Ceremonial Leia WIP

CEGrant () · Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2014 1:51 pm Post subject: Ceremonial Leia WIP

Hello wonderful fellow costumers and thank you in advance for all the advice and guidance I'm sure I will receive.

After attending a number of events this past year with my husband in his recently approved Chewbacca, I decided to get involved as well. I considered all the Leia's and my mom and I (my mom's my seamstress) chose Ceremonial Leia.

I think the dress is so pretty, and my mom thought it was within her skill set. My poor mom had just finished sewing the mesh suit for my husband's Chewbacca as well. She's awesome.

She ordered a couple of patterns as recommends in tutorials, and off we went. So I'll start by posting pics of the work along the way, then some pics of where we are now and some questions we have about a few details.

Thanks for reading this!

CEGrant () · Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2014 2:08 pm Post subject: So it begins

We started with these two patterns.

One for the bodice:

And one for the rest:

My mom started by tracing onto pattern paper so she would have to cut the original patterns. She made a muslin mock up of the bodice.

Interestingly, due to changes in clothe sizes over the years (the patterns are from the 70s), I'm between a 14 and 16 in that pattern. Thanks for the confidence boost, 1970s women! Rolling Eyes

CEGrant ()

I will state now that I am no seamstress. I know zero about sewing. So I'm not including much information on the construction details. I'll have my mom make an account and get in here so she can participate in this thread as well.

She has a few questions she's hoping some experts here can weigh in on. I've put the questions in bold type in the text below.

So anyway, some mysterious stuff went on in my mother's house. And suddenly this happened!

She was ready to do another fitting.

First we tried on the bodice, this is ONLY the lining layer. The proposed neck line is the dotted blue line. Does that look right?

This is a close up of the unhemmed shoulder strap. We're wondering what advice judges/costumers have about the finished width of the shoulder strap.

She pinned on the pattern for the wing. This is NOT the actual fabric, just a mock-up. It's much stiffer than the final overlay fabric. She wanted to check length, and she's also hoping someone can comment on the front of the wing, specifically how the steeply the front edge of fabric should curve towards the floor.

She then pinned the skirt on. The skirt is already done in all three layers, she was mainly checking fit across the waist and length.

The question here...on the back view how does the location of the horizontal seam between the bodice and skirt look? Is it located correctly?

Thank you so much in advance for taking the time to look and this and post feedback. This is an awesome place!

SongofAmazon (Jenna) · Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2014 2:12 am Post subject:

You're off to a great start! I really do love this costume, and your fit looks great so far.

Your neckline looks like its in a great place. You should have just a hint of cleavage. We don't have many back shots of the costume, but where you have your back horizontal seam looks like a good place for it. I'll keep looking though.

For the sleeve questions, this page is one of the most informative pages I have see. Kathy also has some very helpful notes here.

I hope those help! I look forward to seeing your progress! Mr. Green

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CEGrant () · Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2014 5:34 am Post subject:

Thank you sooooo much for the feedback!

CEGrant () · Posted: Tue Dec 23, 2014 3:08 pm Post subject:

I've ordered the necklace:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/95654801/star-wars-princess-leia-ceremonial?ref=sr_gallery_5&ga_search_query=leia+necklace&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

And the bracelet:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lifesize-Princess-Leia-Bracelet-ANH-Star-Wars-Fan-made-ceremonial-prop-/321075281680?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4ac193ff10

CEGrant () · Posted: Sun Dec 28, 2014 3:11 pm Post subject:

It continues. Smile

Wings are on.

CEGrant () · Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2015 4:22 pm Post subject:

Approaching the end!

The belt of course is a stand in, I have the appropriate one on order. Mostly it's the tacking of the wings, interior bust hem, and outer trimming hemming that need to be done.

I'll be sending it to a seamstress for the final hemming. Any feedback before I do?

Thanks in advance. I'm super excited to be nearing the end of this. Smile

I'll be ordering the hair this weekend.

Blue (Beth) · Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2015 7:59 pm Post subject:

Very well done!

CEGrant () · Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2015 1:11 pm Post subject:

The dress made it to the seamstress and she'll start working on it this weekend.

My necklace, bracelet and shoes have arrived. I picked up my brown contact lenses yesterday, and the fake hair extensions will arrive Monday.

I'm so geeked to be in the home stretch of this! I'm considering making a medal of Yavin, because my husband has a Chewbacca and we'd love to right some historical wrongs. Wink

Lora Skywalker () · Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 4:51 pm Post subject:

Hiya. I've made this dress myself (three times) so thought I'd offer some of my experience and the things I learned making this. Smile

First off, you asked about the bottom of the sleeves. On the front it should start at knee level and then curve down to the back around angle height. I didn't really curve my edge, and afterwards I learned I should have.

Second I have to ask: Is the seamstress going to make the train? The dress have a short train at the back. It can't be seen in many reference pictures, but it's there. I made mine 40 cm in length. Only the overdress trails behind you.

And lastly I'm curious as to what fabric you are using. Smile

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CEGrant () · Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 7:51 pm Post subject:

Yes, the train is optional but I opted to go with a small train of the overlay fabric as specified in the guidelines. I'm a little concerned with how this will hold up during troops but I guess time will tell. Smile

As far as the fabric goes, I'll have to get back to you on that one. My mom has that information and she's on a cruise and won't be back till the 24th. But I will get that info as soon as possible!

This is a picture of the roughly trimmed wings before final hemming. We left a fair amount of fabric for the hem, since the overlay fabric is difficult to work with. I sent a bunch of photos like this to the seamstress so she could see how it fell on me.

By the way, when I say the overlay fabric is "difficult to work with" I'm paraphrasing. My mom's actual language on the subject was far more lengthy, vehement and colorful.

Lora Skywalker () · Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 8:26 pm Post subject:

Hahaha! Sounds like me then when doing this dress. Laughing

I used chiffon and before I was even close to being done I made a wow never to work with that stuff again. It's hell to work with, but it looks good. Rolling Eyes

This is what mine ended up looking like. The sleeves are a little short, but I don't want to redo those sleeve, because: chiffon!

I hope that maybe it can help you seeing what mine looks like and avoid the same problem with the sleeves as I have. Good luck.
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CEGrant () · Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 8:37 pm Post subject:

Yes thank you, I always appreciate advice. And after seeing your photos...where did you get your bracelet? I bought a rather lousy one made from sculpy on eBay and I hate it but I'm having trouble finding a better one.

Lora Skywalker () · Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2015 9:23 pm Post subject:

Found it on a marked, actually. Lucky find. It's the right size, but doesn't have the pattern of the original. Some day I might look into either making a better replica or buying the real thing.
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