Here are some tips to aid you in your costume creation. These suggestions are from fellow Amidala fans!!!
I made both of the costumes in your costume section as of Tues. Oct. 12.
Must haves for Amidala costume making or otherwise:
--Large Low melt glue gun, #1 because you cant live without it. get PLENTY of
glue sticks, like 5 bags or so. i use my gun everyday.
the trick when working with your gluegun is how to shape it without it
burning you or sticking to your skin. WET YOUR FINGERS. you can mold and
shape and dry your glue by having wet fingers.
--rigid wrap!! . you can get this at an artstore near the clay section or here-
Activa Products for art
and craft supplies you need to buy alot of it, trust me it costs less
online. here is another link in case that one dies- Crafts,
Etc! Catalog
--you need activ-wire mesh, for some reason activa makes it but doesnt have it
on their webpage it must be new. you have to try at an artstore.
--i make my dresses out of velvet, heavier the better, try couch cover stuff.
you can find it at a low cost.
for my black dress i used that $6 a yard velvet that is kind stretchy. i had
to sew it a LOT before cutting it.
--you need a ball. go to a grocery store or wal-mart that has those funky huge
baskets with balls in them. get a smaller one or the size you are making
those egg shaped things.
--get some gold leafing, you dont need the whole thing with the little paint
jars and stuff. jut the leafing paper is fine. get 2 in case you need more.
ok what you do:
make a pattern for the dress, try to figure out how it will go. if you are
doing a costume for next year, the patterns will be out.
use the rigid wrap on the ball and do not cover the whole thing. just like
half of it is good for the first time. make it kinda thick on the ball so
that you cant see through the mesh, like 3-4 layers thick. let it dry for
like 10 min or so, or until it is hard to the touch but not dry. take it off
the ball and bend it a little like you are trying to squish it but dont bend
it all the way. then stick it in the microwave for 3 minutes. that will dry
it the rest of the way. I LOVE THIS STUFF!!! keep messing with it until you
figure out the right size.
you can use the wire mesh to make the headpiece for the red dress. use it
for the part the hair goes on.
here is how you make that one:
use the rigid wrap on your own head and make a helmet type thing, you have to
use the rigid wrap otherwise it wont be strong enough. make sure you use some
vaseline and make your hair really wet and pull it back so that the headpiece
will be kinda tight.
make it almost to cover your head and kinda low on your forehead to cut out
the red jewel.
get some fake hair from a beauty supply place that sells wigs and hair for
braiding. find silky hair, the silkier the better. not that stuff that looks
frizzy, it doesnt look that good. buy about 4 of those. you have to wrap the
wire with the hair before you glue it to your head piece. after you glue it
on, use the rigid wrap and make the rest of it by following pictures from
this site. if you need to make that doorknob thing on the top get a wooden
egg. they are at an artstore in the woodworking isle. there are lots of
shapes near the floor in bins. you should make the rest of the top with your
gluegun and shaping.
To make the other headdress you have to do a wire mesh shape of how the
feathers go. and also make a helmet type thing by bending the wire on your
head to fit, then cutting it and bending it to make it so you dont have any
unfinished edges, double the wire to make it strong. glue the feather part
to the helmet type thing. get some feather dusters and tear them apart, i
used three but i had some other feathers. you need to get 4. the other part
is just a hood with a hole cut in it. i put the helmet type thing through the
hole and then glued the cloth around the feathers. you might need to do this
a few times to get it to look right.
if you need to make something look good, like the filigree ear coverings on
the headdress use the gold leafing. take your gluegun and put some glue on it
and then take your gold leafing and press down. the glue should dry pretty
quickly and you can pull the leafing paper off. and boom! it looks like you
dipped it in gold. and it didnt take you 3 hours. (the whole system takes
about 3 hours for leafing). you can glue those egg shaped things onto the
headpiece. after that you should cut the fabric out so that when you wear it
you dont have as much trouble hearing.
make-up
when you do makeup for anything make sure if there is any color in "real"
make-up, dont buy the grease stuff. like if you do a vampire or something and
want a white face, find a white coverstick by lore`al or something. dont get
that yucky halloween stuff. so with amidala you need:
--white coverstick
--light color cover-up
--a red lipliner(color of lips and dots) try making this darker. it looks better
and only use lipliner, no lipstick, it wears off.
