Packing Gown

PADME AMIDALA PACKING GOWN TUTORIAL WRITE UP

CONSTRUCTION TIME 4 MONTHS

Outfit Materials:
6 Metres of Grey/Blue Polyester Taffeta
1 metre Charcoal Grey cotton velvet
1 metre Sandwashed Silk Satin
Dylon cold dye grey
2 metres plastic sew-in "bone"
3 metres 1/4" ribbon for lacing and loops (same colour as the dyed sleeves)
1cm wide flat shank buttons (these will be covered, so colour is not important)
Reel of matching grey/blue thread
1" wide velcro
1/2 metre iron on interfacing

Motif materials
White seed beads (size 8)
Gold seed beads (size 8)
Turquoise beads (6mm)
Pearl beads (6mm)
Turquoise seed beads (size 11)
Dark grey embroidery thread
¼ metre Blue/grey wool mix material
Small amount of backing material
Long Dark grey shoelace
Large number of press studs
Gold Madeira metallic thread

Armbands
Craft aluminium
Embossing tools
Turquoise paint
Piano wire
Felt

Head piece
Craft aluminium
2" silver plated craft pins

skirt construction

A pattern was not used, I cut a long rectangle about 5 metres long, as I box pleated straight along one edge, and sewed this to fit a yoke, leaving an open gap at the centre back.

Sew velcro to both sides of the yolk back opening, and leave a gap long enough to pull over your hips. I didn't bother with a zip.

under vest

Inside picture of the skirt.
The material was 45" wide and as the material has to be doubled underneath to form a second layer, with no defining hem, I hand cut a piece of material to sew to the inside of the yolk, then attached the skirt material to it.

The vest was made using Butterick B4736 view C, leaving off the fancy trim and leaving an opening top to bottom at centre back. I also cut top to bottom at the centre front and re sewed it with a slight shape to pull it closer to the body.

I used iron on interfacing, then boned the seams with plastic boning.

I interlined using some spare material from another project using the same pattern, but leaving the front section as it is.

I sewed in a number of loops from some spare ribbon, this doesn't have to be grey, as this will not be seen.

This shows the lacing in place. I hand cut some "cap sleeves" ready for attaching the sleeves. It saved a lot of effort by lacing rather than getting it to fit exactly.

Front view of the finished vest.

For the sleeves I used sand washed silk satin as I had some spare from the lake dress, after dying it light grey. This material was chosen because it dyes very well.

I didn't have a pattern for the cuffs, so I made them myself, the dimensions are approximately 16cm high and 18cm wide at the wrist, this will obviously be different for you, but gives you an idea. A row of 8 loops were sewn in before attaching the cuffs to the sleeves. The sleeve pattern was New Look 6732 and cut to length just above the wrist to give it the volume, then attached it to the cuffs.

The high shaped piece on the cuff, needs to face the front with the loops facing towards the back. To cover the buttons, either cut a round of fabric and hand sew a gathering stitch around the edge and pull it tight over the shank button. Or use snap together buttons using the grey silk material.

Packing gown Velvet Jacket

I stitched two rows of shearing elastic, just tight enough to pull the material in, but not so tight as to cut off the circulation! then sewed the sleeves to the cap sleeve pieces.

This is a rough test piece of the outer vest, the finished item was shorter. For the outer vest I used New Look 6480 (corset) as this had the required amount of panels and cut down the centre front, but joined up the centre back, the front and rear panels were extended up to the shoulders and shaped in a curve at the front and rear, the front being cut lower. The two centre panels were cut by hand extra wide to allow for a turn over and also to allow for the motif at the top, a later picture shows this more clearly.

This picture shows how short the final vest will be. The whole vest is NOT boned.

This picture shows the shape needed for the top centre section. I didn't have a pattern for the collar so hand cut a piece as shown.

This picture shows the height of the stand up collar. I didn't put any stiffener in the collar, but you may wish to do this yourself. Because it was cotton velvet, the material was quite thick.

Front Mottiff

I used one of the motif pictures from the internet and blew it up to get a better idea of the detail. Obviously, I didn't have any antique lace for the background, so I chained stitched with grey thread instead.The material is a loosely woven blue/grey wool fabric and made it quite easy to embroidery onto. I outlined the contours of the "lace" with chain stitch and block chained to fill.

The edging is a shoe lace in two tones of grey and held on using loops of thread at 1cm intervals.

Using a piece of grey taffeta to finish the back and press studs to attach the motif to the outer vest.

Picture showing the press studs to close the vest and also to attach the motif.

Finished jacket.

THE ARM BANDS

I got a sheet of metal crafting aluminium and embossed 8 patterns.

Using a close up shot of the embossed pattern, I used this as my stencil on the aluminium. It just repeats every 4cms.

