Queen's Peril excitement

In June Queen's Peril by E.K Johnston will be released it's a Star Wars novel focused on Padmé and her handmaidens. When her book Queen's Shadow was released it was a moment that a lot of fangirls had waited for, finally there was a book with Padmé as the main character, and with her handmaidens as fully fleshed out characters as well, it only took 20 years after The Phantom Menace to make it happen. A couple of weeks I was asked by a friend of mine if I wanted to be part of a video to celebrate the release, and of course I wanted to. As a proud member of the Royal Handmaiden Society I of course chose to take part in my Gold Handmaiden costume.

Today the video was released when E.K Johnston posted it on her social media platforms.

You have to click the link


My segment was filmed in my kitchen, with Tom as my cinematographer. And here are some bonus segments from our filming.

Harry Potter studio costumes

Over Easter I went to the Harry Potter Studio tour, outside London. Even if I'm not a HP fan, I enjoy the books and films but not as much as to call myself a fan, I had a great time. There were so many costumes around that you could get really close to, and I love being able to stare down details on how professional costumes are made.

I would have loved to see and hear more about the creation of the costumes, as it was the only costume creation process they talked about was Voldemort. One of my favorite things was seeing a finished Beaux Batons school uniform, next to both the hat block and a dressform with the draped pattern.

The rest was mostly just going around and ooohing and aaahing about the costumes. I must say though that most of the most beautiful costumes were clearly the ones worn by Death Eaters, but maybe that's not so strong when you consider that our heroes run around in quite normal clothes most of the tim.

I think this gown, worn by Narcissa Malfoy, is probably a new favorite. If I was ever to recreate a HP costume this one would be very likely. I also took a lot of detailed photos of the lace applique. I really like the horizontal seams on the petticoat, that would be interesting to try and recreate.

My absolute favorite costume was this one, worn by Bellatrix Lestrange. Unfortunately I don't think I will ever be that good at working with leather that I will be able to recreate it.

Just look at the details of the holster, the sleeve and the corset. It was totally gorgeous, I was just standing there drooling for a while.

Then of course it's fun to see details of some costumes like this of Voldemort's robes.

I guess it's a sign of a costumer when you take pictures of the hems, but not of the whole costume. I thought that it was fascinating that the front is clearly hemmed, but the back has started to unravel a bit.

I also always feel a great relief when even professionally made costumes have problems with puckered seams, especially when working with slippery fabrics. This is Hermione's ballgown from Goblet of Fire.

Umbridge's costumes were interesting because it was clear that they were all made from the same pattern, just in different fabrics and with some differing details. It was pointed out, and I have never thought about it, that her costumes gets aggresively  more pink the more power she gains.

I got very surprised about the colour of the lining of Harry's invisibilty cloak, until I realized that it's not lining, but rather it's doubling as a green screen for the special effects to work when he's wearing the cloak.

I'm also a bit tempted to try and recreate this gown, if I ever decide to do some 16th century costuming. It's my favorite style of renaissance, and the colours are really nice as well.

All in all I had a great time, I think I took around 150 photos of so in total, and me and my nephew spent almost five hours at the tour. I definitely recommend it if you have the chance to visit.

Disney's Frozen

I watched Frozen yesterday with my two nieces, despite being set in Scandinavia and inspired by an HC Anderssen tale it didn't get to Sweden until now. Anyway I was totally awestruck by the costumes in the film. For the first part I just sat there gaping and thinking about how I would be able to recreate them. I definitely think Frozen is something new when it comes to attention of details on animated costumes, and I would recommend reading this interview with the costume designer Jean Gillmore. I loved the colours and how they mixed elements of the Norwegian bunad with fairytale fantasy fashion.

The bunad is broad term for Norwegian folk costume. It actually evolved in the 19th century when when national romanticist wanted to revive traditional folk customs and clothing. I'm from Sweden so I don't really know the story about the bunad, and if it's similar to the history of the Swedish folk costumes.

This is a picture from the wiki article about bunad and shows the modern wearing of it. This picture is from Trondheim, which is fitting since a lot of the inspirations for Frozen was taken from Tröndelag, the region surrounding Trondheim. Anyway you can see that the general style of bunad is very similar to Anna's dress in Frozen, the only thing missing is the apron.

There was one costume that I loved even more, probably because I felt that Anna's dress was a bit too young for me, and that was Elsa's coronation gown.

I have already gathered quite a few reference images of it, and it doesn't look too complicated. The gown itself would be a corset with a sweetheart neckline. It has two distinct seams on the side of the bodice, so I would possibly make the strength layer as a traditional corset and cover it with the outer fabric with those steams. The main thing is to decide if I should paint or embroidered the motifs on the skirt and bodice. I would love to use a proper wool, but the important thing is to get a fabric with a nice and heavy drape to it. For the cape I would be able to use the leftovers of my silk velvet from my Amidala gown. It's not enough left to make the train as long as in the original, on the other hand that will make it more practical to walk in.

The main problem as usual would be to fix the hair ad the little tiara.

As for wearing it. Well that is the problem, and I usually don't like to make costumes that I can't wear. he HSF has a challenge for alternate universe due around Halloween, and this would definitely fit that. I could also bring it to the annual sci-fi con in Stockholm in early December.

Schadenfreude, but not really

Today I was really tired and I put one of my oldest favorite films in the DVD-player. It's The Scarlet Pimpernel from 1982. This was one of the first films that I watched obsessively as a kid, and I still know quite a lot of the lines by heart. Well knowing the film that well gives makes me look at other tings, like the costumes for example. This film has definitely shaped my interest in the late 18th century fashion.

One thing that made quite happy was actually to see the sleeves of Marguerite's gowns. Quite a few of the had a bit of hump on the back, say from the middle of the shoulder and down. There was also some serious wrinkling going on. This makes me really happy since all my 18th century gowns have suffered from those b´humps and wrinkles, but apparently professional costume makers have that problem too. I am getting better, and hopefully by the next time I sew something 18th century I will be able to eliminate the sleeve hump, it's a matter of easing and gathering the sleeve towards the armscye in the best way. My sleeveheads have simply been too large compared to the armscyes.

Here's a picture that I found, and I've circled the top of the shoulder. It was more visible from the side and the back, but for some reason I couldn't find any screen caps of that.