Meredith as Margaery 1: Draping and Drafting

It’s time for Custom Wig Company to work up out second group of cosplays, and this time we’re doing (drumroll…..) Game of Thrones! We’re all pretty excited about it, since it’s a show that has such incredible, detailed costumes, and we’re all a bit obsessed with that sort of thing. The costume designer, Michele Clapton (who sadly isn’t returning this season), blows me away with her ability to create culture in a fantasy world through clothing. Every item a character wears speaks to that characters personality, family, and background, and each location has its own set of fashions.

This time, in addition to creating out own costumes, Hannah W. and I are tag-teaming Meredith’s costume, and it’s a doozy: Margaery Tyrell’s wedding gown from the Purple Wedding.

This is the original gown from the series, designed by Michele Clapton.

We started by draping the bodice, using Meredith herself rather than a dummy. We were quite nervous and ready for it to be a huge headache, but it actually turned out to be one of the easiest things I’ve ever patterned! It’s all one piece of fabric which starts in the front, wraps over the shoulders, and connects at the side seams.

I first placed the fabric with the grain line down the center of Meredith’s torso and cut a quick neckline so we could wrap it over her shoulders. It was nice to have two people working on it, since one of us could be holding something in place while the other pinned or marked. Everything started lying better when I cut away the excess fabric from one armhole so that it could mold around her body. Once the piece around the back was pinned at the side, we could start playing around with darts.

The back lies quite nicely with just a single dart at the shoulder blades. It’s quite difficult to see any seam lines or darts in the original gown since it is not only covered in vines and roses, but also made of an almost fuzzy fabric that obscures any lines. This gave us free reign to listen to what the fabric wanted to do as we were patterning, since we weren’t trying to mimic construction lines, only shape.

Between adjusting the darts, and the side seams, we were able to make it fit Meredith beautifully in less than half-an-hour!

When we were finished draping and had marked darts and seams, I simply cut the muslin down the center front in order to create a pattern piece meant to be cut on the fold, then it was just a matter of neatening up seam allowances and adding a bit more of a wing at the shoulder as I cut out a mock-up bodice.

This is the shape of the draped pattern when we took it off of Meredith. Front on the left, back on the right.

I added about an inch, plus seam allowance, to the shoulders to create that wing-like look.

It took about five minutes to zip this tiny bodice together!

Hannah W. flat-patterned and sewed the mock-up of the skirt, and then we added them together and tried the whole thing on Meredith.

The first thing we had to do was slice a large chunk out of the neckline to create Margaery’s preferred narrow-but-plunging look. I purposely left the first pattern higher because it’s easier to cut a chunk out at this stage than to add more.

We’ll have to add another half inch or so to the bottom of the bodice so that it hits at Meredith’s natural waist. We also had to add a tiny dart to the armholes, so they wouldn’t gap. It actually does gap in the original gown, but we decided to get rid of it. It will mostly get covered by a trailing vine anyway.

The lower green line marks where I’m planning to widen the back of the armhole a touch.

I’m very happy with how the back of the bodice fits, though we will have to add about a quarter of an inch to the closure so that there’s enough seam allowance. When it’s finished, the two edges should line up and hook-and-eye together.

The gap means we need to add more to the back pieces at the side seams. This will maintain the center grain line, and eliminate the wrinkles that stretch from the side to the bottom of the opening.

We’re also going to take a bit of volume out of the hips and add some more flare to the skirt!

Hannah W. pulled off a gorgeous train on the mock-up. Marionette decided she needed to help us adjust the shape. You can see where we’ve added a piece to make it rounder. This will be the final shape of the train piece.

We’re planning to cut the real fabric this week. The dress shouldn’t be too big of a deal to make but the devil’s in the details. I’ll admit. I’m pretty excited!

 

See you on the other side (where I will hopefully not be rocking back and forth and gibbering)! At least there will be three of us attacking it.

Hannah