Silver Star

Navigation

Home Cosplay Featured Photography Tips/Tutorials Links Me Guestbook

Cosplay

Padme Amidala, Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

Worn At - None
Difficulty - 4/5
Time Taken - 4 weeks
Cost - Ł120GBP
Hardest Task - Gradient Dying, hair style
Easiest Task - Dress
Costume Status - Active

Favourite Aspect - My dress. I adore my dress. This has been the first time since Amano Aerith I had the chance to go all out on making something pretty and elegant and just for me. The dress turned out better than I ever could have hoped from the material choices to the cut and the dying. The way it moves and feels is lovely. I completely love this dress and for me it shows I've come quite a long way since I started cosplaying.

Least Favourite - Lack of hair style. - WAIL. I wish I had more hair so I could acheive an exact replica of her hair style. But I don't. I suck in that respect. I didn't have time originally to find myself a wig to style.

Why? - I have loved this dress since the first time I saw Episode II: Attack of the Clones. I adore everything about it. The colours, the way it falls. I love how its demure and seductive all the at the same time. Its a work of beauty and I've always wanted to try and recreate it.I had uhmm'd and ahh'd about the Grand Cosplay Ball for some time, and then after watching some videos on Youtube decided it might be fun to go. I didn't really have anything suitable to wear. So I decided this would be a perfect time to give this a try. And this will be an attempt. I will remake the dress once its been completed and worn cause it will be a bit of a rush job. Anyway I will make this for the ball, and then either remake or improve on it!

Construction Notes

So... when I decided to make this costume I started by doing some major research on the costume itself and on other cosplayers who had made it. Padawansguide.com became my bible while making this. A day didn't pass where I was sitting at my desk at work reading and re-reading the making ofs written by other fans. I swear I could probably recite some of them now!

I started by ordering a pattern that was suggested on Padawan's Guide. Its been discontinued but I found someone selling it on ebay. Sadly they had accidently listed the sizes incorrectly, so didn't have it in my size. I freaked a little but then reverted and spent about an hour in fabricland scouring the pattern books for something suitable. Something I could edit. Eventually I settled on a McCalls 'Evening Elegance' pattern M5136 which looks like some kind of dress a dancer would wear. One of the designs was a halterneck with criss-cross straps on the back. So I decided I could easily adjust that one.

I made the top first using t-shirting fabric because I was going to have a jersey base layer so I wasn't totally naked under several layers of chiffon, this changed after I did some more research on material. I ended up using the t-shirting fabric as a stencil for the top segment of the dress, so there weren't any seams running up the front. It was just one big piece of material. I made the first layer of the dress with lemon chiffon. That was six metres of fabric in one layer.

I went back to fabricland and bought more chiffon, and look into other material for the dress. I found some gorgeous georgette, which was a ’nude’ shade that I decided to use instead of jersey because it had the same float and drape as the chiffon and wasn't as stiff as the jersey. And in addition, it wasn't see through so I wouldn't be totally naked. I ended up making the base dress out of the georgette and another layer of the chiffon for a top dress. That was 18 metres in total in the dress itself.

The top layer of the dress was the layer that I dyed and I deliberated over how to achieve the gradient. I first thought of dip dying it, but chiffon is a synthetic material and doesn't take dye very well because of this. Then I was reminded of a technique my friend Laura suggested using watered down fabric paint. I bought a couple of spray bottles that you'd use to water house plants and did a test piece on some scrap chiffon before contemplating the dress. The test piece worked really well, so I darkened the blue paint a bit (originally it was a sea blue, I darkened it with some navy blue dylon fabric paint) and sprayed that first, then directly over the dark blue and above it to get the descending gradient from yellow, to pink to blue.

I replicated this pattern for the sleeves also, which are 2 metres of chiffon, folded over and then hemmed up each side to leave room for my arm to go through. There is elastic at one end to hold the sleeves up without cutting off my blood supply (mistake I made when I made my Rydia sleeves). The base of the sleeves is sewn to the inside back of the dress. I still have a surprising amount to movement and reach with my arms. Even with the sleeves in place.

The shoes I used were a pair of silver ballet pumps which needed a decorative bow cut off the front. The shoes Padme wears in the film are silver kitten heels, but because you only see them for 5 seconds and I only had a short period of time to bring the whole costume together I settled with silver shoes I could find.

The last part of the costume was the necklace/neck piece which I constructed in one night. I made five stencils in the correct shape and then cut them in buckram, I then cut the pieces again in craft foam and glued the pieces to each other. Once the individual pieces were glued and set; they were then all glued in order. Once done, one layer of acrylic paint was painted on and then I added a leather chord with a chain on it so it would stay around my neck.

Because the front of the dress is a little wider than the necklace itself, I glued on some bobby pins to hook around the material to bring it behind the necklace and keep it there.

Her insane conch style hair is something I’m still working on, so for the ball I just had my hair in a bun.

Photographs

Taken by Zoe Richmond-Smith

Taken by GunstarVixen

Contact

E Mail LiveJournal DeviantArt Cosplay Island Cosplay.com Flickr

Site by Silver. All costumes made by Silver unless stated otherwise.