--black eyeliner (use only a little of this)
--mascara
you need to use a very soft sponge to apply the face color. make sure your
lipliner is sharp for doing the dots on the cheeks.
even though it doesnt look like she is wearing eye make-up, she is.
a little eyeliner smeared at the sides of the eyes lightly, looks good.
You asked for tips - Use all the reference material you can find. I made
the red gown with the lights. I watched the preview and downloaded pictures
from the internet, I bought all the dolls and looked at their construction,
I also gathered all printed materials available before the movie was
released. I was able to wear my dress to the opening. There were pictures
in the paper and also I was on the news on two network television shows. I
used iron on gold embroidered motifs to do the front panel, they do not
match perfectly, however they are close. I did not use velvet, although I
understand others have done so. As far as I can tell from my sources the
material is a heavy silk, not a velvet for the Theed Throne Room gown.
Patience is a virtue also. I use hair from Revlon which is available in
hanks up to 5 feet ling for $1.00 in my area. I vacuum formed the bubbles
for the lights from a carved plaster master that my husband (who is an
artist) made for me. In general, I would suggest that people pay attention
to where the seams are, and how the original is put together. Unfortunately
the scanner at school is out, and I can't scan a picture to send you. I am
also working on a replica of the white dress (which is not white) at the
end. For a childrens version I am substituting large 10" ruffles graduating
smaller toward the neckline instead of ruffles. This will hold up better
during trick or treat.
What works really well for the white face paint is "cake make-up" I found
mine at a costume shop (not one of those cheap ones that sells only rayon
costumes) It is a dry powder, and it is applied with a damp sponge, it won't
come off unless you scrub with soap (it's not exactly water proof, but more
so that regular make-up)
[Thanks to Julia for the following:]
I'm working on her kimono like costume she
wears
before she addresses the senate. My hints for this are:
Use heavy weight material. Grey/purple irridesant tafetta can be found
in the
formal or bridal section of many fabric stores. I ended up using
$2.99/yd cheapo
grey material suitable for upholstery because the weight of it adds
enough body to
keep those darn sleeves penguiny. If you can only find light weight
material, use
fusbile interfacing (which you iron onto the wrong side of the fabric)
to stiffen
the sleeves slightly.
I'm modifying a vogue pattern which was for a kimono style jacket. You
could also
use Siimplicity 8772 (click here) or any
similar pattern.
You want to extend the front and back pieces another foot or so to reach
the floor.
Measure yourself to see how much longer. I folded the sleeve pattern
piece in half lengthwise. Then I put it on scrap fabric and drew big
half arcs along the straight edge. I tested till one worked.
The headdress is a killer. I took a styrofoam head and padded it so it
was the side of my head. Then, I covered it with tin foil. I used a
mask making kit which had "plaster impregnanted gauze". You cut off
strips, get them wet, and smoosh them all over the head form. Use
several layers. You can also use plastic canvas (you can find it at a
craft shop in the needle point section probably), wet it, mold it to the
form. When dry, use diluted glue to affix white fabric (pref. shiny) to
the form. Line the inside and outside. It should fit to your head
fairly tightly. Use scissors to trim the form to shape. You may want
to hot glue little hair combs to the inside the headdress, to anchor it
better. Then, get out a hot glue gun or a buncha quick drying glue.
Use it to attach a mix of white silk cord, white ribbon trims, and nylon
string in cool patterns all over. You could also hack up an old bridal
gown from a thrift shop. Use more cord/ribbon/string to make the
hanging down filaments. Attach clear plastic beads to the dangly bits
at random intervals.
