Meadow Gown: the making of Saga, Part 1

Step one: Decide you are going to make all of Padmé’s romantic costumes.

Step two: buy all the fabric and supplies you will need except for the embroidered outer fabric.

Step three: Price out outer fabric and realize it is prohibitively expensive to get it right. 

Step four: put project on the back burner until you can find the perfect fabric.

Step five: Go to camp to work for the summer, live alone with amazing new staff member.  Talk about nonsense and seriousness, go out to dinner, get to know each other well.  Actually hang out outside of camp, go camping, pick blueberries, swim in quarries, and waterfalls.  Agree to visit said new friend at school overseas when credit cards completely paid off.

Step six: Have world fall apart, delay trip, get closer to friend online and over next summer.  Say forget about being totally paid off you only live once.

Step seven: Fly to Egypt to see friend, have the time of  your life, go to fabric market on the last day.  See perfect fabric – twice.  Negotiate a price in a three way, two language conversation where the two people who don’t speak the same language know fabric well and the one that speaks both does not, twice.  Buy both fabrics for less than you would have spent for less yardage priced out here – that is both combined! (Buy one then find one you like better after and buy that too.)

Yes I really did fly across the world to get fabric!

The fabric I bought.

The real reason I flew around the world - the fabric was just a bonus.

 Step eight: Fly home and spend months debating and soliciting opinions on which fabric to use – end up deciding to go with original impression and use the second.  Gather together the rest of the materials previously purchased.

Step nine: delay starting because Egypt is an awfully long way away if you ruin the fabric.

Step ten: decide you want the costume done in two months.  Frantically start – by giving away a yard of fabric (they threw it in for free anyway as it was the end of the roll). Realize that the fabric is twice as wide as you thought – cheer silently.

Step 11: dye fabric gold.  Wonder if you need to do more, photograph it many times over and solicit opinions before deciding it is correct. 

All the fabrics, post dying the gown fabric - pre-dying the shawl fabric (still not done)

Step 12: pre-prepare underlayer silk by bleaching it out.  Worry that it didn’t get white enough.  Solicit opinions, wait for it to dry, decide you are being paranoid. 

Step 13: cut out pattern and cut a modesty lining for bodice and skirt (I will not wear something completely sheer!) I did find the out of print McCall’s 3797 a few years ago – benefit of living in the country and having a JoAnn’s nearby whose other patrons generally don’t do as much clothing – patterns are easy to find even after being discontinued – and usually on clearance when discontinued! I did not alter it at all for the modesty lining but I did change the skirt for the “real” layers.  I used cream colored dancewear lining fabric for the modesty layer as it is light weight but very opaque. 

Trying on and shaping my mom's (now my) dressform so I can fit things properly - not on me!

Step 14: Sew modesty lining – I did not make the sleeves for this layer – it wasn’t necessary so it is just pinned to my dress form at the moment. 

Step 15: I made a muslin proto type of the circle skirt and a ¼ circle pattern piece and pinned it to the lining to make sure the skirt would attach ok.  I used the pattern pieces layed out on the muslin to determine the length of the skirt and the size of the opening at  the top – where it will connect to the bodice. When I was happy with how it went together with the edge of the lining bodice I used it as my new skirt pattern for the 2 outside layers.

Muslin skirt hanging normally.

All stretched out so you can see the real size.

 Step 16: cut out rest of fabric.  I cut the pieces out of the silk for the middle layer before dying the blotches in so that I could target just the fabric I would be using  as it was too hard to work with the whole long yardage.  I only got 2 half circles out of the silk but three out of the Egyptian fabric as it was much wider.  I had to put in pieces to fill in the bottom of the silk as well to make it the right length. 

Step 17: sew the skirts.  Just to keep the pieces in order and get them out of the way I sewed each layer of the skirt (separately) leaving the back completely open as that is where the zipper will go.  I did not sew any of the bodice or sleeves as they would be harder to dye that way and both layers get sewn together. 

Egyptian fabric skirt pinned in place.

Step 18: dye the blotches on the underlayer.  I put the yellow (RIT Yellow) and pink (RIT light rose) in cleaned out laundry spray bottles and sprayed each piece individually then rinsed them in cool water til the water ran clear (follow instructions on the dye).  I let them air dry most of the way then used my hair dryer to finish drying it and to heat set it.  The skirt was all sewn together so I had to keep sliding it to the side to get it all but with patience I managed in a decent amount of time.  I ended up making too much dye so I used the rest to tie dye a tshirt and some socks (also by spraying it on), I discovered you really only need 1 inch in the dye bottles to cover it all nicely – perhaps 2 or 3 inches, not over half the bottle. 

Dyed skirt draped over dressform to show blotches.

With scraps of the Egyptian fabric over it to show how it will look put together.

Step 19: sew the sequins onto the bodice and sleeves.  Because multiple layers get sewn together for each of these I put the sequins in them first – then I will sew them together.

Step 20: take sequins breaks – cause really they are tiny and take FOREVER to sew to iron mid-layer pieces and pin skirt to dress form in all layers.     Bonus: You feel like you accomplished more and your eyes don't pop out at the same time! 

Step 21: be so busy sewing sequins that you don't have time to photograph it...  More pics will be posted with Part 2 so stay tuned... Up next - more sequins... sewing the corset together, embroidering the corset, cutting and putting together the shawl - then dying it, making straps for the gown, putting the whole gown together, adding flowers to the straps, making the headband, and embellishing everything with the ribbons...

Yeah there is a lot to do!