TABARD EMBROIDERY

Padme's Purple Senate Dress
Star Wars Episode II

 Embroidery completed - 6/18/2003

ABOVE My completed tabard embroidery	ABOVE Tabard embroidery on the real costume used in the Star Wars Movie. (Photo taken by Diane at Celebration II. More photos available at Padawan's Guide)

NOTES: Rayon bourdon cording (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, however I left the cording in the dye bath a little too long and the cording turned out darker than I would have liked. The cording was stitched on with Kreinik Metallic Cord in purple. 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 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 illustator, 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.

WHAT WOULD I DO DIFFERENTLY: The purple acetate fabric is not easy to press. It also can't be cleaned with soap and water. I think a polyester satin or silk fabric would have been a better choice for this costume. After doing my first few hoops of embroidery I noticed that the fabric at the edges of the hoop was becoming stained from the oil on my hands - no matter how many times I washed them. I tried embroidering directly on top of the Solvy stabilizer, but it was a day long process to tear it away from the loose couching stitches with tweezers. Finally I discovered that cutting a hole in the Solvy stabilizer as a I worked was actually a great way to keep my fabric clean as I handled my hoop and I didn't have to worry about tearing away any stabilizer once I was done.

-Kathy S.

COSTUME FABRICS | TABARD EMBROIDERY | HEAD DRESS | NECKLACE | BROOCH
CORDING DYE NOTES | VELVET DYE NOTES | PURPLE CORSET | FARTHINGALE | SKIRT | SKIRT MOCKUP | BODICE | VELVET COAT