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TOP: MOVIE SKIRT TABARD
BOTTOM: MY SKIRT TABARD 6/18/2003
The Embroidery design on the costume worn
in the movie uses double strands of cording coverd with a
satin stitch. The thread has a sheen like a rayon or viscose
embroidery thread. A second metallic thread is worked into
the machine embroidery to give it sparkle. But the metallic
thread is used less densly than the rayon thread. I was unable
to determine if the metallic thread in is silver or purple.
According to the book "Dressing A Galaxy," the kind
of embroidery done on Padme's costumes is Cornely
Work. This sample
of Cornely Work was on the touch wall at the FIDM Exhibit.
MY
EMBROIDERY NOTES:
I don't have a cornely
embroidery machine, so the next best way to replicate
this look is by hand couching rayon bourdon cording. I spent
several hundred hours embroidering the tabard, sleeves and
bodice of my costume.
Rayon
bourdon cording size #6 (purchased from Lacis)
was hand embroidered to the tabard fabric using a couching
stitch. The Bourdon cord came in 50 yard bundles and was
dyed
purple with procion fiber reactive dyes purchased from
Dharma
Trading. A combination of Ultra Violet and Midnight blue
matched my fabric fairly well (see dye notes
below). The cording was stitched on with Kreinik
Metallic Cord in purple (012C 50M). The beginning and
ends of the cording were sealed with fray check and these
ends met one another once the entire loop of embroidery was
complete. About 60 total yards of bourdon cording were used
for this tabard.
WHAT WORKED
WELL: Four separate bundles of cording were used to keep
a continuous, unbroken pattern of cording as I embroidered
(each bundle contained 50 yards. About 15 yards from each
bundle were used). Keeping the bundles in small ziplock sandwich
bags helped keep them from getting tangled with one another.
The pattern (which was traced from enlarged photos, fine tuned
in adobe illustrator, and printed on clear overhead projector
film) was transferred onto the fabric directly with white
wax free transfer paper. In order to keep the fabric clean
while I handled it in the hoop, I eventually came up with
a technique of laying a piece of light weight Solvy Stabilizer
on top of the fabric and cutting out a hole that left a free
space to embroider on my design (See hoop below). When I later
embroidered the sleeves, I simply used saran wrap to cover
my fabric instead of the expensive solvy.
CORDING
DYE NOTES: I dyed my Rayon Bourdon Cord using Fiber Reactive
Procion Dye purchased from Dharma Trading. The formula which
matched my fabric best was a 1:1 ratio of Midnight Blue:Ultra
Violet. VIEW
PHOTO OF RESULTS HERE >
I used the
dye at half the concentration called for in the instructions
provided by Dharma. All other proportions of salt, water,
and soda ash were kept the same as the instructions called
for. Only the amount of dye was reduced by 50%.
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