"Queen Padme Amidala Costume"

Costume Instructions

Costume Materials
Large man’s collared white shirt
2-3 fabric colors for cape, about 5 yards total.
(I shopped the bargain racks)
2 yards plain white fabric
White gown – I used the body of an old ghost costume.
Many things could be used for the gown, just anything plain white and floor length
1 large sheet poster board
Silver and gold glitter fabric paint
1 small umbrella, I bought one for a $1
Metal fashion beads that have holes through them – any craft store should have these
Black hair rubber bands
Stiff aerosol hair spray
Necklace to use on head, again shopped bargain bins
Fabric glue
Super glue
Bobby pins
Large safety pins
fishing line, about 24"
White cream face makeup, red makeup pencil
White nylons
White shoes

Costume Instructions
To Make:
Cape - Cut up the man’s collared shirt to be like a cape. First cut off the collar, leaving the neck seam in place. Cut off the sleeves, and make one cut straight up the center. Fold over all edges and sew them. Sew the sleeve holes together to make it like a cape. Next, cut the fabric you are going to use for the cape into squares. I used a tissue as a template. A tissue is the perfect size. Then just line up the fabric squares in rows starting at the bottom, about 2-3 inches apart. Put them on diagonally so that one corner is up and one is hanging down. Pin them on and then run the sewing machine across the top of each piece. As you sew them, bunch up the fabric a little. On the next row, stagger the squares so when the cape is held up, they fall into the right places. I continually held up the cape after pinning a row to see if it looked okay. Fill in the entire cape this way. At the top, fold the square over the collar and sew them on so that you can longer see the collar of the shirt. After you finish sewing all the squares on, you’ll have a cape that has a bunch of pointed ends hanging down. Now just go back through all of them and round the corner that is hanging to give it the scalloped look. Lastly, sew two strips of fabric to the edge of the cape at the top in the front. You’ll use these to tie the cape together when it’s on so that it doesn’t fall off.
Front piece – Just cut poster board into the shape of a large tie. Cut plain white fabric to fit over the tie and overlap to the back. Just use fabric glue to attach the fabric to the poster board. Now draw the design you want on the tie with a pencil and then outline it with silver fabric paint and fill it in with gold fabric paint. Once the tie is done, you can use a large safety pin to attach the tie to the gown.
Back piece – Use a cheap small umbrella. Remove the handle and replace it with a nut so that the umbrella keeps it shape without the handle. Now cut two pieces of white fabric that will cover the umbrella. (Unless you are lucky enough to find a white umbrella, which I wasn’t. With a white umbrella you can skip right to painting it) You need to pin your fabric to the umbrella so that you can sew a rim all the way around it. You are going to end up cutting of the last metal section so only sew around where the last hinge in the umbrella is. Basically you are going to make the umbrella smaller by cutting off the last section of each metal rib. After you’ve sewed your white fabric to the umbrella, now you can cut the umbrella fabric that is on the last sections off and also snip the metal ribs, leaving a few inches of rib sticking out on each one. Now take your fashion beads and put them on the ribs sticking out. I used two larger beads that slid right on and then one smaller bead that could be pushed on tightly to keep the others in place. I also added a touch of super glue to the last bead to be sure it would stay in place. Now, just pencil lines all the way around on each side to use as guidelines for painting on the design. Paint your design on one side one night, and flip the next day to do the other side. Lastly, use fishing string to tie a line from one tip to the opposite tip to help make the umbrella stay the shape it needs to be.
Final touches – Just use large safety pins to attach the umbrella to the cape. I had one of the metal ribs run straight down her back so that I could attach several pins around the metal rib and onto the cape. Make up is easy, just white cream sponged all over the face and then use a red makeup pencil to draw the dots and lips. For the hair, just pull back in three pony tails, one on top and both sides, and pull through rubber bands only half way to create the bun look. Spray with lots of stiff aerosol hair spray. My daughter has very short hair so we didn’t have much to work with, longer hair could be made to look much better. Then just bobby pin the necklace to her head.
This seems like a lot of directions, but honestly