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Padme -> Pastel Lake Gown -> Making Of

Making Of

About the Costume & Construction Details

From SWFFAQ: "According to Trisha Biggar, George Lucas wanted a dress that "wasn't there" for PadmŽ and Anakin's first kiss. Dermot Power stated that they were going for a dress that looked as if it would fall off if one sneezed. They accomplished both with this diaphanous gown based loosely on airy ancient Egyptian designs. Made of bias-cut silk chiffon and sand-washed silk satin, the gown was ombrŽ dyed dyed to create the striking rainbow effect. It starts as smoky lilac at the hem, and then moves through pinks and oranges until it reaches a pale yellow at the neck. The overdress is gathered at the hem, front and back by clasps made of vintage-beaded tassels and mother-of-pearl. Shell was also used for the collar and arm cuffs, which were created from hand-cut abalone shell pieces."

"Dermot Power, who designed this costume, originally created an Egyptian-inspired hair style to match the gown. That design, however, was replaced by Iain McCaig's conch shell-inspired hairstyle. The seven graduated bands of the headdress were made from lilac-tinted Flexicast that was inset with pearls for a finishing touch."

And from our own observations:

The Pastel Lake gown appears to be an ombre-dyed silk satin halter top undergown. There is a strap that goes around the neck that snaps in the back. The dress drops very low in the back. The gown is covered with a drape of ombre-dyed silk chiffon which is gathered a the knees with a flowered, beaded ornament. At the arms it is draped over the lower arm, ruched, or gathered, and attached to a ruched detached sleeve. An armband around the upper arm holds it in place. The chiffon drapes over the arm and into a train. At the lower back, the chiffon is gathered and tacked into place with another flowered, beaded ornament. The chiffon is edged with what looks like wide satin ribbon, like a baby blanket would be. A necklace that looks to be either shell, or made like stained glass is worn over the neck. The necklace fastens with two chains.

Sarah wrote in about the Lake dress the other day, saying, "I was looking at some of the NY fashion show pictures that Benae_Quee submitted on your web site. After examining them I noticed that the Ombre rainbow dress looks like the under gown doesn't really have a sheer overlay. It almost looks like the silk/ or satin undergown was dyed. What also lead me to believe this is that if you look closely at the bottom of the dress, you can see underneath the skirt and it looks like it's been dyed as well. I always thought that the under dress remaind white and that the sheer overlays got dyed. But it doesn't really look that way in the NY pics. You can definetly tell that the wings are chiffon, but it doesn't look like the dress is. Maybe I'm just seeing it incorrectly, but tell me what you think.

I looked at Benae_Quee's Fashion show pics again and I think Sarah is absolutely right! It really does look as if the underdress is dyed and without an overlay. Look at the pic at left for example!

From Kris' pics we can also get the best look we've had at whatever is holding the front of the gown gathered together, and what is pinning it up in the back. From the pics, the front piece appears to have 3 flowers that look like they are made of round disks of some sort. Whether they are mother of pearl disks or simply large round sequins, I don't know. I'll call them sequins. The large round sequins are sewn such that they make up a around flower shape - looks like about 8-9 sequins per flower. At the center of each flower is a pearl. If you look on the side, there seem to be 2 single sequins attached on either side of the flowers to what appears to be 1/2" elastic. From the front of the flowers drops anywhere from 13-15 (hard to count!) strings of clear beeds - my guess is seed beads - but it could bugles. I can't tell.

In the back, where the drape is tacked to the lower back section of the dress, there are possibly 2 more of these flowers (can't tell exactly how many), which more strings of clear beads hanging down.

General Hints

Check out the forum on theforce.net for costuming advice.

Christine's Tutorial

Kimberly's Tutorial

Ferd's Tutorial

Leanna's Making of Advice

Patterns

The best patterns for this are McCalls 3933 (discontinued but may be still available on the secondary market). Another pattern is McCalls 3222, also discontinued. To find a discontinued pattern, you can look on ebay for that pattern. A lot of time people sell patterns on ebay. You can also go to Yahoo and search for Discontinued Patterns--there are some companies that stock "unavailable" patterns and you should be able to order them online. Also, if you go the the McCalls website you can email them, or get their 800 # and contact them directly to see if they have backstock and they can sell it to you direct.

