2013 in Review + 2014 Costume Plans

This year I've made three costumes and learned so much about costuming. With each costume I learn so many new things. No matter what happens, even if the costumes don't turn out right, I still learn a lot and I learn more skills to put into my next project.

I thought it would be fun to do a post with the costumes I've made this year and also post the costumes I hope to make next year. I've seen other costume bloggers do this, and I think it's a really good idea. To get things started, here's the costumes I made this year.

 For May the Fourth I made Aunt Beru's outfit from Star Wars Attack of the Clones. Although this costume isn't perfect, I've learned a lot from it. Someday I would like to re make this costume in more accurate materials.

Then in the summer I (mostly) made Marion Ravenwoods costume from Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. I still have a lot of embroidery to do on this, which hopefully I'll be getting to soon. :)

Then I've started the mock up for Padme's Packing Gown from Star Wars Attack of the Clones. I've made good progress on it and can't wait to wear the finished dress!

Now that I've gone over the costumes I've made this year, I want to go over a few different costumes that I would like to make in 2014. Keep in mind that these are just costumes I would like to make. Who know's how many of them I actually will make next year.

Rapunzel from Tangled. I have wanted to make this dress since the movie came out, and I think I'm finally brave enough and have enough skill to actually make this dress. Maybe 2014 will be the year I do!

Anna from Disney's Frozen. When I saw the first piece of concept art Disney released, I knew I would have to make this dress.

Briar Rose from Sleeping Beauty. I originally planned on making this dress this year, but I ended up doing Marion instead. So maybe I'll finally get to it next year.

Some sort of Renaissance or Medieval costume. I've fallen in love with 14th and 15th century dresses and have to make something from this period sometime in the near future.

And now for the Star Wars costumes....

I would like to redo my Leia costume and make it way more accurate and actually finish it (like make the actual belt and do the hair properly).

And last, but not least, Mara Jade from the Star Wars EU books. I think it would be so fun to be Mara for an event or something because I really like her in the Star Wars books. Plus it would be fun to get to wear a orange/red haired wig. :)

These are just some idea's of costumes I love and will someday recreate. But like I already said, who know's what I'll actually end up making during the next year.

It's Christmas!

Merry Christmas everybody! I hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas like I am.

Packing Gown Mock up Progress

I made some major progress on my mock up for Padme's Packing Gown this week. I'm so excited to see it all coming together! I made the under vest mock up this last weekend and then I also have made some huge progress on the under skirt and and skirt mock up.

Here's some pictures of the under vest. I haven't gotten to the sleeves yet, as you can tell. It has three pieces of boning in the front and then there are a total of four pieces on the back. There isn't a lot of information of what goes under the costume, so I was left to come up with a lot by myself.

When I was looking at others costumes, I saw someone did a lace up back for the under vest. I decided that that would be the best way to do this, so I did. This was my first time using grommets and it went well. They're pretty easy to use. For the mock up I only used twelve (six on each side) but when I made the real one I want to put a few more on each side. I still don't know for sure how may I will do.

Right now the skirt is in two half's and is only pinned onto Mannie (my sewing form). It's harder to see in these pictures, but the skirt is very, very full. It's definitely screen accurate in fullness. I still need to work on the back though.

I also completely re-did the under skirt. I have four rows of ruffles which are about 6.5 inches wide. I have three rows of ruffles and on the bottom row there are two layers of ruffles.

I've started working on the bustle pad. I'm going for something like this one here, only not as big. The bustle on Padme's dress is very small.

Packing Gown Skirt Mock Up

I've been working on the skirt mock up for the packing gown for the last week or so now, and I've started to make some really good progress. I've been trying to figure out how to work the pleats and have gone through a lot of different types and trials.

This was my second attempt at getting the pleats right.

As you can see here it looks pretty good on the top, but the bottom half of the skirt isn't as full as it needs to be. So I took all of those pleats out and tried again but this time made them smaller.

This is what I have for the underskirt right now. The plan is to put ruffles along the whole under skirt, but for right now this is all I have and it's working for the time being.

Since my room is so small I have to spread everything out on my bed. Here's some of the reference photo's I've been using.