Turn in the edges around each strip, cut out strips of felt and glue to the back of all 8 strips.

I used turquoise enamel paint to
highlight the "balls" on the pattern.

Using a 1 litre plastic bottle, cut out from the straight section approximately 7cm

Cut out a piece of gray taffeta and turn over the edges and glue to the plastic.

Using lots of pegs, glue the strips to the plastic top and bottom, then you will glue the remaining two in between.

Glue on strips of velco at the edges.

This completes the arm bands.

PACKING GOWN WIG

This hairstyle at first looks a very frightening challenge, but after trial and error found that very simple shapes were needed and patience.
You will need a very long hair wig as the ear pieces need to be sewn on. I used a Lady Godiva wig in Dark Brown as I needed it to have a long fringe to brush back as well. You will also need some card board not too thin or flimsy, nearly 2mm thick is what I used, preferably light weight. You will also need some Dark Brown felt and some lightweight fleece padding
First of all it is wise to gently comb the hair to remove any knots and tangles, first part the hair into sections as shown in this photo.

Starting from the bottom, brush slowly up each section until hair is smooth all over.

Now comes the tricky part, you will need someone to hold the head/wig as you brush the hair backwards all over, do this very gradually bit by bit. Now to make your ponytail at the back of the head, you must pull it tight and fairly high up as in the next photo. What I then did is secure with a small rubber band, then folded some of the hair under to make a small bobble shape and then cut the rest of the hair off. It would be a good idea to keep the spare hair on one side for now, it may come in useful later. I then folded the hair under the pony secured with another small rubber band and moulded the shape of the bobble into place to make it look more like the one in the movie. I found that it was so helpful to have another pair of hands as the hair was so slippery. See picture below for finished "bobble".

Now we can start on the buns or ear pieces as I like to call them. First you will need that cardboard and cut out a shape like this:- the height is approximately 17cm the width is approximately 22cm at the bottom.

Eventually when the piece is folded it will look something like this:-

Cardboard piece, Brown felt and fleece padding. You need to cut out the padding to the same shape as the cardboard ear piece. You will also need to do the same with the felt. The felt though needs to be made 1cm bigger all the way round to allow for sewing together around the padded cardboard piece. Sew up the two sides of the felt first, turn the right way out, then insert the cardboard and fleece. Sew along the bottom and the centre opening.

This is what the "ears" will look like when they are sewn, do not sew them together yet, this is just an example.

I then bought a second wig, in dark brown which was shoulder length and does not need to be of good quality as it is going to be cut up. The hair is attached in the net in strands, I cut lengths of strands then doubled or trebled them for thickness.

I machine sewed the net starting at the apex and wound the hair around the template. When the hair ran out, I sewed this directly to the template on the inside edge, then cut off the
excess.

Then I took another strand and sewed the net to the inside of the template, wrapping the hair along the edge. I used an over stitch along the left hand side to stop the hair from
coming off, I then continued to wind the hair around the template until it ran out and finished off sewing the ends onto the inside of the template again. I continued doing this until the template was covered.

This is the finished item, of course you will need to do two of these.

Double the ear over, position it on the head and sew the "ear" directly to the wig.

Leave the bottom open

This is the back view, showing the "bobble" on the back of the wig. At this point, I noticed that the hair underneath the bobble was quite thin and you could see the net. So using the spare
hair, I sewed a section underneath the bobble down to the bottom of the wig to cover any gaps.

HAIR TEMPLATES

I made the templates out of card and cut the
pieces from craft aluminium. Try not to make
these too big, the size of the middle decoration
is approximately 5.5cm at the widest part and 4cm high. The side decorations are approximately 3cm wide and 6cm high. Each metal side piece needs a small hole at the top.

I made practice pieces of the inserts, using photos and film footage. Use the embossing tool to push the design from the back, and highlight the "low" sections in aquamarine paint. Now I am ready to make the whole pieces out of craft aluminium sheets.

Hair Chain Construction
Using the 2" craft pins, I made a loop at both ends, the finished length was approximately 2cms. These were joined by jump rings and was long enough to go from one ear to the other, then joined at the centre top to go to the bun and sewn in place. The main chain was connected to the side decoration permanently. This stays in place when the wig is removed.

I made two lengths of chain to connect the side decoration to the front piece. The whole of this front chain is designed to detach using a spring catch.

I used a small "comb" on the back of the decoration, which I bought from a hair/wig stall on the market, to grip onto the front of the wig and attached the chains to the back.
Before taking the wig off, the whole front piece detaches and unhooks from the side decorations. This makes is easier to take the wig off without getting the piece all tangled up and is easily fixed on when needed. Curve the front decoration slightly.

This is the finished piece in place. The side decorations, do not go quite to the bottom of the ears.