Sierra Maria Laura suggested altering McCall's 3057 for this gown.

Dyeing

See Ferd's Tutorial for some dyeing tips.

Laura sent in a dyeing suggestion:

"I started with a pale yellow chiffon, and then went in with the rose RIT dye, followed by the purple. However, the colors didn't take like I wanted them too. So, I had a sample of white chiffon with me, and went ahead and did the rose and purple on it. The result, when layered over the pale yellow chiffon, was great! I sent a picture, and I hope this helps some people who are having trouble with the color fading. I simply dipped the yellow chiffon into the pink, waited fifteen mintues, and then into the purple for 30 minutes. The purple didn't take very well, which is why I tried dying with the white."

She also sent in an update:

I just finished dying the fabric for this dress. Finally. It was hard-my dad and I got into several fights about if it was too dark or not. But, the colors I got were amazing, and would love to share what helped me out the most.

First, I discovered a wonder-fabric. Nylon chiffon. it has a slightly waxy feel and stretchs a bit, but it drapes amazingly, and the best part is that it is not such a hard fabric to dye. In fact, it dyes a bit too easily! *laughs* I had to use bleach because I left one of the pieces in the yellow dye too long...

Anyway, using Ferd's measurement guidelines, I went and bought the amount of fabric in white. Then, dyed both with RIT dye in golden yellow. Be careful, because the dye takes really well. After they dried, my dad and I took them outside, carefully putting it up against the fence. Then, using a spraybottle filled with dyed, began spraying the dye where I wanted it, first in mauve, then in purple.

For some reason, purple, which was RIT, had a hard time taking, and since there was a lot of it, I ended up having to buy more. This time, I used liquid, which I recommend over the powder form when you can find it, and added water to that, then put that mixture into the spraybottle, which resulted in a super concentrated purple dye.

I don't have a picture yet of the dried fabric: my seamstress called yesterday, and my dress is done! *does the happy dance, because prom is in two weeks* but it isn't as dark as one would think. I hope this helps someone! The spraying, while a lot of work, is fun. Trust me.

Ami has another dyeing tip:

"I found this stuff called Tulip Cool Color Spray. I bought it in Lemon Yellow, Hot Pink, and Petunia Purple. It has a watercolor technique listed on the directions that works perfectly for dyeing the chiffon the correct colors for the costume. Plus, the stuff is easy to use because it comes in a spray bottle. It also works for dyeing polyester better than RIT or other fabric dyes, and since all the chiffon I can ever find is polyester, it was really helpful."

Thanks Ami!

Necklace and Armbands

Sintra is a good medium to make the necklace with. See Ferd's Tutorial for more info.

Nina's Necklace "How to".

Chase emailed me - he has made some Padme Lake dress casts - they look nice, and so I thought I'd post his info, as it might be useful for those of you looking to complete your costume!

Cast in urethane resin, incredibly durable, easy to paint and attach ribbon or chain to. Offered as a raw pull, minimal clean up or completely finished and painted. email chasegustafson at hotmail.com for questions and pricing information.

Hair

Christine has a tutorial at the bottom of those page here.

For the hairpieces, you can cover hairbands.

Stephanie's site has suggestions on how to do the hairstyle.

Part the first inch or so of your hair and pull the two sides forward out of the way. You won't be working with them until the very end. Wrap the rest of your hair around something (I used a rolled up washcloth). Twisting the hair a little helps. Pin it here and there where you can to hold it. When the washcloth is covered completely, twist the rest of the hair into a spiral, snail-like. Pin it under the washcloth, so that from the side it looks like a big snail shell. Now get a blue ribbon, and put it over your head like a headband. Cross the ends underneath and do the same thing again, further down on the washcloth. Keep doing this until you get to the end of the spiral part, then just tuck the ends of the ribbon up into the 'do. Pin the ribbon here and there if it won't stay. Now take those two part of hair in the front and bring them around loosely. You can use these to cover up places where the washcloth shows or the ribbon shows too much. Pin in place.

Disclaimer

All pictures, themes, and characters are copyright © Lucasfilm, Ltd. or their creators. All original work is protected by intellectual property laws. No copyright infringement is intended - copyrighted images are being used for costume study and research and is (hopefully) covered under the fair use clause of copyright law. Site design, graphics, and content is copyright © Maggie.

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