Costume Close-up

This little beauty arrived on my doorstep yesterday, and I'm quite excited. Being on a sewing hiatus, I'm not allowed to start any new projects until after Christmas, always seems to make my project lists just grow and grow and grow, I think I'm up to around 10 future costumes that I really want to make now. This book added a couple of more future projects, just by quickly looing in it.

I've always felt a bit scared about resizing patterns from books. In my costume history I have almost always failed miserably with that. I'm starting to think that I'm ready to take this step though, and the reasons for that are:

• When doing my Snow White costume I worked with a dress form for the first time and it made pinning and trying things so much easier. Before I start with my next sewing project I'm definitely going to invest in a dress form of my own.
• I have gotten more confident. Also for Snow White I drafted my own sleeve pattern, more or less by combining two previous patterns and it worked out good, so I'm hoping the step to drafting a pattern for a whole garment won't be too impossible.
• By now I have a pattern for an 18th century bodice that works well on my body. I can frankenstein patterns so that it's almost impossible to recognize what it was from the beginning. Using that bodice pattern as a starting point I don't think it will be too hard to make the garments that I want.

Out of the book there are two patterns that I want to use, and it might help me with a third. My costume plan for 2014, which I'm going to post about later, involves a costume with a redingote/men's inspired jacket. I think that the coat (19) on page 92-96 is very similar to what I'm hoping to do.

Then I love the jacket (6) on page 39-42. I totally understand why some blogs have called it the most reproduced garment, or "that Williamsburg jacket". In other words I would join very many costumers before me who have done this jacket, and there are a lot of pictures and tutorials for it out there. One little thought that is tingling in the back of my mind is if I should try and sew it by hand. I'm probably never going to be a perfect recreator and only use period techniques, but a jacket isn't very big and it could be fun to have a garment that I've made all by hand. I might aim for this jacket for 2015.

To finish off I have started to think about doing a proper robe à la française or sacque-gown. I've never been particularly fond of this style, but I saw so many nice costumes at the Masquerade in Kalmar that I started thinking about making one. Also my sister has always drooled over this style, and if I can finally persuade her to make an historical costume it would be probably be this kind of gown, and it could be fun if we made a project together.

Padmé's Mustafar

Before the premiere of Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith I wanted to make a costume for the premiere, or rather for Star Wars Celebration III that was held the month before. I think I had gotten a bit better by now, and the shape and fabric choice for the tunic wasn't so bad. I couldn't make a good looking collar though. I also made proper hairstyle for the first time.

original costume

April 2005

Status: non-existing

Padmé's picnic gown

This is probably the most beloved and most beautiful of all Padmé Amidala's costumes from the Star Wars prequels. There were quite a few of us who totally obsessed about it, as soon as the first pictures of it were published. I can't say that I was anyone of those who really contributed, but it was a wonderful thing to be part of the analyzing and breaking down of the costume that took place at the Jedi Council Forums. The discussion about the dress went on for almost 4000 posts, and the rundown, and latest thread can still be found here. A sign of how loved it is is that I think it has won every time a version has been entered into the Star Wars Celebrations costume contests.

My first attempt wasn't even close, the thing is though, when I made it I thought that it was really good. I simply hadn't trained my eyes to "see" what the costume looked like. I had a bodice that was just a bodice, not a boned corset, it ended in a point and was too short, compared to the long and rounded original corset. I used synthetic crepe satin and polyester chiffon, and the cape was some netting that I tried to tea dye. I got the shape of the skirt and blouse right though, and I had the correct ear buns. Even if the shape of the corset isn't right I'm also proud of the embroidery that I did on it.

Status: non-existing. I have gathered materials and have both the exact right ribbons for the sleeve wraps and the correct sequins for the skirt, so one day I'm going to make this one properly one day. I just need to buckle down and prepare for all the hand embroidery on both the corset and the dress itself.