I'm still flailing on the gold thingies on the side of her head. I
think papermache forms, or possibly those plastic easter egg form
things. Also, styrofoam gircles, cut apart and covered with something
to smooth them out could work.
I have one more addition, for the white face you can buy
"goth white" white face makeup from Manic Panic (found in freaky stores
everywhere), or use white waterbased stage makeup (Ben Nye is great). You
apply it wet, and it dries to a powdery finish. Best of all, it washes
off with water.
[Thanks to Pamela for these tips for the Senate gown]
The headdress was made with hangers covered in foam, shaped by wrapping string around them, then covering it with the legs of some old black tights. I attached it to a cap, made of leather and hangers shaped so that it would cross over the top of my head, with some wire. Then I hot glued some wig hair all around the cap and styled it so that it looked like it was my own hair swept up to the base of the crescents [also to hide the hangers]. I glued aluminum foil to the leather and worked it around parts of the hair so that it looked like it was actually holding the whole thing up. I painted the foil gold but the color didn't come out very shiny [ugh!]. The back is held together with a sort of a hook and eye closure and black ribbon so I could keep it tight on my head. I made sure it was all hidden with the hair. None of my own hair shows when I wear this. I wear a wig cap I made with my old black tights.
The waist band part of it holds really nice around the head! I wrapped and hot glued hair around the crescents and glued some elaborate trim I've had for years as the bands, glued cut brass sheets for the middle and tips and used plastic wedding bells [painted gold] for the middle pointy thing and for the ends of the tubes. The tubes are paper towel cardboard tubes. I finished the edges of the cap and tubes with some goldish colored rope.
The dress was easy, though I never finished the second layer [the red pleated part]. The under layer is made of old goldish/amber velvet drapery I found at a thrift shop. I made a very fitted mandarin collared long jacket that zipped up the front. You can find patterns all over. I used a pattern I had modified a long time ago and I can't remember what the original pattern was. I think it might have been Butterick.
The outer coat was made of this red with tiny black stripes, knit fabric and gold, kind of stiff chiffon for the sleeve edges and front opening [thrift shop]. I didn't want the outfit to be too heavy and I liked how the stripes sort of played tricks on the eyes. The half circle in front was made of some scrap cotton velvet. The trim off an old table cloth. I just folded the fabric over and cut a big "T" with good sized sleeves [25 inches on the fold], cut open the front opening, sewed the sides and attached the gold chiffon.
The whole "embossed rosettes" were done [working from the inside on a flat surface like the floor] by using the eraser end of a pencil and twisting the fabric, pull the pencil out carefully, holding the twisted part down, hot glue, then slap a piece of scrap cloth and hold it down! The effect was great, especially with how the stripes looked all distorted in the swirl! I have a vague recollection of learning this in kindergarden. With all the work I put into the headdress, funny thing is; I was most excited about the "rosette swirlies"
All weekend people would come up to me oohing and aahhing over the headdress and my impulse was to say "But what about the SWIRLIES!!!". Anyway, it was a good week end. I got a lot a attention and compliments and pictures taken.
[Thanks to Kay for these tips on the parade costume!]
