Hair (again) (Posted 21st November 2009)

I think I've figured out my hair dilemma. Trying to mimic the original hair style is nearly impossible with hair the same length as mine. BUT I've looked at other versions of the costumes by people and may have found an alternative.
Its going to involve a collapsable hair band and craploads of small flowers!

Hair (Posted 18th November 2009)

I've had a trial run with the hair. Unfortunately I don't have enough hair to do it accurately, so unless I find a hair piece in the next week that I can use, I'll have a similar style to Padme - it just won't be exactly the same.

I had some advice from Kelldar from cos.com, who was really, really helpful with the hair (even did me a small diagram on paint!). I will need to have wet hair, and then moose (yes, I know. I don't know how to spell the actual product!) the crap out of it to get it slick. I then have to twist my hair to get it tight and bobby pin it to hell to keep it twisted and up in the mini conch shape.

I am going to look for a hair band that I can cover or manipulate for the purple hair band. Failing that - foam curlers and ribbon.

Finished (Posted 18th November 2009)

Well, this costume is now totally complete aside from one tiny detail which will take about 5 minutes.
The sleeves have been hemmed had now have elastic inside them to hold them up comfortably. So I won't be cutting off the blood supply to my arms.
The necklace/neck piece is done too. I haven't varnished it, its shiny enough not to need it. And I used the chord of an old necklace I had to keep it together.
I need to get myself some body tape to keep the dress on my front (I really don't feel like flashing everyone). I'm going to get a stick on bra, also.

Shoes (Posted 12th November 2009)

Bought my shoes.
They're a silver pair of ballet pumps from New Look. They have a diamente bow on the front, but I'm going to cut it off.

Necklace (Posted 11th November 2009)

After staring at referance pictures today at work I came home and made myself five stencils for the different layers of the necklace. It should sit at the base of my neck, as in the images.
Each piece is buckram re-inforcing craft foam glued to each other and then glued in a staggered style.
I'm painting them with acrylic paint.
I'll be getting a chain (or chord) to attach to it to keep it around my neck. :]

Having a break this evening (Posted 10th November 2009)

I'm having a short break tonight from sewing to chill out and get an early night. I've been working on this costume flat out for the last 2 weeks; so I think a break is deserved.

I need to add some elastic into the top of the sleeves so they stay up. And I need to hem the sleeves and attach them to the back of the dress. But its all right! I have time. I'm doing pretty well with this. :D

More material (Posted 9th November 2009)

More material for my sleeves and also bought some buckram for the necklace. I have plenty of craft foam at home, but the buckram will re-inforce it to keep it nice and safe when its on and in transit.

I showed the progress pictures to a couple of the girls in Fabricland, Scarlett and Jess - they were very impressed.
I hope to have my sleeves done tonight.

Dress Finished (Posted 8th November 2009)

Well - all eighteen metres of the three skirts have been hemmed! That took a lot of time. >__<
But the dress is done. So I have an outfit for the ball at least!!! Gonna get some more material tomorrow to make the sleeves. Hopefully will have them done tomorrow after work. And then I have to paint/dye them!

Going to get some buckram for the neck piece too.

Dress (almost) complete! (Posted 7th November 2009)

Well, the top layer (the layuer with the gradient) is dry and finished. I had to make a new top to it, because the original got a little bit of blue dye on it that wouldn't come out with Vanish. Wasn't hard though. I have a template for the shirt part of it which only takes about ten minutes to cut out and sew on.

The top layer needs sewing to the actual dress now, so I'll be doing that today as well as shortening the dress somewhat. At the moment its so long I have to really hoik it up to walk. So I'll shorten it a bit so it just covers my feet. I'll still have to pick up the dress to walk - but it will be easier that it is now.

I love how my gradient dying came out. The method was fantastic (thank you Laura~ <3) and i will be doing it on the sleeves too. I'm going to buy some more yellow chiffon (there's currently 12 metres in the dress. It'll probably go up to 16 metres over all with the sleeves included).

Gradient dying and 3rd dress. (Posted 5th November 2009)

I made the third dress today~ Its the final dress, my top dress. :D Made out of the lemon yellow chiffon and its pretty~
I'm started on the gradient dying too. I'm using a technique Laura (Sandss) suggested which is watered down fabric paint.

So far it works like a treat. It dylon fabric paint and water in a spray bottle that you'd get for like, spraying water on plants. I'm just doing a scrap piece right now; so I'm going to wait and see how that looks when its dry before doing the actual dress.

But its looking promising!

Why I sometime try to work early shifts (Posted 4th November 2009)

Early shifts mean I'm up at the arsecrack of dawn, but they mean I have the afternoon to work on things.
That's why this dress is coming together fairly simply.
I did another dress layer today using my ivory colour georgette. Originally I was planning on using white jersey, but the georgette was a much better choice. Its a similar consistancy to the chiffon, so it covers me up, so I'm not naked totally naked under the chiffon, without loosing any flow and drape.
Slight downside is that the georgette is fairly heavy. Bit its okay.

I will be doing another layer of lemon yellow chiffon to go over the current layer. Provided this is enough, that top layer will then start being painted.

Will (HOPEFULLY) have enough material left over to do the sleeves.

Where my wallet cries at me (Posted 4th November 2009)

I just spent £50 on material for this dress.
I had to buy another 6 metres of lemon chiffon as the original 6 metres weren't enough to do more that 1 layer. In the time of waiting for my fabric to be cut I found a new material I've never used but has a similar feel to chiffon called Georgette.
Its got a similar look and feel, but its thicker without weighing me down, so I biought 6 metres to do a middle layer of Georgette in the dress so I'm not quite so naked. I will hopefully get that layer done tonight!

First Layer of Chiffon (Posted 3rd November 2009)

Soo... I've done the first layer of chiffon for the dress. Its fairly naked at the moment, so I'm going to get some more material tomorrow.
I'll be getting about 12 metres to do another 2 layers on the dress (yeah. there are 6 metres of material in the top and skirt.
The skirt segment is about... oh... 4 metres itself. I think this'll be quite heavy by the end of the making process, but the chiffon is gorgeous. Its flows beautifully. <3

Gets (Posted 28th October 2009)

I have a pattern, McCalls M5136 which is going to need some serious editting dueing the making process to get it marginally like the actual dress and I have 6 metres of yellow chiffon which will be use to make the draping effect.
I'm going to see if I have any white jersey or cotton/elastine mix at home that I can use to make an under dress (so I'm not totally naked underneath it). Failing that I'll by some more.