Padme Amidala Handmaiden Costumes

Does anyone know how to make one of the handmaiden costumes or the battle outfit? I might be going to Celebration II, and was hoping I could make a costume for it. Thankx.
~Eirtae

S_S edit: just unlocking

 

Hi!
You know what, I'v been looking for the exact same thing- but more on the lines of the yellow handmaiden costume. If you're interesed, i'd be more than happy to send you all that i'v gadthered. If not, just specify, and i'll be glad to help too!
Good luck

 

I'm looking for a Queen Amidala funeral dress myself. I've seen a few sites that have information on making that type of costume. You might want to try the Royal Handmaiden Society.

 

A very good suggestion, but the Royal Handmaiden Society doesn't exist anymore, i believe. Their website is unacessible atleast.

Good luck with the funeral costume. I do believe it was mentioned somewhere on amber's jedi closet board.

 

Whatever you had for that yellow dress would be a great help, thanks! You can just PM it to me or whatever. Thank you so much!
*Eirtae*

 

There are also at least a couple of threads on this board about those costumes, they may have slipped down several pages, but as I recall they do have titles that indicate their content. I made the Padme battle dress last year for my daughter for halloween, using silk velvet from the nice Pakistani fellow over at eBay (see 'today on eBay' thread!). Someone else was making the yellow/orange one, and there's a whole thread about dye techniques.
good luck, and don't forget to post pictures!
Sarah

 

IMHO, the Red/yellow handmaiden costume has been too over played. Most of all the handmaidens you see is either that, or the battle dress or the cloak. They're all wonderful ideas, don't get me wrong, and i particularly love the dye techniques, but it gets old when you see so many of the same things...

 

The RHS is alive and well, in the form of a rather huge thread over in the TPM forum. It's usually on the first or second page. (Unfortunately, you are correct about the website. Its creator went AWOL, and Crosswinds apparently deleted it.)

I haven't actually made any of the handmaiden costumes, but I did see the Fashion Institute exhibit in L.A. a year and a half ago. It had the "flame" dress, the yellow throne room dress, and the black senate outfit on display. So if you want details on any of those, let me know.

 

I really miss the Royal Handmaiden Society it was my favorite site till they deleated it I hope on if you people with the RHS will start remaking the site! I actually think the origanal site of QA were way better than the ones out there now! I mean the next Amidala is Ok but I miss Queen Amidala's Tribute, The RHS, and the other site like that thaat use to update all the time now the only sites that update it seems are Ani/Ami lover sites*sigh*
I made the battle dress for a doll once but I have a few ideas for a real one...
You know thos long sleaved knit coat things you but at fasion stores right now go buy a patern for one of those and start with that after you have that it is just a matter of working at it
See ya!

 

I must say this: I absolutely love the flame handmaiden dresses to death. I would love to make one, but it looks to me like dip-dyed velvet. That could be rather a costly mistake if you messed up the dye job. If you have a way to make these without using a fake looking material and still keep the job reasonably priced I would love to hear about it!!! Thanks!

 

From what i understand, some guy in pakastan sales good quality velvet/fabric for a reasonable price. You can always go there and do that.

for the "under" part of the dress, i'd set a long sleaved, bright red shirt. For the head thing, you can take one of those scuba diving head peaces-design (ok- the name eludes me, but i think you're getting the point) anyhow, sew something up like one of those, then add a slight "visor".
The gown itself looks like a regular down with princess sleaves. I'm sure a few mideval/renasance gowns have those sleave designs in there somewhere.


As per the Yellow Theed Gown- I think i almost have it figured out. If interested, I'll post later when i figure out the coat deal.

 

HandmaidenEirtae I really hope you are a girl because if not, you got some issues. But anyway sry I don't have anything too post about that.

ghent1101

 

Réka, can you post what you get to see of the Mustard/Dirty Yellow Handmaid Theed Gown?

I got it in mind as I haven't seen anyone done it although I know someone who's trying to do it currently. The fabric used (the pleating method, that is) looks like of the same kind of that used for Maul Buddies & 12" doll outer robe/cloak. I just wonder if it's true.

How about the pattern on the scarfs? What does it really look like?

Thanks in advance!

 

I met a girl in a convention with a handmaiden costume. It was a bit modified (bare arms) But she said it was essentially only a three-meter long piece of fabric.

That probably isn't helpful, but it did look ggod.

Ara
(Sniffly and tired little "preekkari")

 

You mean the Mustard/Dirty Yellow Handmaid Theed Gown? ?

I thought of doing the gown as a "sarong" (hope you know what this means) too but these days, I kinda gotten really stingy with my money (must be due to my student allowance) and want all my costumes to be well-made and can be reuse in real life (for special occasions, prom).

And did you notice what fabric the girl used or how she did the scarfs? I'll love to hear it.

