Queen Amidala- The Build Breakdown

Written By Gillian Foxglove

The build started with my 21st birthday! I was gifted the money to buy the fabric (and to force me to finally get started) on this project. It’s been a dream of mine for the longest time so I kept putting off the project due to fear I wouldn’t do it justice. Well, after years of experience, my family decided I was ready and convinced me I was too- thus Queen Amidala began!

The technique used for creating the texture at the bottom of Queen Amidala’s Robe is called Shirring

The first thing I started on after purchasing fabric online was start on the Shirred portions of Queen Amidala. Shirring is a technique that uses elastic thread to create the scrunching effect you see on the robe by sewing across both horizontally and vertically. This part involved a lot of math because each piece has to be two times larger then what’s needed in the pattern, but the end result is beautiful!

Using a long arm machine to embroider the fabric with a custom design

The next thing I did was use a friend’s long arm machine which are usually used for quilting but we decided it would be faster and more accurate to the original design on the robe for Amidala. This took about two days to do but it was so cool to try!

Dyeing the upholstery cord

To make the edges of the robe I dyed upholstery piping, glued it to the fabric and overlaid gold mesh over it and snug stitched the sides to get the udon noodle look- a technique I got from Jedimanda who had already made this costume and made a really helpful blog post about it!

beading done for the centerpiece of the shirt, carefully cut out and sewn onto the shirt

After finishing the robe, I started by making the crystal pleated skirt and top. I don’t have any pictures of this progress because it was frustrating but I went the extra mile and sewed in invisible zippers and pockets. Once the base top was completed I was able to start beading-and continuing to bead forever because beading is what took up most of my time. I had to hand string all the beads on the front and there’s a lot of extra beading that had to be done that’s completely hidden under the robe and the sleeves also are covered in beads too. I tried to follow the reference pictures I had, because the beading for this dress isn’t like normal beading or gold work so I ended up free handing a lot of it.

Creating the crown

With the clothing done it was time to work on the headpiece. I started with the crown and the structure that would hold the arches to the crown. I made a worbla lattice with nails that got poked through the wig and crown to hold the hairpiece together. This meant I could just lift it off if I needed a break from wearing it and the weight of the crown keeps it from coming off when it’s on my head. I then made a worbla crown and covered it in puffy paint dots and spray painted it gold. After a couple dots of nail polish, gems and gold chains on either side the crown was finished!

the end caps and gold bands for the wig

With both parts of the outfit completed and the wig piece itself done of course I had the last final touches of adding the gold bands and end caps. I think I called them dongledoos while working on them because I didn’t really know what to call them. The red velvet was overlaid with the gold mesh and I hand sewed gold filigree onto each side after attempting a couple different methods. I tried hot glue and puffy paint but I didn’t like the outcome so the ribbon ended up being my final choice. And with that Queen Amidala was completed! Overall the headpiece is 5 pounds and boy howdy is it hard to wear for long amounts of time but it was definitely worth it.

A quick note on my makeup for this Costume: I tried a lot of different methods but white crème paint from Mehron has been my favorite so far! I added some blush to the cheeks, and some brown shadow, eyeliner, and mascara to finish the look. I used a liquid to matte lipstick for the red dots and lips.

Gillian Foxglove
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