I recently bought "Dressing a Galaxy" by Trisha Biggar, and it's an amazing book! Unfortunately it only has two pictures of the packing gown in it. But I've still found it really helpful in making this costume so far.

For my next attempt at the skirt I needed more material so I found some old sheets and have been using that. I made the pleats smaller and that did help, but it still wasn't looking quite right. I needed the pleats to be even smaller, but I didn't know how to do that. I went and looked through my reference photo's to try and get an idea of what to try next.

I decided to test out an idea I had after I noticed in this picture that the skirt seemed to be sewn to the under bodice. It doesn't look like it's pleated at this part but instead just gathered and the waistband underneath seems to have the pleats pinned into place.

So I went back to my previous fabric to test it out and it worked! I gathered it and pinned it onto the sewing form before adding the waistband.

I guess you could call it a mock, mock waistband. It didn't look the nicest but it seemed to be working.

 I went back to the sheets and gathered it. The sheet's were approximately 2.5 yards long and that just barely made it around. So I think I'm going to have to add another yard to yard and a half because the back isn't as full as it should be.

Please excuse the mess. Like I said before, my room is small and everything goes onto my bed or floor when I'm sewing.

So that's pretty much where I'm at right now. I attempted to get the little bustle the skirt has by creating a bustle pad, but it ended up being too big and more like and 1870's skirt than Padme's packing gown. So I'm going to be trying some other methods next.

Padme's Packing Gown

I've wanted to make this costume forever but have always been intimidated by it because I want it to be perfect. I've seen so many recreations of this dress but I've never seen one with the right skirt silhouette. I've been studying this costume for around 2 years now and building up my knowledge of costuming. I've finally started to come up with some good idea's on how to get the correct silhouette.

The part I've been worrying about the most is the skirt. It has so full and uses a lot of material. I've been trying to figure out what sort of support is under the skirt. I was originally thinking of a small hoop skirt, but when you see her walking in it in the movie you can see that her legs move the fabric, so that eliminates that idea.

Also, I recently realized that her skirt has a slight bustle. And in the back there is a very small portion of the skirt that lays on the ground.


 I began to think of what Trisha Biggar must have used to create this and then I remembered that one of the reasons she was chosen to be costume designer of these films was because she had a background in historical clothing. I decided to try and think of what sort of historical dresses had a similar skirt shape and came up with 1830's through 1840's and for the bustle the 1870's and 80's of course.

I ended up finding this ruffle petticoat made for an 1830's-40's dress that I think would give a pretty close silhouette with a few modifications.


I've begun working on a mock up for both the skirt and the underskirt. I've been having to make them both simultaneously because I can't see if I'm getting the correct silhouette of the skirt without the underskirt and I can't see if the underskirt is giving the correct shape without the skirt.

I've been making progress though and I'll have some upcoming posts about what I'm doing.

More of Marion

I have some more pictures of my Marion costume I made a few months ago. I wore it for Halloween yesterday but I still haven't finished the embroidery for two reasons. 1. I haven't felt like doing embroidery since I finished what I have. 2. my fabric pen is out of ink and I haven't had a chance to buy a new one.

Anyways, here's the pictures.

 I bough these shoes from Famous Footwear this summer when they were on clearance. They look fantastic but they're a pain to wear!

I want to thank Janey from Atomic Redhead for sharing her embroidery pattern with me. Thank you so much!

And last but not least, me using my frying pan to block the rain.

Anna from Frozen

I've fallen in love with the costumes from Disney's next movie, Frozen. After seeing the newest trailer for the movie yesterday I decided I have to make Anna's snow dress! Actually, I'd like to make both of her's and Elsa's dresses eventually.

Here's some pictures of her costume. When I do make this costume, I won't be looking forward to the embroidery. I think I need to get an embroidery machine.

I'll be doing research for a while before I actually make the costume, and I want to see the movie first so I can see how the dress moves and can get an idea of what sort of fabric to use. So I guess the earliest I'll be getting started is the end of November.

American Duchess Giveaway!

American Duchess is giving away a pair of their new 1930's Oxfords! Click HERE to check it out!