I used McCalls 8952 pattern for the basic dress and cape (girl's sizes 14-16). I made a template for a small / medium / large flower petal out of pattern tracing material, used chiffon fabric and tricot fabric in pinks and beiges. Before I cut the fabric, I sprayed it with heavy-duty starch, let it dry, sprayed again, let it dry, repeated this step about 4-5 times to stiffen the otherwise very soft fabric. I would then fold the fabric enough so I could use a template or two, side-by-side (if there was enough room on the fabric) and cut the fabric with a rotary cutter on a rotary cutting mat. It's easier this way because it gives a much smoother edge to the flower petals instead of a choppy edge from using scissors, and this way, with the fabric folded several times, you can cut about 6 or more layers of fabric at a time, making more flower petals in less time. And of course, I didn't keep track of how much yardage I used for the flower petals, but I'll guess around 15-20. I used a narrow
lace seam binding (found in packets at your local fabric store) and I machine sewed each flower petal side by side in a row on the seam binding. I then sewed the strips of petals onto the cape in rows, starting at the bottom of the cape, then another row about 4-6" above the first row, and starting the next row the same, and the rows get narrower the closer you get to the neckline. The larger petals are used on the bottom of the cape, the medium petals in the middle of the cape, the smaller petals on the shoulder area of the cape. I did sew on a few petals by hand to mix it up a bit so the rows didn't look so neat and consistent. On the back seam of the cape, I left about 4" of seem free from the top of the neck line to allow for the shoulder frame / backpiece. After I finished the cape, I worked on the backpiece. This was made out of 16-gauge wire, shaped with needle nose pliers. There were 20 'spokes' made from this wire, a large circle for the frame, and a smaller circle for the
inside of the frame to hold the spokes. I created "Curly Q's" on one tip of each spoke to show on the outer part of the backpiece circular frame, and created a circular hook to attach to the smaller ring for the inner ring. Once the spokes were attached to the small ring, I slide them onto the larger ring of metal (the backpiece) and I spread the spokes equally spaced, wrapped sticky flexible floral tape to secure them in place, wired together the raw ends of the circular frame with flexible thin
wire and floral tape. I then cut 2 pieces of chiffon (though any sheer fabric will do if well starched) I placed one piece of chiffon on the table, gently placed the circular backpiece on the piece of chiffon, sprayed with 3M spray adhesive, and gently placed the other piece of chiffon over that, sandwiching the wire frame in between the 2 pieces of chiffon. The spray adhesive is tricky, so you might want to take the top layer of chiffon and fold it in quarters or in half first, the smooth it gently over the frame to stick to the bottom piece of chiffon and the frame itself.
After the spray adhesive was dry, I hand-sewed the raw edges of fabric, overlapping the edges, then hand sewing. This was a bit time-consuming, but made for a nicely done edge, smooth. I then held a bottle of silver glitter paint (with a fine tip) and made those Curly-Q designs along each spoke on the fabric (just like on Queen Amidalas's backpiece), and let dry overnight. Now..to hold up the back piece..this was a challenge!!! I had to design a harness frame to go over the shoulders, so I made this out of 16-gauge wire too, but I made it a wide frame and 'doubled up' the wire, that is, instead of using a single row of wire, I made a double row of wire so it was a wide
frame that fit over the shoulders well, went in back of the base of the neck, down to the middle of the back. I padded this with scraps of tricot I had left over, and fitted this to my daughter's shoulders for a comfy fit. I had a double wide piece of wire extending in a big loop in the back of the harness/frame to hold the backpiece, and I laid the backpiece down on the table, hot glue 'tacked' the backpiece to the loop of heavy wire, let cool, and thread tacked the wire onto the backpiece with silver thread
just for stabilization. I then put the harness / frame on the dressmaker's form with the backpiece attached, put the cape over it, hand sewed the top neck edge of the cape to the top of the frame (remember, the frame has a tricot wrap for comfort), then to stablize the back piece, I made little slits in the cape and ran 6-gauge wire from the harness/frame to the outer edge of the backpiece, one piece of wire on each side. (when the hard wind hit it..it still flopped around a bit, but in the movie, Queen