 

hmmm which royal handmaiden society?
lol

The yellow dresses are lovely, but I'm
thinking of making the green celebration
ones with the hoops once I finish
the one I'm on right now (Sabe's battle dress)

I like the hoods the handmaidens wear,
though finding patterns is not easy.
I had to use a titanic pattern for Sabe.

The best amidala/handmaiden patterns
are those symplicity renn. & medi. patterns especially for sleeves.

 

McCall's has a *great* cloak pattern with a hood that you can use for the handmaiden's hoods (or even the entire dark maroon cloak) - it's actually the same cloak pattern I used on my White Parade Gown. ^.^ The pattern number is #8936 (you can see a picture of the pattern cover here). Simplicity also has a similar pattern, as does Vogue - apparently, capes are "in" this fall. Guess all the Jedi, Sith, SCA members and Cosplayers running around have finally convinced fashion designers that capes, cloaks and a good pair of boots are pretty nifty after all. **laugh**

kreleia ^.^

EDIT: It just occurred to me that the hood I'm talking about isn't the one on the green gown. SORRY! ^^; But it *would* work for the mustard yellow gown, the "flame" gown, and the dark maroon gown.

 

The theed gown looks very Roman based (i believe i posted some similarities over at amber's board?).

I'd definately love to hear about the head scarf too. The "overcoat" looks like a smaller version of a kimono. The two should be real easy to saftey pen together so it doesn't float about.

how would you go about pleating the fabric?

 

hey can anybody give ideas on the green celebration handmaiden gown?

 

It looks like velvet- the hood part of the gown. The stamping suggestion used in one of the earlier threads would be a good idea too- for the Naboo insignia in the middle.

I might try looking at McCall's Hooded shirts patterns- or something to that extent. A modified poncho maybe..

 

Malla, can you e-mail me privately at darth_eagle@yahoo.com concerning something I can't get at your website?

Thanks!

 

I'm working on the Celebration Gown
right now actually. It seems to be
various shades of green velvet.

The hoop pattern is pretty easy to find.
Check out the Civil War Patterns.

 

Katarra Kreations makes just about any SW costume under the sun.

http://www.katarra.com

But, if you're like me, you'd probably rather just make it yourself.

 

All right, my eyewitness account of the yellow throne room gown... 18 months after the fact, so I apologize in advance if I get the details wrong.

First, the color: as someone correctly noted, it's definitely not a sunny yellow. Mustard, dark yellow, yellowish tan, that sort of thing. This is the best picture available online.

Layer 1: Fabric is a dark yellow silk shantung type, pleated in even 1/2" pleats. This is made into a fairly simple, but constructed dress, i.e. not a wrap or a sarong, but actually sewn. The pleating made it a bit difficult to tell where the seams were, though. The dress is several inches longer than floor length, so it makes a lovely puddle effect on the floor. The rounded-off square neckline is piped with self-fabric piping.

Layer 2: Fabric is a slightly lighter yellow, lighter weight silk, broomstick-pleated. This is made into a wide obi-style belt or bodice or whateveryouwannacallit. It goes from just below the bust to just above the hips, with the pleating horizontal.

Layer 3: Fabric is a slightly more orangey-yellow velvet, but not a heavyweight type. A good-quality polyester velour would be a closer match than the thick, heavy, expensive velvet you find on the hangers in fabric stores. This is made into a straight robe/jacket thingy, slightly longer in the back than in the front (reaching just above the ankles in back, middle of shin in front). The sleeves were hard to figure out, because the mannequin I saw it displayed on didn't have arms. My guess is they are similar to the flame dress--hanging sleeves with the hand coming out somewhere on the side, and the bottom edges sewn together. The finishing touches were piped edges all around, including sandwiched in the seams of the sleeves; and the red decoration painted or dyed on the bottom corners of sleeves and robe. Unfortunately, I was too stupid to take along a sketchbook, so I can't really tell you what the designs were, other than a geometric cross-hatchy thingy. As far as method of application, it looked like a concentrated dye was painted on and allowed to dry.

Layer 4 (headdress): Fabric is the same as layer three. This is pretty much a triangular veil, with elongated corners. You'll have to experiment with shape and size to get the right effect. Again, all the edges are piped, and the veil is lined with a similar-color silky fabric. Each corner has a bit of the painted/dyed decoration. IIRC, the front corners have Amidala's emblem (the vaguely fleur-de-lis type design). I completely forget what was on the back corner, but I would assume something similar to what's on the robe.


I hope that's somewhat helpful to somebody. Also, I think the green celebration dress is fairly similar, at least as far as the basic idea of silk underdress/velvet overdress, and definitely as far as the triangular veil.

 

Thanks Réka! That had been most useful.

About the 3rd layer, (cloth on the shoulder) , I think I've to agree with Malla on using a kimono like coat but with very wide sleeves and the top part is lower than the upper. And on the pleats, are you sure it's ~1/2"? It looks a lot more smaller to me . . . .

I'll see if I can afford to have the gown fabric specially tailored one of these days.