http://www.circvsmaximvs.com/imagehosting/16465217e6b172f.jpg]

[image=http://www.circvsmaximvs.com/imagehosting/16465217e283217.jpg]

 

Oh, wow!! That's looking REALLY beautiful! Don't give up - it's fantastic!

 

Holy Crap!

You are my hero.
Not only is it perfect, but---well, DANG!

I love it!

 

Wonderful! Of course, it really is a pattern to lends itself to a certain kind of embroidery; imitation of Perugian wares, where the pattern is woven, but I cannot find the term for it.
http://www.forest.gen.nz/Medieval/gallery/gallerypage.html
This is an example.

Brilliant idea. Which I'd thought of it

 

Any updates? (I live vicariously through this thread while I continually and constantly keep my eyes open for THE RIGHT fabric for all this - you all know what I'm talking about. frustration defined. )

 

While your searching for the "right" fabric, work on the patterns for the gowns, beading the headpiece, etc. There are quite a few thinks you can work on until you find fabric. No need to get fustrated.

 

You also might want to check out http://www.rebellegion.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3355&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=30 there are some fabric ideas posted there.

 

Oh, I know. And thanks for the link - I think I've actually posted to that thread in the past. And, yes, there are other things I'm working on - like the headpiece. I think I've actually found a suitable dupioni for the outer kimono - just hoping the company still has it in stock. The swatch is a little lighter than I'd like, but other than that, it's pretty close. I just don't have the $15/yd to buy it in the quantity needed (yet).

 

The one fabric I have linked over at the RL forum is only $4 per yard
http://www.fashionfabricsclub.com/catalog_itemdetail.aspx?ItmID=D5312
and it looks petty close in the photo.

I only paid $8 per yard for my silk dupioni, so I would shop around before paying $15.
Although after seeing the fabric in person, dupioni is actually too slubby, it's more of a taffeta.

http://www.fabric.com/CategoryDetail.aspx?CategoryID=e9fb4531-64f1-404f-a002-f08f241ad99b&cm_mmc=Google%20Adwords-_-Silk%20Campaign-_-Silk%20Dupioni-_-dupioni%20silks has dupioni for $10.95 per yard.

 

ooooo, fabric.com actually has some iridescents that look like they're in the right color range. Scooped up a bunch of swatches. Thanks for that link. I've looked there before (I think I've looked everywhere before), but after I happened upon the swatch that I have, I stopped really looking anymore. I think these swatches will help a lot, and will definitely help me decide if $15/yd is going to be worth it for me.

 

I'm having some serious wig issues here. I can't get the thing de-tangled. Anyone have any advice?