April 2004

TPM battlemaiden outfit

The costume that I finished in 2004 was the Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace Handmaiden battle outfit, also known as the battlemaiden. I've been a fan of the handmaidens since they started, they are in the background but they are cool, have nice costumes and can fight. To quote one of them "We are brave, your highness". This costume was the most I had spent when it came to fabrics, I probably bought fabric for around $120. Still I was happy to buy fabric that was "as close as I could find" rather then totally accurate. This was a velvet fabric that I found in a local store, and I was so happy to have found red velvet. I also chose simple gold trim, instead of the embroidered gold trim that was on the original. I never made a lining for the coat, I had planned to, but never got to it, and I never made the proper under shirt, or hairpiece. Still this is probably the first project where I felt that I spent a lot of money on the fabric, and I spent a lot of time researching possible patterns, and then mashing them up to get one good pattern. It was definitely a step forward compared to the previous costumes.

original costume

October 2004

At least I got the fullness of the coat and sleeve right

Status: Existing but inactive

I still have the coat and the pants, but I'm never going to finish it. I can use it for something else, but it's not accurate enough to call it a Star Wars costume.

Halloween costume

So most of the time I'm serious with my costuming, but from time to time it's really fun to just throw something together. Now for Halloween I wanted to go to a party at a night club, and I definitely didn't want to go in any of my expensive or fragile costumes. With inspiration from a fashion plate from 1787 I decided to go as one of the women of the French revolution.

There were a lot of feminist activists in the French Revolution, women who claimed that human rights shouldn't just be reserved for 50% of the population, and who also felt that maybe it was wrong to use "fraternité" (brotherhood) as a motto. Unfortunately many of these women were very badly treated. During the revolution quite a few of them got executed at the guilloutine, or arrested. Some were more or less forced into a life of obscurity, while for example Theroigne de Mericourt was institutionalized at a mental asylum. Still I wanted to give a bit of nod to these interesting, but usually forgotten, women.

Vive la Revolution

The costume consists of :

• Snow White wig, with a white scarf wrapped around the upper part to look like some kind of bonnet 
• a red suit jacket with a tricolor cockade;
• black vest
• 18th century chemise and petticoat. 

I took a piece of red cotton and ripped it into two pieces, one narrow piece that I used as a sash and the other part was tied to a stick and used as a revolutionary flag.

Total cost of the costume was 85 SEK (ca $10) and that was the cost of the red fabric. The rest were things I already had at home.

SW:AOTC blue Tatooine poncho

original costume

 I can't find any photos of my first ever try of a Star Wars costume. I made a jedi     costume out of old bedsheets and wore it to a Halloween party in 2000. So the first costume that I can find pictures of is Padmé's blue Tatooine poncho from Star Wars Episode II Attack of the Clones.

The underdress was a crinkle dress that I had, and dyed blue. The outer poncho is made of fabric that I found at home by my parents, in fact I still remember that one of the inspirations for this dress was that I found the fabric in the perfect colour among my mother's curtains. This is the dress that got me accepted into the Rebel Legion in 2002, meaning that it was also the first costume from the Nordic Countries, and in a way the start of the Nordic Base. I don't have any original pictures myself, but I found this at Padawan's guide. At that time I didn't really care about hair colour or much of hairstyling, after all I had long hair myself and I just tied it back a bit.

Last summer I decided to upgrade the costume, so that I could still have it in my Rebel Legion profile. I lengthened the dress to a correct length, changed the neckline of the under dress, refined the embroidery a bit and added a lining to the main tunic. I also made sure to style my hair in a better way.
Status: existing but inactive.

I have it. At the moment my hair is blonde though so I'm not using it. Also this is a costume that would never get recognised by the general public, so it's no fun wearing it. I also see too many of my early mistakes in it, so I'm not too happy about the quality anymore.

August 2012

June 2002

First foray into costuming

My first hint of costuming was actually my graduation ball. It's like a prom, but also included dinner and formal dancing. When I graduated it was also traditional for all the girls to wear white, a tradition that has totally disappeared since then. White is the traditional graduation colour, also the cap that I'm wearing is the Swedish student cap, that you get when you graduate from school.

Already a year before my graduation me and my sister sat down and decided that I wanted something Jane Austen-like. My sister is a much better seamstress than me, and at this point she basically just told me what to do. In the end she was the one who made my ballgown. Nothing except the general shape is really accurate, but I loved it and I've used it both as a ballgown and at historical fairs since then.

June 2000

Status: Existing but inactive. I still have the gown up among my costumes/ballgowns but I haven't tried it in many years.