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| While watching Episode III, I decided that I needed this dress. Little did I know I'd end up with a huge, hand embroidered project! The dress is made of silk georgette which I dyed myself. The cape is a slightly different color since I ran out of fabric. I ran out of time to embroider it and although I've always meant to, it's been a few years now so I'm not sure that will happen. If I ever do, I'll reverse the colors on the embroidery and use dark thread where I used light, and vice versa. The underdress, which is attached, is silk/cotton satin. I dyed it at the same time as the georgette. The gloves should be embroidered as well, but I just added a little beading for sparkle. The embroidery is done with rayon floss. I can't say enough good thing's about Maggie's site. Her Aqua Georgette page was invauluable! The fabrics are from Thai Silks, and I have to give a huge thanks to Tish, as she went to the store in person and shipped me some more georgette when the website was sold out :) |
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| I used the Laughing Moon chemise pattern as a base for the yoke. I then drafted the skirts myself. The back is plain since it's covered by the cape, and the skirts are all set smoothly, with the seams cut at angles to give it fullness. |
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| The embroidery. I drew the design on the fabric with a water erasable pen. I then outlined everything in backstitch, filled in the narrow spaces with spaced backstitches and filled in the larger spaces with little tiny stitches. Some smaller parts were sewn with satin stitch. I split the thread into one thread, which was smaller than it was meant to be thread, but it worked very well. |
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| The embroidery is mostly done here. I just need to do the buttonhole stitch around the neckline. |
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| To finish the neckline, I basted the fabric to the lining and buttonhole stitched the two layers together. |
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| The lined embroidery from the back. |
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| Everything very carefully cut out. On the right, you can see the drawing for the embroidery on the second half of the skirt. |
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| The underdress. I needed to piece it because the fabric wasn't wide enough. |
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| The bodice pattern and the shape of the cape. |
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| The sketches for the embroidery. It took a long time, as drawing is not my strong suit, but with good pictures and a little patience, I got a design I was very happy with. I later enlarged the design and drew it directly onto my pattern. |
My Costumes