Amidala's did too..so I didn't feel so bad!) The front of the dress I had to design myself. I don't know what to call that long piece of fabric that hangs down, but I designed it by using a wide part of a bowl for the top part, and designing it to graduate to a wide width to the bottom, ending in a point. I used graph paper to draw the designs, transferred the design with tracing paper, and hand painted the designs in metallic gold fabric paint. I attached the long piece of fabric at the neck by hand sewing it at the top part and hand sewing it near the middle part to secure it in
place. All these directions in text may not mean much to anyone, and some day I may actually draw the diagrams!! This was not an easy project, but I loved every minute of it! For the beaded forehead jewelry, I just looked at a picture of Queen Amidala, and counted the rows of beads, and it was a trial and error project that took only 3 tries and about 2 hours to do. I've done beadwork before, so this was an easy task. For the hair, I just sectioned it off in one small top ponytail and 4 side ponytails in equal sections. To get that "roll" effect on the hair, I just
looped each ponytail around my finger, used clear rubberbands to secure the loop, 'fanned' out the loop a bit with my fingers, sprayed with heavy hair spray. I started at the bottom and worked my way up to the top part of the head. I smoothed down the remaining 'tail' of the top ponytail / loop, brought the top side ponytail 'tails' together and secured those with a rubberband, pulled the bottom side ponytail 'tails'
together, secured those with a rubberband, and at the very bottom, there was the remaining tail of the top ponytail loop, and the remaiing tail of the other ponytails I secured together. Those were combed together and folded under and secured into a loop with clear elastic like the otherse were. The makeup is white coverstick by Mabelline and white eyeshadow by Maybelline, both applied with a makeup sponge. I used red lipliner for the lips and dots on the cheeks. By the way, I took my daughter to see the Star Wars - Phantom Menace movie today when she was in full costume. It was her 2nd time seeing the movie and my first. She caught lots of great attention and tons of compliments everywhere we went!
[Thanks to David G. for these tips on the Sentate gown!]
I got a Kimono robe pattern from McCalls,
I used burgundy velour and I wanted to trim the robe with gold velour but
had no such luck finding any. So, I found some wide gold X-mas ribbon
instead. That worked out nicely. So HOW DID I DO THAT HEADPIECE? everyone's
going to ask. Well the tassels were paper towel rolls wrapped with some nice
iradescent red Xmas wrapping paper. I used smaller width gold ribbon to put
the squares on the red paper w/ hot glue. I bought some gold tassles to hang
from the bottom of the tubes. I was stumped about what to use for the actual
hair but I ended up using to rolls of brown yarn. It worked perfectly. I put
2 gold ribbon bands around parts of the yarn and used a coat hanger bent
into the shape of the headpiece and poked the hanger through the center of
the yarn. I glued the center of the whole hairpiece to one of those zig-zag
hair pullers girls put in their hair to pull the hair back. So once that was
done I just tied her hair back, put the headpiece in and pulled it back and
it stayed all night. We put some gold Xmas tree icicles strands on the
sides of her head with berretts for the tassels that hang from Queen
Amidala's face. Oh, and last we just used a long orange shirt for the gown
under the red gown.
[Thanks to Natasha for this costume tip:]
Tip. For the coustume Amidala wears when meeting Anikan:
I wore this for handing out candy halloween '99'. (I was grounded) Okay,
For the shirt, dark blue material, I think maybe cotton. use a long
sleeve shirt pattern and make the sleeves a little long. and for the
little gray thing that goes over the shirt, use cotton too. just make a
tunic sort of thing. This coustume is real simple. the belt, use the same
blue material. in the center, sew a big red button. wrist bindings, use
the gray cotton. Baggy black pants and if you font have big knee length
boots, not cowboy boots, make black bindings out of cloth and wrap it
around the leg, just under the knee, and wear comfotable black shoes.
[Thanks to Natasha for this costume tip:]
FOR PARADE CAPE, USE THIN CLOTH AND LIGHT BLUE, PINK AND WHITE TISSUE PAPER.
For the Parade Gown I'd Like to add: Her white dress is made of silk. I say you
should get a PLAIN, creamy white, sleeveless, evening dress, touching the ground. To make
that half circle thing in the back, get about 15 (In case you need more) 1ft. pieces of wire, or use
coat hanger. Stick the wires into a half an inch semi circle styrofoam ball. any size. then hot
glue it the back of the neckline. To attach the cape hot glue it around the neckline starting
around the shoulders. Make sure it covers that bit of styrofoam.